Juan Antonio Lavalleja y de la Torre (June 24, 1784 – October 22, 1853)[1] was an Uruguayan libertador, revolutionary, military general, and political figure.

Lavalleja led the group called the Thirty-Three Orientals during Uruguay's Declaration of Independence from the Empire of Brazil in 1825.

[1] Lavalleja first met Fructuoso Rivera, another leading Uruguayan politician of his era and a future rival, in 1825 during an event that would become known as the Abrazo del Monzón (Embrace of the Monsoon).

He was then part of a triumvirate chosen in 1852 to govern Uruguay, but he died shortly after his accession to power,[4] on October 22, 1853 in Montevideo.

As one of the major figures in early, post-independence Uruguayan history he is identified as a skilled but reactionary warrior who contributed to the culture of intermittent civil war which dogged Uruguay for much of the 19th century.