He supported the introduction in 1803 of a smallpox vaccination program, and promoted public works such as the building of a theatre to encourage the arts, and of the Espada cemetery to improve sanitation.

Although he was appointed to his office by the Spanish Crown, Someruelos took the side of the criollo planters in Cuban politics, whose interests were often opposed to those of the administrative authorities in Metropolitan Spain.

He brutally suppressed revolts by enslaved blacks on the island, and in 1812 ordered the hanging of the political activist José Antonio Aponte and fellow conspirators, as well as the public display of their severed heads.

[5][6] His parents had previously determined that he should inherit the family patrimony,[7] and to prepare for him a career suited to his position, they made generous contributions to the leadership of the Toro regiment's provincial militias.

[12] After the Peace of Basel, signed on 22 July 1795, ended the War of the Pyrenees, Someruelos was promoted from colonel of militias to field marshal and assigned to the general staff of the Spanish Army at Navarre, enabling him to reside at his home in Logroño.

In 1798, Someruelos was one of the officers in charge of organizing the campos volantes (flying camps) of Galicia,[13] a mobile force ready to march against the British at any time.

[19] During his tenure, there occurred a series of memorable events, including: the slave revolts in Saint-Domingue which led to the withdrawal of France from the island of Hispaniola and the declaration of independence of Haiti in 1804; the War of the Third Coalition with its Battle of Trafalgar in 1805; the Peninsular War against the French invasion of 1808; the beginning of the Spanish-American independence movement the same year; and the enactment of the first Spanish constitution in 1812, his last year as captain general of Cuba.

In early February 1802, he granted a request for supplies and money to relieve the French expedition led by Napoleon's brother-in-law, Gen. Charles Leclerc,[21] against the black and mulatto slave insurgents in Saint-Domingue.

[22][23] As captain general of Cuba, Someruelos had determined early on in his administration to correct the deficiencies of the rule of his predecessor, the Count of Santa Clara, and to restore the progressive regime that had flourished under Luis de Las Casas.

He encouraged social and cultural improvements in the country, and used the information provided by the expedition of the Royal Guantánamo Commission (Real Comision de Guantanamo) of 1796–1802 to promote the island of Cuba; in 1800 and 1804 he was visited by the scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland.

[36] Contrary to the policy of the Metropolitan authorities, Someruelos continued to support the illicit traffic and consequently clashed with the successive intendants (intendentes), who supervised the treasury and the collection of taxes.

[37] Someruelos's relationship with the intendendants was complicated by the fact that they had official control of the captaincy's finances, but also unofficially represented the commercial interests of the merchants in Spain and their special trading privileges.

Thomas Jefferson sent the disreputable and corrupt Gen. James Wilkinson as an envoy to the Spanish authorities in Cuba, during the height of the economic crisis caused by the embargo.

[40] Charged with containing the Pan-American imperialism of the United States, and having heard that Wilkinson had proposed a toast at a banquet in Norfolk to "the New World governed by itself and independent of the Old", Someruelos refused to meet him when he finally arrived in Havana on 22 March 1809 (after Jefferson's administration had ended).

This affair involved the Cuban separatists Román de la Luz, a prominent landowner, and Joaquín Infante, a lawyer from Bayamo, both of whom were active Masons who advocated radical political ideas from Europe.

Mainly because of the representations made in his favor by the Real Consulado and the cabildo of Havana, the Regency Council (Consejo de Regencia) reviewed his record as governor and confirmed him for another five years.

[53] Someruelos brutally suppressed the anti-slavery revolt led by the Yoruba political activist José Antonio Aponte,[54] who was inspired by rumors of the debates concerning the abolition of slavery taking place in the Cortes of Cádiz.

[55][56] On 19 March 1812, Aponte and eight other conspirators were arrested, and after three weeks of interrogation were executed by hanging on 8 April;[57][58][59] the next day his body was decapitated and his head put on public display in a cage.

[62] These events took place in the social context of a plantation society dependent on slave labor for its very existence; consequently the powerful sugar planters defended the institution of slavery in Cuba with vigor.

[63] When Someruelos was finally relieved of his command on 14 April 1812 by Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, Lieutenant General of the Army and the Navy, the island was at peace.