Salvador José de Muro, 2nd Marquis of Someruelos
Spanish military officer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Salvador José de Muro y Salazar, 2nd Marquis of Someruelos, in Spanish: Marqués de Someruelos, (Madrid, 6 October 1755 – 12 December 1813), was a Spanish military officer who served as a lieutenant general of infantry and a field marshal in the Spanish Army, as captain general of Cuba and governor of Havana, and as president of the Real Audiencia of Puerto Príncipe.[1]
The Marquis of Someruelos (El Marquês de Someruelos) | |
---|---|
Captain General and Governor of Cuba | |
In office 13 May 1799 – 14 April 1812 | |
Monarchs | Charles IV, Joseph I |
Preceded by | Juan Procopio Bassecourt y Bryas Count of Santa Clara |
Succeeded by | Juan Ruiz de Apodaca |
Personal details | |
Born | (1755-06-10)10 June 1755 Madrid, Spain |
Died | 12 December 1813(1813-12-12) (aged 58) Madrid, Spain |
Military service | |
Battles/wars | War of the Pyrenees |
Someruelos worked to continue the progressive policies of the former captain general of Cuba, Luis de Las Casas. He supported the introduction in 1803 of a smallpox vaccination program, and promoted public works such as the building of a theatre to encourage the arts, and of the Espada cemetery to improve sanitation. He encouraged social and cultural improvements in the country, and in 1800 and 1804 he was visited by the scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland.
Governor Someruelos, mindful of his duty to defend the Spanish colonies in the region of the Gulf of Mexico, rejected overtures by an expansionist United States to begin diplomatic negotiations when, during the height of the economic crisis in Cuba caused by the embargo of 1807, Thomas Jefferson sent Gen. James Wilkinson as an envoy to the Spanish authorities. Someruelos refused to meet him when he finally reached Havana in March 1809.
Although he was appointed to his office by the Spanish Crown, Someruelos took the side of the criollo planters in Cuban politics, whose interests were often opposed to those of the administrative authorities in Metropolitan Spain. He brutally suppressed revolts by enslaved blacks on the island, and in 1812 ordered the hanging of the political activist José Antonio Aponte and fellow conspirators, as well as the public display of their severed heads.