Mariano de Aycinena y Piñol

Aycinena was appointed as Governor of Guatemala on 1 March 1827 by president Manuel José Arce.[4] His time in office was a dictatorship: he censored free press and any book with liberal ideology was forbidden. He also establisher Martial Law and the retroactive death penalty. He reinstated mandatory tithing for the secular clergy of the Catholic Church[3]

Liberal Honduran Caudillo Francisco Morazán.

Morazán and his liberal forces were fighting around San Miguel, in El Salvador beating any conservative federal forces sent by Guatemalan general Manuel Arzú from San Salvador.[5] Then, Arzú decided to take matters in his own hands and left colonel Montúfar in charge of San Salvador and went after Morazan. After realizing that Arzu was after him, Morazan left for Honduras to look for more volunteers for his army. On September 20, Manuel Arzá was close to the Lempa River with 500 men, when he was notified that the rest of his army had capitulated in San Salvador. Morazan then went back to El Salvador with a considerable army and general Arzú, feigning a sickness, fled to Guatemala, leaving lieutenant colonel Antonio de Aycinena in command. Aycinena and his 500 troops were going to Honduras when they were intercepted by Morazan troops in San Antonio, forcing Aycinena to concede defeat on October 9. [6] With Aycinena defeat, there were no more conservative federal troops in El Salvador. On October 23, general Morazán marched triumphally in San Salvador. A few days later, he went to Ahuachapán, to organize an army to take down the conservative aristocrats led by Mariano Aycinena y Piñol in Guatemala and establish a regime favorable to the central American Federation that was the dream of the liberal criollos.[7]

Upon learning this, Aycinena y Piñol tried to negotiate with Morazán to no avail: Morazán was willing to take down the aristocrats at all costs.

Map olf Guatemala in 1829. Note that borders with Mexico, Yucatán and Chiapas are not defined.[8]

Plaza Central of Antigua Guatemala in 1829. the old Palacio de la Capitanía General was still destroyed after the 1773 earthquake.

After his victory in San Miguelito, Morazán's army increased in size given that a lot of voluntaries from Guatemala joined him. On March 15, when Morazan and his army were on their way to occupy their previous positions, they were intercepted by federal troops in Las Charcas. However, Morazán had a better position and smashed the federal army. The battle field was left littered with corpses, while the allies took a great number of prisoners and weaponry. The allies continued to recapture their old positions in San José Pinula and Aceituno, and place Guatemala City under siege once again.[9] General Verveer, Ambassador from the ruler of The Netherlands and Belgium before the Central American government and who was in Guatemala to negotiate the construction of a transoceanic canal in Nicaragua, tried to mediate between the State of Guatemala and Morazán, but did not succeed. Military operations continued, with great success for the allies.

To prepare for the siege from Morazán troops, on 18 March 1829, Aycinena decreed martial law, but he was soundly defeated. On 12 April 1829, Aycinena conceded defeat and he and Morazán signed an armistice pact; then, he was sent to prison, along with his Cabinet members and the Aycinena family was secluded in their mansion. Morazán, however, annulled the pact on April 20, since his real objective was to take power away from the conservatives and the Catholic Church in Guatemala, whom the Central American leaders despised since they had had the commerce and power monopoly during the Spanish Colony.[10]

In these battles Rafael Carrera was only a 15-year-old soldier, whose family suffered humiliation and mistreatment by Morazán's troops;[11] José Batres Montúfar and Miguel García Granados also fought for Guatemala and were taken prisoners; [12] and Manuel Francisco Pavón Aycinena, cousin of Aycinena y Piñol, was a lieutenant colonel in the Guatemalan Army.[13]