Martín Miguel de Güemes (8 February 1785 – 17 June 1821) was a military leader and popular caudillo who defended northwestern Argentina from the Spanish royalist army during the Argentine War of Independence.

[1][2] After the formation of the first local government junta in the May Revolution of 1810, he joined the army destined to fight the Spanish troops at the Upper Peru, which was victorious in the Battle of Suipacha (in present-day Bolivia).

A letter from royalist general Joaquín de la Pezuela to the Viceroy of Peru explained that Güemes's army was waging, "almost with impunity, a slow but tiring and harmful war."

Faced with lightning skirmishes, declining morale and the news of San Martín's victory in the Battle of Chacabuco, the royalist troops retreated to the north.

Güemes was then left to his own devices, as San Martín was forced to stay in Chile for three years and Belgrano was recalled to Santa Fe Province to fight the federalist supporters of José Gervasio Artigas on behalf of the centralist government of Buenos Aires, now presided by Rondeau.

The year 1820 marked a turning point of a long civil war in Argentina, with provinces fighting among themselves and with Buenos Aires, after the fall of the central government following the Battle of Cepeda.

Soon, however, colonel José María Valdés, a Spanish rustler in the service of the royalist army, took advantage of his knowledge of the terrain, promised the landowners to respect their properties, and with their support he occupied Salta again on 7 June.