An incident in Peru

Arguedas lived retired from the army for about ten years and went to Peru to a small town near the border and stretched out on the barren slopes of a gray mountain range, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It is on a farm near that town, in Huallatiri, where Arguedas lived alone with no other company than that of a servant. It happened that, being an employee of some rich owners and merchants of that region, the young Arguedas had managed to seduce the wife of the main employer, from whom he obtained not only favors but also a deep affection. The woman was strong-tempered and her affection deep. For instance, when she learned through her loyal servant that her husband was arming the employees of the house and the indigenous workers of the hacienda to kill Arguedas, she went to the farm to inform her lover of what had happened and to warn him of the imminence of the attack. Arguedas is said to not have been intimidated and, loading his weapon, he remained waiting for the attack, despite the fact that the lovers could have well fled to the safety of the nearby town of Huancané. At last, the armed mob led by the offended husband, the butler and a few employees showed up in the afternoon. The owner entered the house and, with a revolver in hand and determined to avenge the offense single-handedly. However, he fell to the ground, shot dead with a single bullet. The butler then entered and was also shot dead. Then, the hila cata, the highest indigenous authority of the town, entered and was also shot, rolling on the ground mortally wounded. Every shot Arguedas fired caused either death or a mortal wound. There was no one who dared to go into the hallway of that low-lying country house, surrounded by the classic Spanish patio of rooms with doors above it and barred windows facing the countryside, with a red roof of tile or blackish of straw, and the clean sun that gilds the paved floor. The mob, defeated, remained outside, without daring to attack, terrified from the three or four corpses before them that obstructed the hall. However, they remained determined to punish Arguedas.^[7]

Imprisonment and return to Bolivia

Someone proposed to burn down the house and the mob welcomed the idea with shouts of enthusiasm. However, then the adulteress appeared and calmly declared: "I offer no opposition; who will answer to me for the value of the house and what it holds inside? I have 5,000 pesos in crops and materials; the property alone costs 20,000 pesos; the total amounts to 25,000 pesos... If you pay me, you may burn the house. Magnificent and undaunted, she went to a room bordering the hallway and where Arguedas, rifle in hand, was holed in. The mob did not dare to burn the house. As the afternoon became night, the Huancané military police arrived, notified by a messenger, and Arguedas was taken prisoner. He was imprisoned for nine months; however, the chaotic and almost anarchic internal politics of Peru allowed him to flee back to Bolivia. Arguedas secretly entered Bolivia, settling on a distant valley and went to live in the small town of Araca, where he bought some land that would later become a vast estate.^[8]

The Constitutionalist Revolution of 1865-1866

Arguedas as the leader of the Constitutionalist Revolutionary Army.

Rehabilitated by Melgarejo, in December 1864, with the rank of colonel, Arguedas was made commander of the garrison of La Paz. When the revolution led by General Belzu broke out in March 1865, having for this reason left office and retired to his home, Arguedas soon realized his mistake and chose to take up arms against Melgarejo. Consequently, he agreed to lead the revolutionary forces in La Paz in May of the same year soon after Belzu's death. Colonel Arguedas was acclaimed by the popular masses of La Paz and proclaimed provisional President of Bolivia, being granted the rank of brigadier general.^[9][10][11] He organized an army of two thousand men, known as the Constitutionalist Army, while Melgarejo was in Potosí crushing another rebellion against him. The people of La Paz, powerful as ever, took up arms and raised a flag in which the two slogans were engraved: "War on Melgarejo; avenge the spilled blood of Belzu". This popular revolution did not echo any personal ambition, rather it was the spontaneous pronouncement of a people who wanted to establish a truly democratic and constitutional republic; that is why it was called "Constitutionalist". Arguedas, although new to the Bolivian political scene, was known for his military courage.^[12] Arguedas issued a decree which stated the following:

Article 1 - From the date, I assume the provisional presidency of the Republic. Article 2 - Ninety days after the republic recognizes the authority created by the May Revolution, electoral commissions will be convened. Article 3 - Dr. Belisario Salinas is appointed senior government official and in charge of the general secretariat for now. Article 4 - Colonel Uladislao Silva will oversee the ministry of war.

