Paz, Lavalle and Lamadrid: enemies of Juan Manuel de Rosas... and among them

Our heroes were not only heroes: they also experienced intense rivalries, jealousies, and betrayals. José María Paz, Juan Galo Lavalle, and Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid, united by pride and mistrust, failed to live together under the same banner. This rift was an unexpected gift for their common enemy: Juan Manuel de Rosas .

It was April 1826, and Paz, a meticulous Cordoban obsessed with discipline and order, was leading the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. Argentina was preparing to face Brazil in a war for control of what is now Uruguay. It was in this context that he met Lavalle, and a friendship grew strong. They shared a passion for the military, a hatred of caudillismo, and a profound contempt for the abuse of power. But time, war, and defeat undermined that alliance.

More than fifteen years passed when Lavalle returned from the war with a new shadow in his eyes. He had executed Dorrego, and the price was exile. Paz, for his part, was taken prisoner and spent a decade in federal prisons. When fate reunited them in 1839, the reunion was disconcerting: Paz barely recognized him. In his memoirs, he recounted that moment with a mixture of astonishment and disillusionment. Lavalle, the upright soldier, San Martín's grenadier, had transformed into a leader with rural manners, without tactics or uniform, "rejecting his former principles with the same vehemence with which he had defended them."

But Lavalle retained something Paz never had: charisma. His soldiers adored him, followed him without hesitation, slept by his side, on their horses if necessary, and looked up to him as if he were invincible. He was the most caudillo-like of our generals, and this closeness to his men irritated even Lavalle himself, who longed for moments of solitude that he rarely had.

That disorganized, poorly armed, and poorly fed army marched across much of the country without defeating Rosas. And when Lavalle met Lamadrid on the border between Córdoba and Santiago del Estero, everything seemed to be in place to turn things around . "We're together now, now we have to fool everyone," the Tucuman enthusiastically declared. But they fooled no one.

Lamadrid quickly betrayed that trust. Instead of joining forces, he sent circulars to the provinces accusing Lavalle's soldiers of looting and abuse. The leader of the northern campaigns, humiliated, felt betrayed. From that moment on, each man fought alone, without coordination or a common strategy. And Rosas, from Buenos Aires, watched as anarchy swallowed up his enemies.

The mistrust between them was already long-standing. Paz had hated Lamadrid before. When he read his memoirs years later, he felt attacked, and he devoted furious pages to him in his own. He described him as a man consumed by envy, incapable of accepting defeat, an unscrupulous mythomaniac who claimed triumphs he had never achieved. “General La Madrid’s ridiculous boasting did much damage,” he wrote angrily.

Despite their differences, they all believed they were fighting for the good of the nation. Each, in their own way, gave the best—or the worst—of themselves. But their story leaves us with a warning as old as politics itself: when ego prevents unity, even the noblest causes are diluted. And so, Rosas won without needing to fight every battle. His enemies took it upon themselves to lose them for him.