Avalos, Pact of (1820)

A last-ditch effort by José Gervasio Artigas to save the ideal of a confederation, the Pact of Avalos was signed on April 24, 1820, in the small town of Avalos, Corrientes, Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata (later named Argentina). Only the provinces of Corrientes and Misiones joined Artigas, who represented the Banda Oriental, in the signing of the treaty.

Artigas's Federal League had been moribund since February 23, 1820, the day that Buenos Aires and the caudillos of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos signed the Pact of El Pilar in spite of his adamant opposition. In fact, the Pact of Avalos was an offensive-defensive treaty of Corrientes, Misones, and Banda Oriental, which were not signatories to the Pact of El Pilar. Many of the federalist caudillos had been acting independently of Artigas because he was tied down fighting the Portuguese in the Banda Oriental, leaving them to their devices for their own survival, while facing the ever-present threat of Buenos Aires. The Pact of Avalos bound the signatories to fight for freedom and independence and would allow each province to elect its own governor and manage its internal economy. Artigas was again named the Protector of the Free Peoples, but he was already a beaten man, with no real power to influence events. He then moved to Corrientes and from there to Paraguay, where he died in 1850, never again having enjoyed the political influence he once had.

See alsoArtigas, José Gervasio .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lucena Salmoral, Manuel. José Gervasio Artigas: Gaucho y confederado. Madrid: Anaya, 1988.

Maggi, Carlos. La nueva historia de Artigas. 8 vols. Montevideo: Ediciones de la Plaza, 2005.

Narancio, Edmundo M. La independencia de Uruguay, 3rd edition. Montevideo: Editorial Ayer, 2001.

Navarro García, Luis. José Artigas. Madrid: Ediciones Quorum, 1987.

Street, John. Artigas and the Emancipation of Uruguay. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1959.

                                   Juan Manuel PÉrez