Pedro Messía Corea de la Cerda, 2nd Marquis of Vega de Armijo
Spanish naval officer and colonial official
1700 CE to 1783 CE
Pedro Messía Corea de la Cerda, 2nd Marquis of Vega de Armijo (February 16, 1700, Córdoba, Spain – 1783, Madrid) is a Spanish naval officer and colonial official.
From 1761 to 1773, he is viceroy of New Granada (present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador).
World
South America and The Eastern Isles
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The Guajiro rebels themselves are not unified.
Sierra's relatives among the Indians take up arms against the rebels to avenge his death.
A battle between the two groups of Wayuus is fought at Soledad.
This, and the arrival of the Spanish reinforcements, causes the rebellion to fade away, but not before the Guajiro have regained much territory.
The Wayuu (Guajiro) have never been subjugated by the Spanish.
The two groups are in a more or less permanent state of war.
There had been rebellions in 1701 (when they destroyed a Capuchin mission), 1727 (when more than two thousand Wayuus attacked the Spanish), 1741, 1757, 1761 and 1768.
Governor Soto de Herrera had called them in 1718, "barbarians, horse thieves, worthy of death, without God, without law and without a king".
Of all the natives in the territory of Colombia, the Wayuu are unique in having learned the use of firearms and horses.
The Spanish take twenty-two Wayuus captive in 1769 in order to put them to work building the fortifications of Cartagena.
The reaction of the Wayuus is unexpected.
They set their village afire on May 2, 1769, at El Rincón, near Río de la Hacha, burning the church and two Spaniards who had taken refuge in it.
They also capture the priest.
The Spanish immediately dispatch an expedition from El Rincón to capture the Wayuus.
At the head of this force is José Antonio de Sierra, a mestizo who had also headed the party that had taken the twenty-two Guajiro captives.
The Guajiros recognize him and force his party to take refuge in the house of the curate, which they then set afire.
Sierra and eight of his men are killed.
This success is soon known in other Guajiro areas, and more men join the revolt.
According to Pedro Messía de la Cerda, Viceroy of New Granada, at the peak there are 20,000 Wayuus under arms.
Many have firearms acquired from English and Dutch smugglers, sometimes even from the Spanish.
This enables the rebels to take nearly all the settlements of the region, which they burn.
According to the authorities, more than one hundred Spaniards are killed and many others taken prisoner.
Many cattle are also taken by the rebels.
The Spaniards take refuge in Río Hacha and send urgent messages to Maracaibo, Valledupar, Santa Marta and Cartagena, the latter responding by sending one hundred troops.