Jose Tomas Boves

José Tomás Boves (Oviedo, Asturias, September 18, 1782 – Urica, Venezuela, December 5, 1814), royalist caudillo of the llanos during the Venezuelan War of Independence, particularly remembered for his use of brutality and atrocities against those who supported Venezuelan independence. Though nominally pro-Spanish, Boves showed little deference to any superior authority and independently carried out his own military campaign and political agenda.

Having lost his father at age 4, he was raised by his single mother, who worked as a seamstress and maid. At the age of 16 Boves was licensed to be a pilot in the merchant marine, later joining the Pla y Portal company, which traded between Spain and the Americas. He was convicted of smuggling in Venezuela and sentenced to prison, but because of the intercession of fellow Asturian residents in Venezuela, who also worked for Pla y Portal, his sentence was commuted to internal exile in Calabozo. There he became a merchant, and once his sentence was finished, he dealt in , a business which allowed him to become very familiar with the vast Venezuelan grasslands and its people.

As with most residents of Venezuela at the time, Boves was supportive of the juntas established in Venezuela in 1810, which were created after news arrived that the reigning Supreme Central Junta in Spain had dissolved itself due to French advances in southern Spain. His activities against the Republic began only after Domingo de Monteverde's incursions into central Venezuela. He joined Monteverde's forces when they took over Calabozo in May 1812 and was named commander of Calabozo in January 1813. He participated in the unsuccessful attempts to stop Santiago Mariño's invasion of eastern Venezuela, and after the royalist government collapsed, he was granted temporary permission to act at his own discretion by his superior, Field Marshal Juan Manuel Cajigal.

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