The partido was created in 1882 by the government of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina who divided the territory of Tres Arroyos into the partidos of Tres Arroyos, Coronel Pringles and Coronel Suárez . The latter partido, and its main town, were named after Manuel Isidoro Suárez (1799–1846), a colonel in the Argentine Army who fought in the wars of independence against the Spanish and led the Peruvian and Colombian infantry to victory in the Battle of Junín in the Junín Region of Peru on August 6, 1824. Colonel Suárez was the great grandfather of the writer Jorge Luis Borges.