Jujuy Exodus

Jujuy Exodus

Portrait of the Jujuy Exodus.
Date	August 23, 1812 (1812-08-23)
Location	From San Salvador de Jujuy to Tucumán
Participants	Population of San Salvador de Jujuy
Outcome	Attrition of the Royalist army led to its defeat at the Battle of Salta.

The Jujuy Exodus (in Spanish, Éxodo Jujeño) was an episode of the Argentine War of Independence. It was a massive forced displacement of people from the Jujuy Province, by orders of General Manuel Belgrano, conducted by his patriot forces that were battling a Royalist army. The population was compelled to leave under the threat of execution.

During the early 1812 Manuel Belgrano had created the cockade and Flag of Argentina near the city of Rosario, and then received order to move to the north. He would take command of the Army of the North, based in the city of San Salvador de Jujuy. The situation was not favourable: a short time before Juan José Castelli had led the First Alto Perú campaign and, despite an initial advantage and a brief time ruling the Upper Peru, faced a decisive defeat during the Battle of Huaqui. The surviving patriots and remains of the Army had retreated to the south, to Jujuy. They were lacking men, weapons and money, and had to stop a victorious army, better armed and four times bigger.

The loyalists, led by General Pío Tristán, were advancing south with 3,000 troops from today's Bolivia, into the northwest of Argentina (through Humahuaca). The revolutionaries were outnumbered 2 to 1, demoralized, badly armed, far from the assistance of the central government, and facing an outbreak of malaria without medication. In addition, many of the locals, especially of the higher classes, resented the arrival of forces from Buenos Aires and were ready to defect.