 Martín de Álzaga organized a mutiny on January 1 , 1809 , and Moreno joined it . Álzaga aspired to replace Viceroy Santiago de Liniers with a government Junta , after learning of the capture of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII during the Peninsular War and the creation of the Junta of Seville . If it prevailed , Mariano Moreno would have been part of the new Junta . The mutiny was defeated by the swift reaction of Cornelio Saavedra , in command of the Regiment of Patricians , who dispersed the crowd and persuaded Liniers not to abdicate . It is disputed by historians whenever the mutiny had similar or opposite goals to those of the May Revolution that would take place a year later . The historians who support the latter perspective try to make attempts to excuse or justify Moreno 's involvement ; those who support the former consider instead that Moreno was a revolutionary a year before most other Argentines . Moreno was Álzaga 's lawyer in the trial that followed , which was labeled a trial for " independentism " . Liniers did not extend the trial to Moreno himself , for reasons unknown . 
