had victoriously crossed the Andes Mountains was in agonizing situation . After more than a decade away from home and with the departure of San Martin , the Argentine soldiers were left isolated , demoralized , without pay and in terrible conditions . In the fortress of El Callao , an imminent climate of rebellion was evolving until it finally broke out in early February 1824 . The detainees took several officers as prisoners , demanded all payments due and the return to their homes in Chile and Buenos Aires . The local government could not meet these claims and the mutineers hoisted the royalist flag . One of the rebel leaders was Sergeant Dámaso Moyano , from Battalion 11 , a mulatto born in Mendoza who had crossed the Andean Mountain with Falucho and others . The Second Corporal Antonio Ruiz branded the insubordinates as traitors ; they replied : " Revolutionaries ." Falucho responded : " It is bad to be revolutionary , but it ’ s worse to be a traitor ." For that act of rebellion , he was shot . Just before , he shouted : " Viva Buenos Aires !" Miter judged this act as a patriotic sacrifice ( De Estrada : 1979 , 114-115 ; Miter : 1950 ( 2 ), 451 ). In November 1826 , the last troops of the Andean Army returned to Buenos Aires . Falucho ' s executioner and two other sergeants were in turn executed for treason . One eyewitness stated : " Justice has punished the traitor and history has bequeathed to posterity the name of the grenadier " ( De Estrada , 1979 , 121 ).
Conclusion The contribution of Afro-descendants to the struggle for independence cannot be set aside . In the light of the foregoing , the alleged lack of black contributions to the Argentine history became very questionable . The African footprint and presence is not exclusive of Argentina , which boasts of being a white and European nation . It is even more intense in Brazil and Colombia , which also suffer from racial prejudice . And in the nation of Simón Bolívar , the Liberator of the North , some 4 million Afro- Venezuelans constitute 15 % of the population and , as in much of the Americas , the social group that suffers more from discrimination , marginalization , poverty and exclusion in the social hierarchies . The black presence in Latin America and the Caribbean , as well as its multiple contributions , cannot go unnoticed in the regional history . It is explained ( but forgotten very often ) that America is the conjunction of three roots : Amerindian , European and African . A genius of the literature , the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges , recognized the merit of the African descendants : " In the wars of independence , the black soldiers were much better than the white ones " ( De Estrada : 1979 , 86 ). Many of them were in the most vulnerable infantry flank and thereafter were not properly recognized , despite their greater military effort . Although many became company leaders , high-ranked officers like Barcala were extraordinary cases . In the 1850s , for instance , Colonels José María Morales and Domingo Sosa ( Lanuza : 1967 , 167 ) commanded troops . The enslaved men often gained their freedom by serving in the army , as it occurred with two-thirds of Mendoza ’ s slaves during the preparation for crossing the Andes Mountains . It always happened with strong resistance from their masters ( Miter : 1950 , 292 ). Between 1810 and 1860 , there was not a single battalion on Argentine soil without Afro soldiers . In Buenos Aires , at least eleven Afro-Argentines reached the ranks of Colonel or Lieutenant- Colonel , but the higher rank of General was denied to them . Argentine history put more emphasis on absence and / or disdain with regard to
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