Tomás de Figueroa

Tomás de Figueroa Caravaca (* 1747 in Estepona near Málaga , Spain ; † ( executed ) April 2, 1811 in Santiago de Chile ) was a Spanish officer . On April 1, 1811, he undertook a failed coup against the government junta in Chile .

Figueroa was born in Andalusia in 1747 to Gonzalo de Figueroa and María Caravaca y Ollán. After attending school, he embarked on a military career and joined King Charles III's guard corps at the age of 18 . a.

After he shot a rival in love affairs in a duel , he was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was then softened to a transfer to the New World. In 1775 Figueroa arrived in Valdivia in Chile . He married Rosa Polo, with whom he had at least two sons, Manuel Antonio and Gonzalo.

Figueroa is portrayed as a daring warrior and adventurer. He ended up in jail for insubordination, but escaped and went to Cuba . After his pardon, he returned to Valdivia in 1790 and took command of the battalion stationed there as captain , where he was involved in the suppression of an Indian revolt and the discovery of the ruins of ancient Osorno . He was eventually promoted to colonel and commanded the troops in Concepción .

After the government junta came to power on September 18, 1810, Figueroa - despite his royalist sentiments - signed the recognition of the new government in October.

On April 1, 1811, he then led a coup against this government. The occasion was the elections for the delegates to the National Congress, which were scheduled for Santiago.

The history of the conspiracy remains unclear to this day, but it appears that Figueroa was proclaimed leader by a group of putschists. The aim of the coup was to restore royal Spanish rule under the deposed ex- governor Francisco Antonio García Carrasco in 1810 . On the morning of April 1st, the soldiers of the San Pablo barracks rose against their commanders and submitted to them with the shouts: "Long live the king! The junta die!" (Spanish: "¡Viva el Rey !, ¡Muera la Junta!" ) the command of Figueroas.

After a roll call, Figueroa and the soldiers marched through the streets of Santiago to the meeting place of the junta and the city council of Santiago, playing with music. There they found empty rooms, however, the government under Juan Martínez de Rozas had gone into hiding as a precaution. They gathered in the house of Fernando Marquez de la Plata and ordered the commandant Juan de Dios Vial to put down the uprising militarily.

The coup plotters, however, had moved to the main square, where the Supreme Court, the Real Audiencia of Chile , chaired by Juan Rodríguez Ballesteros , met. Figueroa made his demands there, but the judges wanted above all to avoid bloodshed. They agreed to bring his demands to the government.

In the meantime, a troop of around 500 granaderos under the command of Vial and Luis Carrera had reached the place and after a short firefight had defeated the insurgents. Figueroa fled to the Santo Domingo Monastery, where he hoped for protection. The government forces stormed the monastery and took him prisoner.

He was given a short shrift. A government envoy, Juan Enrique Rosales, and two assessors and clerks conducted it. Figueroa refused to name co-conspirators and took all responsibility. He was sentenced to death. After he was given the opportunity to confess, he was executed in the morning hours of April 2, 1811.

His body was displayed in public and then buried. On February 20, 1815, after the Spaniards had regained power in Chile after the defeat of the patriots in the Battle of Rancagua , his body was exhumed and transferred with a great ceremony to the Cathedral of Santiago.

Sources and web links

• Biography at Aurora de Chile (Spanish)