José Antonio de Areche
José Antonio de Areche Zornoza (born 1731, died 1788) was a Spanish visitador in Peru (1777–82). He was responsible for the execution of Inca rebel Túpac Amaru II, his family and coconspirators. Background Before his arrival in Peru, José Antonio de Areche was fiscal (prosecutor) before the Audiencia of Mexico. He was a follower of José de Gálvez, and adopted Gálvez's policy of reformismo duro (hard reforms; the Bourbon reforms). In New Spain he worked for the suppression of the guilds (the Consulado de Mexico). Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa signed some measures against them. José de Gálvez became Spanish minister of the Indies in 1776, and the following year he ordered Areche to Peru as royal visitador (inspector). This was the same sort of post that Gálvez himself had exercised a decade earlier in New Spain. As visitador in Peru In June 1777, Areche arrived in Lima. As a direct representative of the king, he believed he outranked the highest colonial officials of the Viceroyalty of Peru and the newly created Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. His mission was to increase the revenues of the colony, investigate the honesty and competence of colonial officials and