Martín de Barúa

In early 1712, he was apparently a Captain and served as a judge in the Consejo Supremo de Hacienda, a tax court.

By the order of the Viceroy of Peru, José de Armendáriz, 1st Marquis of Castelfuerte, Barúa was sent to Paraguay as governor after the troubles with disgraced judge José de Antequera y Castro that had eventually flared into armed resistance to the Empire.

Bruno Mauricio de Zabala was serving as interim governor after leading an army to intimidate and depose Antequera, but Zabala was Governor of the Río de la Plata (having replaced Acre), a wealthier and more important province than Paraguay.

The most heated issue in the province was the treatment of the Society of Jesus, who ran the nearby Jesuit reductions.

Barúa, knowing that Antequera was rotting away in a jail cell, had no desire to commit treason against the Spanish Crown, and insisted that if he kept the governorship, it would only be to hand it over to Soroeta.