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Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales

Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales (13 June 1770-4 December 1831) was Governor of Salta Province from 1 January 1824 to 10 February 1827, interrupting Jose Ignacio de Gorriti's terms.

Biography[]

Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales was born in Villa de Reinoso, Castile, Spain in 1770, and he was raised in Salta, Argentina. He joinde the Spanish Army as a young man and became a judge in 1795. In 1809, Álvarez participated in the Revolution of Chuquisaca in Upper Peru and participated in the creation of Argentina's first junta. He was captured by Vicente Nieto before escaping from Callao and returning to Salta. He was recaptured during the Royalist invasion of 1812 before being freed by Eustoquio Díaz Vélez after the Battle of Tucuman that September, and he served as Manuel Belgrano's chief of staff at the time of the Battle of Salta in February 1813. Álvarez was later appointed Governor of Cochabamba, but he was forced to resort to guerrilla warfare after the Royalist victories at Vilcapugio and Ayohuma. He was heavily wounded at the Battle of La Florida, but he enabled the Army of the North to enter Upper Peru for a third time and liberated Cochabamba. After the Battle of Viluma in November 1815, Arenales was forced to return to Salta, where he was promoted to general. He battled rebellios gauchos in Cordoba Province in 1817, and he joined the Army of the Andes in 1819 and participated in Jose de San Martin's liberation of Peru, including the Battle of Cerro de Pasco. He was made a Grand Marshal of Peru for his role in securing that country's independence, but he retired to Salta in 1823 after failing to mediate between San Martin and Simon Bolivar. Álvarez was appointed Governor of Salta Province on 1 January 1824 and sought to establish a liberal government similar to the one Bernardino Rivadavia had established in Buenos Aires. He sent troops from Salta to fight in the Cisplatine War, and he executed the Federalist leader Bernardino Olivera in 1824 after crushing a Federalist uprising. Jose Ignacio de Gorriti's January 1827 rebellion was more successful, and Francisco Bedoya was killed while confronting the rebels at Chicoana. Álvarez was forced to go into exile in Bolivia, and he died in Moraya, Bolivia in 1831.

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