Answer:
A decree issued by Santa Anna in December 1835 ordered that all foreigners fighting against the government would be treated as pirates and executed. Urrea, however, urged his commander to be lenient.
Santa Anna, however, had no desire for such mercy. He ordered the immediate execution of the “perfidious foreigners” and dispatched an aide to Goliad to ensure that Lieutenant Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla, who had been left in charge at Goliad while Urrea continued his march through southern Texas, carried out his brutal directive.