The "porteños" bungled their effort to extend control over Paraguay by choosing José Espínola y Peña as their spokesman in Asunción. Espínola was "perhaps the most hated Paraguayan of his era", in the words of historian John Hoyt Williams. Espínola's reception in Asunción was less than cordial, partly because he was closely linked to the ex-governor Lázaro de Rivera, who had arbitrarily executed hundreds of citizens until he was forced from office in 1805. Barely escaping arrest in Paraguay, Espínola fled back to Buenos Aires and lied about the extent of "porteño" popularity in Paraguay, causing the Buenos Aires Primera Junta to make a disastrous decision to launch the Paraguay campaign and send 1,100 troops under General Manuel Belgrano to subdue Asunción. Led by royalists, Paraguayan troops reinforced by local militias soundly thrashed the "porteños" at Battle of Paraguarí and Battle of Tacuarí. Officers from both sides openly fraternized during the campaign and from these contacts Paraguayans learned that Spanish dominance in South America was ending, and that they now held the real power.