Macaya

Macaya was an earlier name associated with Azángaro, a settlement on the northern Peruvian altiplano. The town lies in the river country north of Lake Titicaca, amid high grasslands and valleys inhabited by Indigenous communities. In the late eighteenth century it became a major centre of rebellion against Spanish colonial rule.

After Túpac Amaru II was captured in 1781, his relative Diego Cristóbal Túpac Amaru continued the struggle and established a rebel headquarters at Azángaro. Pedro Vilca Apaza, a leader from the area, fought royalist forces in the surrounding highlands. The town remained a stronghold of the movement for months and became a centre of resistance in the northern altiplano, until rebel leaders accepted a pardon and laid down arms; the war left the plateau deeply disrupted.