page_title: Revolt of the Comuneros (Paraguay)
section_title: 1721-1725: Antequera's contested governorship
hierarchical_section_title: Revolt of the Comuneros (Paraguay) / 1721-1725: Antequera's contested governorship
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of José de Armendáriz, Spanish viceroy of Peru from 1724 to 1736
context_page_description: The Revolt of the Comuneros was a series of uprisings by settlers in Paraguay in the Viceroyalty of Peru against the Spanish authorities from 1721–1725 and 1730–1735. The underlying cause of the unrest was strong anti-Jesuit feelings among the Paraguayans and dislike for any governor seen as favoring the Jesuits. In the resumption of the revolt in 1730, economic issues came to fore as well. The rebel organization split in its second phase, as the rural poor and the urban elite each formed their own factions with similar grievances against the Jesuits, but incompatible politics. Paraguay had an unusually strong tradition of self-rule; the colonists did not have a tradition of strict obedience to everything the Spanish Crown's governor decreed. This independence helped push the revolt forward.
  The beginnings of the revolt were quasi-legal at first. José de Antequera y Castro, a judge for the Real Audiencia of Charcas, was sent to Asunción in 1721 to examine charges of misconduct against pro-Jesuit Governor Diego de los Reyes Balmaseda.
context_section_description: In 1717, Diego de los Reyes Balmaseda became governor of Paraguay.  He purchased the position from the Spanish authorities, a practice that had spread at the time.  Reyes was a merchant who had made his fortune trading exporting yerba mate from Paraguay and importing various cheap and needed manufactures back to Paraguay, so he was seen as qualified for the post by the Spanish Crown.  Reyes was an open admirer of the Jesuits.  Two of his wife's uncles were members of the Jesuit order, and several of his most important advisors were Jesuits.  His policies were also seen by the settlers as pro-Jesuit.  Reyes' Jesuit advisors instigated him to order an attack on the Payaguá Indians of the Chaco despite a tenuous truce established three years earlier in 1717; all of the captured Payaguás were remitted to the Jesuits for conversion to Christianity and mission life.  The settlers received none of the captives for the encomienda, although it had been the settler militia that risked their lives fighting the Payaguás and colonial trade and outlying farms would now be threatened by retaliatory Payaguá raids.  The Payaguás, who lived in the Gran Chaco, were considerably less likely to threaten the Jesuits, with their missions farther to the east of the civil province of Paraguya.  Reyes acquired a reputation for enriching himself using the powers of his office to control trade.  Reyes also taxed important members of the Paraguayan elite to fund the construction of defensive fortifications.  The end result was that Reyes was a deeply unpopular governor who found the majority of the cabildo of Asunción actively seeking his removal.  In a bid to keep his position, Reyes accused his chief antagonists of treason and had them imprisoned.  The notables of Asunción complained to the Real Audiencia of Charcas, accusing Reyes both of imprisoning the cabildo members without good cause, as well as general unlawful conduct as governor.
  The Audiencia of Charcas took up the investigation of Reyes.  The Audencias, the judicial system of colonial Spain, had a wide degree of latitude and independence from the viceroy.  Charcas (now known as Sucre) was quite distant from the viceregal capital of Lima, amplifying the court's power even further.  In 1721, the audiencia sent judge José de Antequera y Castro to Asunción to dispense justice as he saw fit.  Antequera was a young rising star of the court, and even his fiercest critics wrote that he was likable, handsome, intelligent, and unusually well-educated for the time.  The Audiencia gave Antequera a sealed document to open if he found Reyes guilty.  The Audiencia and Antequera ordered Reyes to release the council members he had imprisoned and that he not interfere in the investigation in any way.  After interviewing the witnesses accusing Reyes of misdeeds, Antequera concluded that the evidence was so strong as to warrant the immediate arrest of Reyes in September 1721.  Antequera presented to the cabildo the sealed document he'd been given by the Audiencia.  The document gave Antequera the position of governor, which he took over the objections of Reyes' remaining supporters.  In April 1722, Antequera officially found Reyes guilty and dismissed him as governor, although Reyes immediately escaped Asunción on the same day the sentence was handed down.  Antequera proceeded to impound much of Reyes' property and also order the arrest of many of Reyes' friends and supporters, taking their property to be sold at public auction as well.  With all these actions, Antequera earned the support and adulation of the majority of the province, though he was hated by those who had done well under Reyes.  Antequera clinched his popularity by taking a stand against the hated Jesuits; he endorsed settlers' demands that the mission Indians be distributed to the encomienda, that secular (paid by the Spanish government) priests be put in charge of the Jesuit missions, and that a customs house be established to enforce limits on Jesuit exports of yerba mate.  To historian James Saeger, Antequera comes across as mostly wel
caption: The new Viceroy of Peru, the Marquis of Castelfuerte, took an even stronger line against the rebellion than the previous Viceroy.
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