Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, marquis de Tenerife, (born Sept. 17, 1838, Palma, Majorca—died Oct. 20, 1930, Madrid) Spanish general who, as captain general of Cuba shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish–American War (1898), used stern antirebel measures that were exploited by U.S. newspapers to inflame public opinion against Spanish rule of Cuba.