Carlos IV immediately turned tensely to Count of Aranda. "We must send troops to guard every one of these mountain passes."
But the latter stared at the map with a grave expression.
The empire had only some five thousand troops it could deploy in South America, and they had to be spread along the Rio Negro and the Casiquiare Canal for defense. Oh, and the Putumayo River on the South Line needed guarding as well.
Where was there any manpower left to defend the Andes Mountains?
Yet if they concentrated all their defenses along the line from Angostura to the Andes Mountains, then should the Portuguese army launch an inland offensive, New Granada would collapse at once. After a long while, he finally said with difficulty, "Your Majesty, the empire's forces in South America are at a severe disadvantage. I fear it will be difficult to..." Carlos IV immediately asked, "Could Governor Asanza recruit troops from Mexico?"
Count of Aranda looked deeply troubled. "Your Majesty, I'm afraid that will not be easy... You know that the Machete Conspiracy broke out there only last year. Even if there are troops now, it would be hard to mobilize them in large numbers."
The "Machete Conspiracy" he spoke of referred to a tax officer named Pedro de la Portilla, who had organized a group of Creoles—whites born in South America—to seize the New Spain Governor's Mansion, then call upon all Creoles to establish an independent nation.
Fortunately, Governor Asanza reacted swiftly. Upon receiving the intelligence, he promptly dispatched troops to make arrests, preventing a major upheaval from erupting in Mexico City. However, the incident greatly deepened the Mexican colonial government's wariness toward the Creoles. Not only did it strip all Creoles serving as officials or junior officers of their posts, it also intensified