Garcia Sarmiento de Sotomayor , Count of Salvatierra and XVI viceroy of Peru. He was a native of the Valle de las Hachas, in Galicia. He was the son of Don Diego Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Count of Salvatierra, Marquis of Sabroso, and Doña Leonor Enríquez de Luna. Seeing his zeal in fulfilling various court positions, he was appointed in 1631 field master of the infantry organized in Galicia to march to Flanders; and successively he became assistant and captain general of Seville (1634) and governor of the royal army. In the company of his wife, Doña Antonia de Acuña y Guzmán, he moved to New Spain when he was appointed to exercise the government of this viceroyalty in 1642. The dissensions he maintained there with the greedy and impatient Bishop Palafox were not insignificant. resolutely supporting the Jesuits in the dispute that followed with the prelate. The episode was suspended by virtue of Palafox's return to the metropolis and the royal provisions of July 8, 1647, which removed Salvatierra to the Viceroyalty of Peru . He was in fact the seventh ruler of New Spain to receive the investiture of the best paid position in the Indies.
A man with a melancholic spirit and afflicted with hypochondriacal crises, Don García developed a governmental activity with a discreet and moderate tone.
García Sarmiento de Sotomayor as Viceroy of Peru
García Sarmiento de Sotomayor took office in the city of Lima on September 20, 1648 . He followed the path that his predecessors had pointed out to him and tried to maintain the established order. In Huancavelica, the loss of the rich seam and the failure of the system devised by Vasconcelos caused production to drop. To remedy this situation, Salvatierra sent visitors, but he did not advance much and only under Governor Juan Vásquez de Acuña did the situation improve. Mining shortages caused the number of mitayos to decline everywhere, thus partially limiting the population of the provinces. But greater damage followed with the composition of lands that caused fraud and dispossession to the detriment of the Indians. On March 31, 1650, one of the most disastrous earthquakes occurred in Cuzco; the count did what he could to remedy the fate of the neighbors and exempted them from taxes. In Paraguay, where Bishop Bernardino de Cárdenas raised a storm, one of whose first victims were the Jesuits of the Asunción, the viceroy appointed don Andrés de León Garavito as visitor and ordered the bishop to appear before the audience of Charcas. Things calmed down and the bishop left his diocese never to return to it.
On the other hand, in the face of possible incursions by the Portuguese, he arranged for the merchants of that nation to sell the ships they owned for their operations in the Pacific Ocean; and in order to cut off the circulation of low-grade currency, he first limited its settlement value and then declared its invalidity. He carried out a certain administrative order, providing for the collection of what was owed to the royal treasury and promoting mineral extraction. He favored the Maynas missions, especially those served by the Society of Jesus. he ordered the construction of an ornamental font in the main square of Lima . On February 24, 1655, he ceded the insignia of command to his successor in the viceroyalty, the Count of Alba de Liste, although due to the state of war between Spain and England, he had to remain residing in Lima. Here he was surprised by death on April 26, 1659 .