Domingo Tristán

Domingo Pantaleón Tristan y Moscoso was a Peruvian general and politician.

Biography
Tristán was born in Arequipa on 27 July 1768. His parents were José Joaquín Tristán del Pozo y Carassa and María Mercedes Moscoso Pérez Oblitas, members of the Arequipa Creole high society. Among his brothers were Pío de Tristán, last viceroy of Peru. He studied in the city of Cuzco, he was later sent by his parents to Spain where he served for a time as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, in 1791 he returned to Peru after being appointed colonel of the Majes Valley militias.

In 1809 he was part of the army under the command of his cousin, General José Manuel de Goyeneche, against the Juntistas of Upper Peru. He repressed the Yungay uprising, defeating in Irupana the caudillo Manuel Victorio García Lanza who, together with Gabriel Antonio Castro, he pursued until the Indians under his command managed to capture them and cut off their heads, which were exhibited by Tristán on November 1809 in the town of Chulumani.

However, when the rebel Army of the North advanced towards Potosí, on 16 November 1810, then-Governor Tristán signed the act of adhesion to the government of Buenos Aires and three days later issued a patriotic proclamation. After the defeat of the Army of the North in the Battle of Huaqui, a pardon was decreed by General Goyeneche, he was confirmed in his position, and later returned to Lower Peru free of guilt, although under suspicion, being definitively separated from a position in the Royalist army.

In 1813 he was elected deputy to the Cortes of Cádiz for Arequipa, this fact being harshly criticized by Viceroy José Fernando de Abascal who considered that behind his election was the vote of the seditious, the audacious and the schemers. He set sail to Spain to take up his position, but on his way, he received in Jamaica the news of the dissolution of the Cortes of Cádiz, so he returned to Peru.

In 1821, after the landing of the Liberating expedition of San Martín, he left the south and went to Lima to present himself to the ranks of the Patriot army. Despite his lack of military qualities, San Martín entrusted him with the command of an important division of his army that in 1822 was completely destroyed in the Battle of Ica by the Spanish general José de Canterac.

In 1827 he was appointed prefect of Ayacucho and commanded the repression of the Royalist rebels from Iquicha who had risen up against the republican authorities. In 1834 he took the side of President Luis José de Orbegoso against the rebellion of Generals Agustín Gamarra and Pedro Pablo Bermúdez. Retired from active service, he died in Arequipa in 1847.