Following Mexico's Declaration of Independence in September 1810, the area around Zitácuaro joined the insurgent cause under the leadership of Benedicto López, a local "criollo" farmer. In response to López's cutting off of the royal road between Mexico City and Valladolid, the viceroy sent a regiment of loyalist troops to put down the rebellion. This regiment was repulsed on 20 February 1811 and defeated on 22 May, and its captain, Juan Bautista de la Torre, was taken prisoner and killed by indigenous militia-men. Later that summer, Benedicto López surrendered control of the city to Ignacio López Rayón, who set up in Zitácuaro on 21 August 1811 the Suprema Junta Nacional Americana (the "Supreme American National Council"), recognised as the first attempt by the insurgents to establish an independent government. This outraged the royalist forces in Mexico City, which attacked the city and, on 12 January 1812, regained control, sacked it, and summarily razed it to the ground.