Melchor Bravo de Saravia y Sotomayor (1512 – 1577) was a Spanish conquistador, interim viceroy of Peru, and Royal Governor of Chile.

Bravo de Saravia is seen as being one of the major contributors to the eventual defeat and punishment of the rebels, due to his great activity and service during that time.

The Audiencia turned over its governance to the new viceroy of Peru, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, 3rd Marquis of Cañete, in 1556.

The Audiencia was installed in August 1567, and in September the king named Bravo de Saravia to take over the civil and military government of Chile, with the title of governor.

In the middle of 1570 the reinforcements solicited from Spain arrived in Lima, and in the following spring Bravo reinitiated hostilities with the Indigenous in Chile.

After this defeat Bravo decided to turn over the military command to Lorenzo Bernal del Mercado and retain only his civil functions.

San Miguel was opposed to the forced labor being extracted from the Indigenous people, the encomienda system, and the Arauco War, on which he blamed all the misfortunes of the colony.

Juan López de Porres accused Bravo of corruption and of being a friend to base individuals and an enemy of the conquistadors and the nobles.

Citing the advanced age of the governor, Fray Carvajal asked that the position be given to García Hurtado de Mendoza.