Arguedas spread the proclamations to the people the army. Both documents contained the typical words of other revolutionary proclamations of Bolivia, such as: the return of freedom to the people; war without quarter to the tyrant; triumph of " the good cause"; cessation of fraud and coercion, theft and embezzlement; convening a national congress ninety days after the republic has been pacified; constitution of the executive power through free election; and the leaders of the revolution may not appear as candidates for the new government; days of glory and well-being for the people, etc., etc. Arguedas, head of the revolution, organized an army of two thousand men with all the reinforcements that came from Oruro, Cochabamba and Chayanta and even from the most remote provinces of the La Paz Department.^[13] Feeling strong enough to go out in search of the enemy, he detached his army to a radius of more than fifty leagues of La Paz. He left La Paz with the bulk of the army, and, on December 6, arrived in Oruro on the 11th. As Melgarejo approached, Arguedas decided to counter march to La Paz, despite the fact that some chiefs who surrounded him, José María de Achá, among them, advised him to wait for the enemy in Oruro or Huanuni. The retreat to La Paz was carried out in disorder and the army suffered several setbacks. Part of the artillery was abandoned on the road; the many supplies were left along the way. In the midst of this disastrous withdrawal, in which the desertions occurred daily and were numerous, Achá again urged Arguedas to fight, taking advantage of the Viscachani mountain range, between Sicasica and Ayoayo, which offered strategic advantages for a defensive action.^[14]

Casto Arguedas.

Melgarejo's victory at Letanías

Mariano Melgarejo defeated Arguedas on January 24, 1866, sealing the fate of the Constitutionalist Army.

However, Arguedas, in a bold mood, disregarded all advice, causing Achá and General Nicanor Flores to desert, both going to Peru. Arguedas undoubtedly had the intention of waiting for Melgarejo behind the barricades he had ordered built in La Paz. Moreover, as he approached the city, he had received the message from some elite women of La Paz in which he was warned that, "if he returned there and allow them to fight, they would change their skirts for the uniforms of the soldiers, so that Arguedas would be in charge of their houses and children while thee women went to fight against Melgarejo”. Arguedas entrenched himself in Viacha, determined to wait there for the enemy and wage a pitched battle. The hill of Letanías, located to the south of the town of Viacha, was chosen for the site of entrenchment. On the hill, Arguedas took his positions in front of the Coniri road, where Melgarejo was supposed to come from. On the morning of January 24, 1866, Melgarejo, with generals Quintín Quevedo and José María Calderón, spotted the enemy line, extended and barricaded in the mountains. Melgarejo halted and ordered the army to dress for parade, and meanwhile began to observe, with a spyglass, from the top of a hill, watching the opposing army. Putting himself immediately at the head of his army, Melgarejo arranged it in closed columns, which had two pieces of artillery placed on each flank. The vanguard was covered with a body of riflemen. They marched until they faced Arguedas' men and immediately opened fire from both sides. The Constitutionalists soon abandoned their entrenched position as a result of some successful fire from Melgarejo's artillery. Melgarejo's army continued to advance in good order, and after half an hour of combat, many of the soldiers and chiefs of the Constitutionalist army had abandoned the battlefield. After another hour, everything was finished, leaving Melgarejo's army in control of the field, leaving more than six hundred dead and a multitude of wounded. The main leaders of the Constitutionalist Army had fled, leaving the victor more than five hundred prisoners. While the remains of his troops retreated to La Paz, General Arguedas fled to Peru, where he once again lived as an outlaw for five years. He returned to the country during the government of Tomás Frías, in 1874, and took part in some revolutionary movements against the Government. For these, he was sentenced to death by ordinary courts. However, he was spared and exiled instead.^[15]