Diego García de Paredes (conquistador)

Diego García de Paredes y Vargas (1506, Trujillo, Spain – 1563, Catia, Province of Venezuela, Spanish Empire) was a maestre de campo and a Spanish conquistador who participated in, among other things, the Battle of Cajamarca. He also founded Trujillo, Venezuela in 1557.

Biography
Diego García de Paredes was born in Trujillo and was the son of Diego García de Paredes “the Samson of Extremadura”, who fought in the Italian Wars and the war of Navarre, and Mencía de Vargas.

When he turned 18 he left for the New World and arrived in Nicaragua, where he would help conquer those territories under Gil González Dávila and Hernando de Soto. In 1530 he would move to Panama, and he would also participate in the conquest of those territories. While they still were in Panama Francisco Pizarro arrived from Spain in charge of an expedition to the Inca Empire, and they joined it. They were one hundred and sixty men marching to the heart of the Empire with the firm objective of conquering it. He took part in the Battle of Cajamarca, in which they captured Atahualpa, effectively conquering the whole territory.

In 1534 he returned to Spain and later participated in wars in Flanders, France, Tunisia and Sicily, obtaining the rank of captain. After that, he returned to Trujillo.

Bored of life in Spain he returns to the Americas in 1544 and participates in Francisco de Orellana’s second expedition to the Amazon. The expedition was a failure, losing fifty seven men due to hunger and seventeen because of attacks by the natives. He was one of the few who survived, and went to Nueva Granada after the expedition to conquer those territories. After that was done, he went to Venezuela and participates in the founding of Barquisimeto and Trujillo. Some time later Juan Rodríguez Suarez went to Trujillo while running away from Juan de Maldonado after escaping prison. They refused to turn him over, and that action became the first example of political asylum in the Americas. In 1561 Lope de Aguirre started committing atrocities in the coast of Venezuela, and García de Paredes was sent to fight him. He was detained in Barquisimeto, and was shot by his one of his men. Lope de Aguirre was then judged post mortem and found guilty of lèse-majesté.

In 1562 he returned to Spain to ask compensation for the service given to the crown and was named governor of Popayán. He planned to go to Popayán by land from Venezuela so he could visit the friends he made during the conquest. When his boat arrived at the coast of Venezuela he landed with five soldiers to ask about his friend Luis de Narváez, who he didn't know had been killed some time before. While they were dining with the natives suddenly they lifted Narvaez's head and killed Diego García de Paredes and the five soldiers accompanying him. The ones who remained in the boat had to leave them there because there was nothing they could do. According to Pedro Simón, this happened in Catia la Mar in January 1563.