intensified when the new Haitian president, Charles Rivière-Herard, whom had previously allied with the Dominicans to overthrow Boyer, marched to Santo Domingo at the head of 10,000 troops to arrest the Trinitarios after discovering their plans. Learning of this action, Sanchez immediately leaves Los Llanos and heads straight for Santo Domingo, swimming across the Ozama River to notify Duarte of Herard's arrival. Unfortunately, many members of the movement, including Duarte, were arrested. Substitute leader for Duarte Juan Pablo Duarte's exile took place at the last and most crucial stage of the struggle. But it was when Duarte was exiled and in hiding in Venezuela that Sánchez became the central presence in the Dominican revolt. In 1843, when Duarte went into exile in Curaçao for fear of being assassinated or imprisoned by the Haitian authorities, Sánchez, then 25 years old, assumed the leadership of the independence movement La Trinitaria, where he presided over the group's meetings and expanded contacts with representatives of the most important social sector in the city, with the collaboration of fellow member Matías Ramón Mella, but in order to avoid being subdued by the Haitians, Sánchez spread a rumor that he had died of an illness. Sanchez's revolutionary work was intense. He originally intended to consummate independence at the end of 1843 with only the Trinitarian forces. This made Sánchez, along with Vicente Celestino Duarte, request in letter assistance from Duarte: Sánchez took the lead as the prime mover of the independence movement, maintaining contact with Duarte through his relatives. While educated and having taught himself Latin and French later in life, he is mostly remembered as a man of action. In the proceedings that took place just before the proclamation of independence on February 27, 1844, Sánchez was elected by his peers in as Commander in Arms and Chief of the Government Junta in the nascent republic. This was quite a recognition and a testament to his virtues. In the beginning of January 1844, Sánchez drafted the Dominican Declaration of Independence, which was handed over to conservative Tomás Bobadilla, for publishing, at the suggestion of Mella. In one of the paragraphs of the manifesto, Sánchez denotes his firm decision to achieve the objective contained in the Trinitarian oath: Proclamation of independence Meeting at the house of Sánchez, on February 24, the members of La Trinitaria discussed on the plans on the uprising, which they agreed would