Archbishop Ramón Casaus y Torres arrived in the Captaincy General of Guatemala in July, 1811. At this time events in Spain blanketed with confusion the lines of authority to the colonies. And in the colonies factions had begun to form, favoring local control until the return of Ferdinand VII. In Mexico fear of just such a faction impelled influential Peninsulars and creoles to depose Viceroy Iturrigaray, providing precedent for Miguel Hidalgo’s Grito de Dolores. As bishop of Oaxaca, Casaus y Torres witnessed these events; and as a fiercely loyal Peninsular, he issued a scathing denunciation of Hidalgo. Casaus thus had taken his position before he came to Guatemala. Shortly after he arrived in the capital, uprisings occurred in San Salvador, León, Granada, and Guatemala City. Predictably, Casaus y Torres supported the action of Captain General José de Bustamante.