Juan Ortiz de Matienzo was a Spanish colonial judge and an original member of the first Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, in 1512.
The first such court in the Spanish Empire outside of Spain was established October 15, 1511[chronology citation needed] in Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic.
Ayllón, Villalobos and Ortiz were apparently the objects of a juicio de residencia (grievance) proceeding in 1516, which exposed extraordinary corruption within the oligarchy that ruled the island.
At the time Beltrán de Guzmán was already in New Spain, at Pánuco, so Charles ordered the judges to assemble in Veracruz and from there make a joint entrance into the capital.
Most of these associates had participated in the government in the proceeding few years while Cortés was in Honduras or Spain, with a lot of in-fighting among themselves and injustices to the population, both Indigenous and Spanish.
Cortés had some success with his appeal, being named Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca and receiving some other honors.
Beltrán de Guzmán, president of the Audiencia, left the capital on an expedition to conquer western Mexico on December 21, 1529, leaving Ortiz in charge.
This was so effective that Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, who also held the royal office of Protector of the Indians, felt the necessity of hiding a letter sealed in wax in a cask, to be smuggled to the Spanish authorities by a confederate sailor.