And indeed, once Viceroy José de Ezpeleta learned of the collapse of the Boquerón pass and the loss of nearly two thousand fanatic troops, he could no longer remain idle.
Spain was already bleeding in Europe, locked in a brutal struggle against Revolutionary France. Reinforcements from the Peninsula were impossible. Yet ignoring such an opportunity would cost Ezpeleta far more than a failed campaign—it could cost him his position, his honor, and perhaps his life.
So he acted.
By December of 1793, after six months of relentless mobilization across all of New Granada, the Viceroy assembled an army of nearly five thousand men—twice the number the fanatics were believed to have left after Boquerón. At the head of this force marched General Anastasio Zejudo, a close ally of Ezpeleta and a key figure in the reorganization of the colony's defenses.
Their advance was swift at first.
