Governor Velasco, the Portuguese and the Paraguayan Revolution of 1811: A New Look

The day after the successful ouster of Spanish authority in the viceregal capital of the Río de la Plata, on May 26, 1810, the revolutionary Junta in Buenos Aires sent a series of circulars to the governors and cabildos of the provinces formerly subjected to its leadership. These circulars announced the revolution, its aims and purposes, and made it quite clear that the new authorities in Buenos Aires expected to remain in control over the entire immense region. Most of the provinces responded in the affirmative, but royalists in the Banda Oriental and in Alto Perú declared themselves enemies of the revolution and prepared to resist it. In Paraguay, the situation was sufficiently ambiguous that the Junta decided to send Colonel José de Espínola, former military chief of Paraguay's northern frontier and now a partisan of the revolution, to Asunción to state the “ Porteño ” case. He brought with him formal letters from the Junta to the cabildo of Asunción and the Spanish governor, Bernardo de Velasco y Huidbro.