Luis de Ayala y Vergara was a criollo lawyer, politician from the capital of the Viceroyalty of the New Granada. During the South American independence he exercised the executive power as State Councilor of the Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca in 1812, due to the absence of President Antonio Nariño. Ayala y Vergara is considered one of the first heads of state of the young Colombia.

The Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca was a rebel state in colonial Colombia. It included parts of the former New Kingdom of Granada. The state originated as a result of the Foolish Fatherland period at the beginning of the Spanish American wars of independence. Its capital was Bogotá, the former capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada.