who expressed the same concerns about the timing of the sessecionist incursion. Being convinced to postpone the initiative, the group split with Betancourt Cisneros and Ancieto rendezvousing with Valero de Bernabé at Puerto Cabello and reaching Maracaibo on December 14, 1823. From here, they prepared to take the trip to Bogotá on horseback and using canoes, reaching there on January 19, 1824. However, Santader ratified his previous stances on the timing of an independence incursion in the Caribbean. He travelled to Cartagena, and within months prepared a group of mestizos and amerindians recruited Soledad, Santa Marta and Corozal, for battle. In total, the Second Division was 1,600 strong by the time it left towards Peru, even before it could receive additional members from Zulia, at the behest of general Carlos Soublette. This officer wrote to Valero de Bernabé on August 2, 1824, setting the date of embarkment four days later, time in which he would have to coordinate with other officers. He reunited with Arango, whom he assigned as his private secretary. Valero de Bernabé would traverse the isthmus towards Gatun within days. Santander wrote to Soublette speaking highly of the division, with both officers expressing satisfaction at the improvised group's performance. Valero de Bernabé would remain in communication with the officer, with whom he discussed processal issues and from whom he learned that Itúrbide had been executed. On February 16, 1824, Valero de Bernabé received a carta de naturaleza from the Vice President acting on a law approved on July 4, 1823, with the news making it to the Gaceta de Colombia. Despite this, he faced criticism from the native officers such as general R.M. Carambaño, who insisted that he only took over the Second Division because general Ibarra had been injured in a horse accident. These arguments have been refuted by historians, since Valero actually organized the division and Ibarra was given control of the 1st Division and orders to cross the isthmus after him and aid the injured and ill of the 2nd along the way, having redirected to Caracas before. Ibarra himself expressed respect towards Valero de Bernabé due to his previous experience along O'Donojú, listing him as a "good officer" in a letter to Bolívar. On August 18, 1824, Soublette wrote to Bolívar about the departure of what he called the "Valero Division", providing a description of its composition and expressed that Valero de Bernabé