José Joaquín Puello

José Joaquín Puello de Castro (Santo Domingo, 1805/1808–ibid., 23 December 1847) was a general and government minister from the Dominican Republic. He and his brothers, Gabino and Eusebio, were the only prominent black Dominicans in the Dominican War of Independence.

Puello was former colonel in the Haitian Army; when the Independence was proclaimed on 27 February 1844 he was made part of the Central Independent Government (CIG) since he was very popular among mulattoes and blacks in order to allay fears and rumours regarding an alleged restoration of slavery by the independence plotters; he was suggested by General Pedro Santana, and then, appointed by the CIG, as Military Commander of Santo Domingo.

On 16 July 1844, General Pedro Santana led a coup d’etat and assumed the CIG’s Presidency. Puello’s refusal to face the coup against President Francisco del Rosario Sánchez favored the victory of the coup. President Santana appointed him as minister of Treasury and Commerce and promoted him to the rank of General. Following the ratification of the first constitution in November 1844, Puello was made governor of the Santo Domingo Province.

In the 1845 Haitian invasion, Puello had an important role in the Battle of Estrelleta that forced the Haitian retreat. However, his alignment with the liberals gained him enemies among the conservative-ruled government; the Consul of France, Eustache Juchereau de Saint-Denys, called him a prejudiced against France and an enemy of the whites.

The Puello brothers were indicted on charges of instigating an anti-white revolution in the country and ingratitude to the white race; they were judged in absentia. José Joaquín and Gabino were sentenced to death by the twenty-five-man jury and executed by a firing squad on 23 December 1847; Eusebio was sentenced to three years in prison and the loss of his military rank (Lieutenant Colonel), however, shortly after he was released and reinstated into the military.