Teodomiro Gutiérrez Cuevas

Early life Gutiérrez was born on July 25, 1861 (other sources date his birth to the year 1864) After the Chilean Army's successful Lima Campaign, the city of Lima was occupied by Chilean troops. During the battle for the city, he fought in the Battle of Miraflores. Gutiérrez collaborated at first with Francisco García Calderón's administration, only to later participate in the Breña Campaign, under the command of General Andrés Avelino Cáceres, who he admired. but maintaining a neutral and hopeful outlook at the time, and suppressing Indian insurrections when needed.

After Billinghurst was deposed in a coup d'état in 1914 by Óscar R. Benavides, he was exiled to Chile, where Gutiérrez soon followed, establishing himself in Valparaíso. He would secretly return to Peru some months later in order to plan his rebellion. By this point, Gutiérrez had also adopted anarchist ideas, his intent of restoring the Inca Empire, and had begun his military training of the Indians of Puno.

On January 1, 1917, taking advantage of the new year celebrations, Gutiérrez escaped prison after serving for eight months. A letter explaining the reasons for his rebellion was published later the same month by La Lucha, a local newspaper. He had apparently reached Bolivia, where he had set fire to a hacienda in the country with the assistance of Tomás Condori, a follower of his.

Legacy The 1915 rebellion and Gutiérrez himself established themselves in early 20th century Peru, with journalists and writers, such as José Carlos Mariátegui, Clemente Palma and Jorge Basadre writing articles about him.

Some contemporary writers, such as Alberto Flores Galindo, have suggested that the pseudonym Rumi Maqui was used to identify several Indian rebels in the region, and not only Gutiérrez, also arguing against his role in the insurrection, and even the severity of the rebellion itself. This, however, has been disputed by others.