Pedro Mendinueta y Múzquiz

Pedro Mendinueta y Múzquiz (June 7, 1736 in Elizondo, Navarre – 1825) was a Spanish lieutenant general and colonial official. From January 2, 1797 to 1803 he was viceroy of New Granada. He was a knight of the Order of Santiago, and he was awarded the Gran Cruz of Carlos III.

Mendinueta began his military career as an infantry cadet in 1756. He arrived in America for the first time in 1763, charged with organizing the militias in Cuba and Puerto Rico. He returned to the New World in 1782; in 1783 he was part of the army in Havana. The following year he went to New Spain, where he organized the provincial and urban militias. He returned to Spain in 1789. He fought in the War of the Pyrenees against the First French Republic during the years 1793-1795. During the Battle of Boulou from 29 April to 1 May 1794, cavalry under his command clashed with French troops under Pierre Augereau.

On January 1, 1796 he was named viceroy of New Granada, in succession to José Manuel de Ezpeleta. He received the office from Ezpeleta on January 2, 1797 in Cartagena de Indias. He entered the capital of Santa Fe on March 18, 1797.

During his term of office, he provided water to the western part of Santa Fe, taking it from the Río del Arzobispo. He improved communications with Tunja, Vélez, Carare and other cities of the north by improving the road towards Venezuela.

He supported scientific investigations in the viceroyalty. In July 1801 he received, with great interest and esteem, the naturalists Baron Alexander von Humboldt, German, and Aimé Bonpland, French, who were traveling with the permission of the Spanish Crown to study the flora, fauna and geography of its American possessions. They also intended to produce a map of South America north of the Amazon River. A map of the viceroyalty was a preoccupation of Mendinueta, who believed that many of the works he wanted to undertake were not possible without a more accurate knowledge of the geography of the colony.

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