or whether the provinces should become autonomous and independent states became a matter of heated debate. The Supreme Junta of Santafé (in modern-day Bogotá) assumed that it would inherit the authority of the old regime, as it was the most prosperous and populated province in the vice-royalty, and it was in fact the seat of the Spanish viceroyalty. When the Cartagena junta called for a separate General Conference in Medellín, where each province would be represented in proportion to their populations, the Supreme Junta of Santafé decided to counter by inviting each province to send a delegate to form an interim government while a general congress was summoned to establish a Constitutional Assembly for the whole New Granada. The congress was irregular from the start as it was formed by delegates from barely a handful of provinces (Santa Fe, Socorro, Neiva, Pamplona, Nóvita, and Mariquita), and was deeply divided on whether the cities of Mompós (part of the Cartagena province) and Sogamoso, which had sent delegates, should be considered provinces. In the congress, held between December 22, 1810, and February 2, 1811, Antonio Nariño became the leader of a push to establish Congress in Santafé, a proposal that was rejected by the remaining provinces, which saw in this a push for deferral to Santafé. The Congress was finally dissolved amid disagreements when the members stopped attending the sessions. In the meantime, under the guidance of Jorge Tadeo Lozano, the province of Santafé transformed itself into a state called the Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca. In March 1811, it convened a "Constituent Electoral College of the State of Cundinamarca," which promulgated a constitution for the state the following month. The constitution followed the model of the Constitution of the United States, and established Cundinamarca as a constitutional monarchy under (absent) Ferdinand VII (it would only declare full independence from Spain in August 1813). The Cundinamarca state also attempted to impose its political model by way of a strategy that involved annexing neighboring regions and towns, while attempting to create alliances with Venezuela to balance out the power of the big provinces, such as Cartagena and Popayán. During this period, Antonio Nariño became an ardent critic of federalist ideas and the key promoter of the idea of a strong republican government centered in Santafé. Nariño created a newspaper, La Bagatela, on July 14, 1811, which became the main outlet of his