so he removed the forces from it. However, to prevent foreign claims of sovereignty, he left a force of twelve aged crippled soldiers, who would keep the flag of Argentina raised until the end. The only purpose of this army was to assert that the island was not left abandoned, and that the Anglo-French forces would only take it by an invasion. General Lucio Mansilla received the forces and infrastructure of Martín García, to select a point in the Paraná River and fortify it. The west side of the river was preferred, to have easier communications with Buenos Aires. However, the support to the Uruguayan Oribe took priority, and no Argentine forces supporting the siege would be retired from it, not even temporarily. Mansilla prepared the defenses at Obligado, Buenos Aires, near San Pedro. Declaration of blockade The blockade was formally declared on 18 September 1845. They cited many reasons. They said that Rosas did not stop the war despite their good intentions, or that the capture of the Argentine navy, invasion of Martín García and reinforcement of Montevideo were described in violent language at Buenos Aires newspapers, which was also found at the meeting of the Junta or in the messages that called the Unitarians savages. A decree of 27 August had forbidden all Argentines to communicate with the Anglo-French navy. They also said that the foreigners in Buenos Aires were abused and drafted into the army, that Oribe made a butchery after the victory at India Muerta, and that the police was headed by the Mazorca, which would make several abuses. The tone was closer to that of a declaration of war, and may have been written by Florencio Varela. To counter those claims, Rosas arranged a meeting with diplomats from the United States, Portugal, Sardinia, Bolivia and France. The British diplomat refused to assist, but the French Mareuil did so. All of them declared unanimously that they had no complaints about the treatment to foreigners, that they had no knowledge of foreigners forced by terror into the military or to sign petitions, that they had no knowledge of abuses from the Mazorca, and that the information of alleged butcheries in India Muerta was inexact. Rosas included as well a petition signed by 15 000 British and French living in Buenos Aires, protesting against the blockade. Rosas was confident in that this formal declaration, signed by foreign diplomats,