On August 17, 1748, the settlement was officially founded by Jose Lazaro de Rivera and established as a Roman Catholic parish. By this time the Spanish conqueror Jose Fernando de Mier y Guerra was ordered to "pacify" the Chimila indigenous groups and to reorganize some villages in the basin of the Magdalena river. These foundations and re-foundations were approved back then by José Alfonso Pizarro viceroy of the Viceroyalty of New Granada between 1749 and 1753. In 1753 the Spanish ordered the construction of houses in Aguachica and was made part of the Government of Santa Marta.