Portal:Dominican Republic/Selected biography/3
![Pedro Santana y Familias](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Santana.gif/100px-Santana.gif)
Pedro Santana y Familias, 1st Marquis of Las Carreras (June 29, 1801 – June 14, 1864), better known as Pedro Santana, was a Dominican military commander and royalist politician who served as the president of the junta that had established the First Dominican Republic, a precursor to the position of the President of the Dominican Republic, and as the first President of the republic in the modern line of succession. A traditional royalist who was fond of the Spanish crown and the Spanish Empire, he ruled as a governor-general, but effectively as an authoritarian dictator. (More...)