Before his arrival in Peru, José Antonio de Areche was fiscal (prosecutor) before the Audiencia of Mexico.
José de Gálvez became Spanish minister of the Indies in 1776, and the following year he ordered Areche to Peru as royal visitador (inspector).
The economy of the colony was bad, in part because of the separation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata from Peru in 1776 and the imposition of free trade in 1778.
He was a direct descendant of the earlier Túpac Amaru, the last Inca (Emperor) of Vilcabamba, who had been beheaded on the orders of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo in 1572.
Túpac Amaru II was cacique of Tungasuca, Surimana and Pampamarca, and enjoyed properties, businesses and prestige in the region of Cusco.
He was 40 years old when he led the rebellion, tired of the abuses of the corregidores and merchants and of the reforms of Areche (customs, taxes, tributes).
In delivering his judgment, Areche also ordered the following: In April 1782, Spanish King Charles III, at the urging of the Visitador Areche, ordered viceregal officials in Peru and Argentina to seize as many copies of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's Comentarios Reales de los Incas as they could find.
First published in 1609, the second edition (1723) of the "Comentarios" included a prophecy attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh which claimed that "the Indians would overthrow the Spanish to usher in a return to the Inca Empire with the help of the British."