Rumiñahui, Cuzco military chief , according to Guamán Poma of plebeian origin, although exalted by his exploits to the warrior aristocracy. He served alongside Huayna Cápac in his campaigns on the northern coast and fought the Cañari at the Battle of Yaguarcocha. At the death of Huayna Capac he was a determined supporter of Atahualpa. When the civil war began, he played a prominent role in the battles of Ambato, Tumipampa, Muyuturo and Cusipampa, which consolidated the stabilization of Atahualpa's power in the extreme north of Tahuantinsuyo . Beside him he marched south and on November 15, 1532 they were in the thermal baths of Pultamarca. There Atahualpa received the Spanish delegation headed by Hernando de Soto, to which Hernando Pizarro would later be added, and accepted an invitation to go to dinner. But Rumiñahui distrusted, he was never in favor of receiving the Spaniards in peace and wept with rage when Atahualpa allowed the emissaries to leave alive. That same night the Inca monarch drew up a plan with his generals and entrusted Rumiñahui with the mission of surrounding Cajamarca with his troops, locating himself on the coastal road "with many ropes so that when they fled they would hit them and tie them up."
Rumiñahui attack
That same night, with 20,000 men carrying only Bolas, Rumiñahui left for the cross road that led to the coast. The next day he anxiously awaited the signal to capture the Spaniards who were supposed to flee from the main square of Cajamarca. In the afternoon, the thunder of the Pedro de Candía cannon and the trumpets warned him that the plans were not happening as planned. Surprised, he saw how the Indian who was to give him the signal to attack was thrown from the top of the tower in the plaza, and a few minutes later he saw one of the walls of the plaza collapse, defeated by the terrified crowd that fled towards the field. Everything happened so fast that he couldn't make an immediate decision, later enduring the noise and smoke of the Spanish artillery that tried to scare them away. His behavior has raised, among other questions, why Rumiñahui did not attack Cajamarca to save the Inca. Probably because he thought he was dead when he saw the crowd disband. The truth is that that same night he broke up his camp and marched with his army towards Quito, following the road to the mountains.
Once he reached his destination, he decided to definitively break his ties with the Quito aristocracy and had Atahualpa's brothers who lived there killed. Months later, emissaries from the captive monarch arrived with the order to collect the gold that was there and, far from obeying that order, Rumiñahui had them killed. He started a war against the Cañaris, who, taking advantage of the absence of Inca troops, liquidated the governors left by Atahualpa and recovered their autonomy. After bloody battles, the Cañaris were again subjugated, but they secretly sent ambassadors to Sebastián Benalcázar, who was in Piura. He could not find a better occasion to start on his own account, under the guise of helping the Cañaris, the conquest of the northern region of Tahuantinsuyo. He left Piura with two hundred Spaniards and had his first clashes with Quito troops commanded by Chaqui
Tinta, who at the time was Rumiñahui's lieutenant. He won a victory over the Quito rearguard in Teocaxas and escaped an ambush by Rumiñahui in Riobamba. In Ambato, a third battle sought by Benalcázar would be fought in order to liquidate all resistance, but the people of Quito withdrew further north, managing to save part of their army. Rumiñahui seeing that the defense of Quito was useless, he decided to abandon it; before leaving he collected the treasures that were in that city and killed his three hundred women to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Spaniards. The last attempts at resistance were made in Yurbo, where the Spanish cavalry ended up crushing the very small troops of Quito. Rumiñahi was captured and Benalcázar ordered that he be burned alive along with his captains:Queñusquimi, Apo inga Zopozagua, Quigalumba and others .