1. Pedro Santana y Familias, 1st Marquess of Las Carreras was a Dominican soldier and politician who served three times as the president of the First Dominican Republic and was the first governor-general during the period of annexation of the Dominican Republic to Spain, accomplished at Santana's request.
Pedro Santana was one of the signatories of the Manifesto of January 16,1844 that proclaimed Dominican independence on February 27,1844.
Pedro Santana would assume the leadership of the southern expeditionary army and gain prominence for his victory in the Battle of Azua.
Pedro Santana led a coup d'etat against the Central Governing Board and was named president on a provisional basis.
However in 1848 Pedro Santana resigned due to political intrigues and popular discontent.
Pedro Santana led the successful defense against Haitian forces at the Battle of Las Carreras in April 1849.
Pedro Santana then deposed Jimenes and served as head of state under the title of Supreme Chief until a new president was elected.
Unlike his political opponents who wanted an independent Dominican state, Pedro Santana sought to reintegrate the Dominican Republic to the Spanish Empire.
Pedro Santana oversaw the reestablishment of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, exiled and imprisoned a number of nationalist dissidents who had fought with him in the Dominican War of Independence.
Pedro Santana died during the Dominican Restoration War, after which the country regained independence in 1865.
Pedro Santana was born in June 29,1801 in Hincha, near the border with Saint-Domingue, present-day Haiti.
Pedro Santana's father became a militia captain and fought at the 1808 Battle of Palo Hincado under general Juan Sanchez Ramirez, during the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo.
The elder Pedro Santana beheaded Jean-Louis Ferrand's body after his suicide and took his head as trophy.
In El Seibo, Pedro Santana's father acquired the El Prado herd in partnership with Miguel Febles, who had migrated from Hincha.
In 1822, when Pedro Santana was 20 years old, Haitian president Jean-Pierre Boyer invaded Santo Domingo and annexed it to the Republic of Haiti, just two months after Jose Nunez de Caceres proclaimed independence as the Republic of Spanish Haiti.
On May 3,1843, the Pedro Santana brothers were approached by Juan Pablo Duarte and Vicente Celestino Duarte, the latter of which had commercial activities in Los Llanos, near El Seibo.
Pedro Santana then headed west with 3,000 men to meet the advancing army of Haitian president Herard.
However, Pedro Santana cautiously fell back to Sabana Buey, allowing Herard to enter Azua unopposed.
Pedro Santana first remained cautious and submitted his resignation citing poor health, but when the Junta sent colonel Esteban Roca to replace him, the troops incited by colonel Manuel Mora proclaimed obedience to Pedro Santana.
Pedro Santana refused the presidency under such conditions and, adviced by Bobadilla, demanded the inclusion of article 210, which made him unaccountable for his actions.
Pedro Santana subsequently used the article to execute those who opposed him.
Pedro Santana rejected the Catholic Church's request to return their properties confiscated by the Haitians, despite being a practicing Catholic himself.
Pedro Santana gathered another troop of Seibanos and defeated the Haitians in the Battle of Las Carreras on the banks of the Ocoa River, on April 21,1849.
Pedro Santana was granted the exploitation of Saona Island and a house in Santo Domingo.
However, Pedro Santana was not interested in resuming the presidency, so the chambers focused on appointing Jimenes' replacement.
Pedro Santana's favorite was Santiago Espaillat, representative of Santiago de los Caballeros, but Espaillat declined.
Pedro Santana decided to return to the presidency after Baez's four-year term ended; shortly after his reinstatement, he attacked Baez and expelled him from the country, polarizing the nation between them.
Pedro Santana negotiated the lease of the Samana Peninsula to the United States, but he canceled it due to the pressures of the consuls of Great Britain and France.
Once president, Baez arrested Pedro Santana and deported him to Martinique on January 11,1857.
Valverde recalled Pedro Santana and appointed him commander in chief of military operations against Baez, who was holed in the walled capital of Santo Domingo.
In 1860, Pedro Santana sent general Felipe Alfau to Spain, a member of the delegation that had visited in 1853.
