the company had been paralyzed after it ceased construction due to a lawsuit. Colonel George Earl Church, an engineer hired for this enterprise, appealed to British tribunals in hopes of resuming the construction, hoping to also obtain aid from British investors with shares in the company. The issue was barely debated during the November sessions of the National Assembly, with only a single deputy denouncing the irregularities of the company. However, to the majority it seemed clear that the potential benefits of this enterprise were far too great to abandon. As such, the majority voted in favor of the company, and on November 25, the Assembly passed a law with the following provisions:Of the funds withheld in the Bank of England, 83% of the loan contracted by Colonel Church, on behalf of the Republic of Bolivia, will continue to be applied exclusively to the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré railway; after the construction of the railway is completed, the shipping company will be required to pay the additional capital needed for the completion of the work, with negotiated funds from its account; the government will lend all its support to the company, ensuring its success; the formation of a special commission to settle the pending lawsuits before the Court of Chancery of England and to reconstitute the contract, granting new deeds, in which the guarantees that must be provided by the navigation company, or by any new ones, will be recorded; the recruitment of contractors for the construction of the railway. Furthermore, negotiations will take place to determine the manner in which the loan should be served; the liability of the companies in case the work is not carried out; the term in which the work of the railway must begin and end, and the way in which the companies must communicate with the government during the operations of the company; and finally the mortgage of the proceeds of the railway and of the shipping company for the amortization of the loan. In case the company cannot continue construction due to lack of additional capital or the guarantees that the new contractors must provide, the former executive will be subject to the law of November 5, 1873. Corral Plot The majority of the Army had been stationed in La Paz toward the end of Ballivián's term. Severino Zapata had been named commander of the army present there and the prefecture of