Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo

Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo (Spanish, with variant name: Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla y Horcasitas, segundo conde de Revillagigedo) (1740 in Havana – May 2, 1799 in Madrid) was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain from October 17, 1789 to July 11, 1794. He is known as a great reformer and one of the finest administrators of the Spanish colonial era—perhaps the last able viceroy of New Spain.

From a young age, Güemes Padilla Horcasitas served in the army, and distinguished himself fighting the British in the siege of Gibraltar. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was a knight of the military Order of Charles III, baron of Benilova y Rivarroja and lord of the bedchamber to his majesty.

He arrived at Veracruz on October 8, 1789 and took up the offices of viceroy, captain general and president of the Audiencia on the seventeenth. He became the third Criollo viceroy. His father, Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas, 1st Count of Revillagigedo was captain general of the island of Cuba, where the son was born, and later viceroy of New Spain (1746–55). The son was said to sleep only three to four hours a night, arising at 1 a.m. to begin a day's work.

Within a week of Güemes Padilla taking office, a gang of outlaws murdered Joaquín Dongo, a merchant and principal citizen of the capital, and ten of his employees. Güemes Padilla took only 13 days to have the gang located, tried and executed for the murders. Blanco, Aldama and Quintero, all Spaniards, were garroted for the murders on November 7, on a scaffold in the Plaza de Mexico. For this, he was often called the Vindicator of Justice.

Two other prominent murders occurred during his term. The first was that of the prefect of the monastery of Merced, killed by a priest of his order September 23, 1790. The other was the murder on June 25, 1792 of Lucas de Gálvez, governor and captain general of Yucatán.

He found the capital run down and dirty—the streets, the markets, the promenades. Most of the people appeared in public wearing nothing but thin robes and battered straw hats. Houses were badly made and badly cared for. Public education had deteriorated. There were no free primary schools and other public schools were deficient. Most streets had not been maintained, and were fit for travel only by foot or by mule. The state of the army was shocking.

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