Juan Bautista Bustos
In 1815, the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Ignacio Álvarez Thomas, assigned Bustos to the Army of the North.Once in the Army of the North, he became a trusted official of the general Manuel Belgrano and reached the rank of Senior colonel, although he did not participate in any of the campaigns of the Upper Peru.In 1816, he fought against Juan Francisco Borges, the Caudillo from Santiago del Estero, and in 1818 against Estanislao López, the governor of Santa Fe, who defeated Bustos in Fraile Muerto.On March 10, fighting broke out in Las Barrancas, Córdoba, as López's forces moved in on those of Juan José Viamonte, the commander from Buenos Aires.Bustos made peace with López and took part in a short civil war against the caudillo of Entre Ríos, Francisco Ramírez, and against the Chilean José Miguel Carrera, whom he defeated in Cruz Alta (Córdoba).At the end of his term on February 25, 1825, his party proposed him for reelection, but the Provincial Congress of Córdoba instead assigned the role to José Julián Martínez, a moderate Unitarian.To resist the centralist advance from Buenos Aires, Bustos sought the aid of Facundo Quiroga, urging him in a letter to oppose the aims of Rivadavia: "We must make these servile men see that we are not tribal chieftains, but lovers of the liberty of our country and our peoples."[3] Bustos's prestige and successful administration made him a natural leader or caudillo of the provinces; consequently, he became one of the main targets of the Unitarian reaction following Dorrego's assassination.