[2][3] Gutiérrez was first ascended to Infantry Sergeant Major in 1854 and then travelled to Arequipa to take part in the revolution headed by Ramón Castilla.

While the advance of the revolutionaries towards Lima was taking place, he pacified the population of Callao who had spoken out in favor of Vice President Pedro Diez Canseco, but after the fall of Pezet he was arrested and his promotion to general was annulled on December 13, 1865.

[4] Shortly after, he joined the uprising that broke out in Arequipa against the Prado government and the Constitution of 1867, led by Vice President Pedro Diez Canseco, who recognized Tomás as a general.

Under Balta, Gutiérrez was able to provide funds for the reconstruction of the San Nicolás de Tolentino Church in Huancarqui after it was destroyed in the 1868 Arica earthquake.

[2] Gutiérrez was appointed Minister of War and Navy in 1871, a fact that was received with alarm by the recently founded Civilista Party, the same one that at that time triumphed in the general elections, leading to the presidency of Manuel Pardo y Lavalle.

Shortly before Pardo was to take office, however, Gutiérrez, serving as President Balta's War Minister, organized a coup d'état with his three brothers, proclaiming himself Supreme Leader of the Republic and asking for the support of the armed forces, with only some members of the Army agreeing.

Marceliano, who was guarding Balta in the San Francisco barracks, allegedly ordered his execution in retaliation, with the former president being shot by three riflemen while he was resting in his bed after having lunch, and the news of his death quickly spreading throughout Lima.