Carlos Medrano was a Dominican freedom fighter who fought in the Dominican Restoration War.
Described as a selfless and tireless fighter, he joined the Dominican Restoration War upon hearing the shots that rang out in his hometown, Puerto Plata. On August 31, 1863, he arrived in Santiago, which was the scene of an intense battle between the patriots and the annexationists. He had to act in the crucial moments of the siege and after signing the Act of Independence of September 14, 1863, he returned to Puerto Plata to continue fighting.[1]
He was a close companion in arms of General Gaspar Polanco. There are war parts shod with their signature, which are dated March 1864, in the camp of Maluis. In October of that year He temporarily served as head of the general camp from Las Jabillas. When Polanco overthrew José Antonio Salcedo in October 1864, this was sent under arrest to Puerto Plata, with the supposed purpose of waiting for a ship to arrive at the port of Blanco, (today Luperón), to send him to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Who had Salcedo under his responsibility was General Carlos Medrano, and Polanco's secret order arrived to remove the prisoner from confinement, under the false pretext of sending it to Blanco, while the chiefs of custody received the secret order to execute him in the path. The sinister order was fulfilled with the execution of Salcedo, when he died on the afternoon of the 5th November 1864, in the uninhabited cove of Maimón, Puerto Plata. When Pimentel headed the uprising of January 1865 from La Línea, President Polanco sent Medrano to Guayacanes to try to intercept the insurgents. Powerless to resist, Polanco was forced to resign and since Pedro Antonio Pimentel took over, Medrano was one of those arrested and prosecuted for the death of Salcedo. The War Council heard the case and sentenced him to death. Shortly afterward his life was spared. He died thirty years later, in 1895, in the town Hatillo Palma lineman.[2]