Tomás Katari or Catari (died January 15, 1781) was an Aymara peasant and cacique of northern Potosí who led a popular uprising in Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia) in the late 18th century.
Joaquín Alós purchased the position of regional corregidor and began his tenure in early 1778 by seizing the legal documentation and order of dismissal Macha commoners possessed against the wealthy appointed mestizo cacique, Blas Bernal.
[2] The magistrate, headed by reformist Viceroy Juan José de Vértiz, heard Katari's case upon his arrival in 1779 against both Bernal and Alós.
[2] While imprisoned, members of the Macha community showed up on various occasions in Chuquisaca calling for Katari's liberation whilst coordinating a relative take-over of the Chayanta province.
[2] Prosecuting all officials that were involved in Katari's repression, Macha peoples executed cacique Bernal, elected local leaders to replace the old and complicit, and established territorial checkpoints at the edge of the province.
[2] Macha became the center of uprising as provincial communities, viewing them as not representative of their class, deposed of caciques, hereditary and appointed alike, and brought them to Katari to determine their proper course of justice.
[6] It has been argued that due to his initial more institutional methods of resistance, Katari's image has not been used as that of Tupac Amaru by Indian or Latin American nationalist movements.