Envoys from the Spanish captain-general of Cuba, Francisco Serrano, arrived in Santo Domingo, and the Dominican Secretary of the Treasury, Pedro Santana Ricart, moved to Havana.
Unable to oppose Spain, Pedro Santana offered his resignation as governor citing health reasons.
In compensation, Pedro Santana was granted the title of Marquess of Las Carreras and the position of senator with a salary of 12,000 pesos.
Pedro Santana offered his military service to the Spanish, who made him head of a expeditionary army bound for Cibao.
Pedro Santana clashed with Santana, who disobeyed orders to retreat to Santo Domingo, and he had Santana summoned to the capital on charges of contempt, with the intention of taking him out of the island.
Pedro Santana bequeathed his properties to his nephews, godchildren, and stepchildren.
Pedro Santana included a pension to his disabled brother Florencio and his aunt Dominga Familias.
In July 1865, as the Spanish were preparing to leave Santo Domingo, prime minister Ramon Maria Narvaez and the conservative deputy Antonio Canovas del Castillo unsuccessfully requested that Pedro Santana's remains be taken to the Iberian Peninsula:.
On January 9,1879, during the presidency of Cesareo Guillermo, at the request of Froilana Febles, Pedro Santana's remains were exhumed and transferred to the Regina Angelorum Church.
Pedro Santana is considered a brilliant military strategist, and was a key figure in the successful separation of the Dominican Republic from Haiti.
In 2018, historians and congressmen of the country met to debate whether or not the remains of Pedro Santana should be kept in the National Pantheon.
Pedro Santana questioned the military glory and the idea of an invincible figure attributed to him, which he described as a myth.
Pedro Santana considers that the invincibility of the character is not necessary and that it is nothing more than a myth constructed by a political current.
Pedro Santana believes that the claim made by Balaguer was due to a strategy of political legalization of the chain of autocrats who have governed the country and of which the reformist leader was a part.
Pedro Santana was engaged to Maria del Carmen Ruiz, who died when she was thrown off her horse as she was returning to El Seibo from a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Altagracia in Higuey.
Pedro Santana then married Micaela Antonia del Rivero, a widow and the mother of his brother Ramon's fiancee, Froilana Febles.
Serrano refused to accept the sword in life of Pedro Santana, but agreed to do so after his death.
Mr Pedro Santana is what in common terms is called regular.
Pedro Santana's face reveals a lot of energy and determined resolution, and his forehead, shaded with hair, is not bulky.
Pedro Santana's eyebrows are thick and cover a pair of piercing eyes, which spark fire when his passions are irritated.
Pedro Santana has a face, but does not wear a mustache, and in his dress he shows a lot of simplicity.
Pedro Santana is sweet and gentlemanly, but very cautious in conversation.
Pedro Santana listens and weighs his words well before giving an affirmation; but when he is upset or encouraged, he speaks in the strong dialect of his province with rough intonation, without losing control over himself.
Pedro Santana has unlimited authority and prestige over his soldiers.
Pedro Santana, is the current President, he is a man of about sixty years of age, a Spaniard who has traits of the native Indian, a native of the island, a man of great integrity of character and without a doubt usually honest and sincere.
Pedro Santana is a shrewd man, and although he does not have much intellectual baggage, he possesses a good sense of appreciation and much administrative ability.
Pedro Santana is always cold and circumspect and very popular with the masses and the old Spanish inhabitants of the island.
Pedro Santana was a tactician of notable superiority, with a truly organizing spirit, a lover of discipline, with peculiar expertise, great serenity and tireless activity.
Pedro Santana was austere, honest, sincere and passionate about order to the point of being inexorable.
Pedro Santana constituted a kind of model of the great men of the last century, without being able to enter the law among the moderns.
Pedro Santana constitutionally governed the nation four times, saving it from the Haitian invasions with great dignity, strength and courage.
Pedro Santana founded the army, the navy, probity in the Public Treasury, equity in justice, respect for laws and property; Pedro Santana instilled true morality and honesty in the masses and was the most prestigious and popular leader ever known.