Neltume | |
|---|---|
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| Region | Los Ríos |
| Province | Valdivia |
| Municipalidad | Panguipulli |
| Comuna | Panguipulli |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipalidad |
| • Alcade | René Aravena Riffo (RN) |
| Population (2002 census[1]) | |
• Total | 2,125 |
| Time zone | UTC−04:00 (Chilean Standard) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−03:00 (Chilean Daylight) |
| Area code | Country + town = 56 + 63 |
Neltume is aChilean town inPanguipulli commune, ofLos Ríos Region. It lies along the203-CH route toHuahum Pass intoArgentina. The town's main economic activities are forestry and, more recently, tourism since theHuilo-Huilo Biological Reserve was created in 1999. During large periods of the 20th century, Neltume was a site of social mobilizations and unrest, events which culminated in 1981 with the crackdown of the "Toqui Lautaro" guerrilla set of byMIR to fight themilitary dictatorship in Chile.
The area of Neltume was colonized in the first decades of the 20th century as part of theeconomic boom that thewood industry was experiencing in Chile at that time. The humid and forested areas of Neltume had not had any recorded human occupation until those years as native Mapuches lived rather on the lake shores ofCalafquén,Panguipulli andRiñihue Lakes and visited sporadically the eastern parts of these lakes for gathering food. In 1885Panguipulli became settled by the first non-indigenous persons and in 1898 a small forestry enterprise was installed in Neltume. In 1942, anengineered wood plant is installed in Neltume. Before thegravel road to Neltume built the town relied onsteam boat transport acrossPanguipulli Lake.
Neltume got its firstpolice station in 1945 when one of thefundos (country estates) that were part of theEchavarri y Bravo company became subject of unrest and mobilization for social demands among lumberjacks andcampesinos.[1] The campesinos were strongly repressed by authorities and some 20 families were expelled from the zone. In 1951 there was another strike among sawmill and forestry workers, who tried to form atrade union and demanded higher salaries, as consequence about 40 leaders and their families were driven out of Neltume. Witnesses from this period record people being taken toValdivia byCarabineros and estimates the duration of the strike in three months. The same witness states that Carabineros were asked by the sawmill boss to gun any striker found walking around in nighttime. The repression of this movement was according to historians Pino and Jelin so strong that only in the 1960s and during theUnidad Popular government did the workers managed form trade unions in the zone.
In 1971 after several land occupations informally known asOperación ardillas (Spanish for Operation Squirrels) theUnidad Popular government expropriated the fundo Carranes from theSociaded Agrícola y Maderera de Neltme creating theComplejo Maderero Panguipulli merging with it other expropriated lands reaching an area of 360.000ha of wooded terrain.[2] Property inLiquiñe andChihuío, localities outside the proper Neltume area, were also placed under theComplejo Maderero Panguipulli. In 1972 presidentSalvador Allende visited Neltume.
On September 2, 1973, 9 days before the1973 Chilean coup d'etat conservative newspaperEl Mercurio wrote that theChilean Air Force had found strangers in a "zone called Neltume" which the newspaper imprecisely described as lying east ofPuerto Saavedra and south ofCautín River. El Mercurio also stated that the case was very similar to what happened inBolivia comparing it withChe Guevara's camp inMancahuazú, and said that localMapuches had denounced their [the leftists] presence after they became subjects of unjust demands on behalf of the left-wing militants.[3]
After hearing the news about the 11 September coup MRC (Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Campesino Movement), a group formed with help ofMIR, decided to take actions against the police station in Neltume as a first step to defend theUnidad Popular government. The idea of the MRC was to take control of the building, have the police to surrender, making them join the revolt and seize any weapons to be found there. People from MCR gathered all weapons they could find, four rifles and someshotguns, and prepared dozens ofmolotov cocktails and home-madegrenades. The assault was launched at 02.00 in the night, September 12. The attackers were between 60 and 80 men.
Jorge Durán Delgado, a former MIR militant that was 19 years old when he participated in the assault on the police station, remembers these moments:"Pepe shouted at them to surrender, to not fear for the lives. To [surrender and] fight together with us to defend to government ofAllende" Benito Carrasco Riffo, by then commandant of the police station, said that they shouted back:"We don't surrender, carabineros does not surrendermierda!"
The four carabineros inside the police station had twoSIGautomatic rifles and twocarabines with which they answered the fire from the MRC. The police station was a rustic wooden building, but was enough to resist the weakfirepower of the assailants, and rain prevented the Molotov cocktails to put the structure on fire. Inside the police station were also the wives and children of the carabineros. Corporal Juan Campos in the police station asked for help to the police station inChoshuenco some 20 km west and shouted desperately though the radio:"Send the aerial cavalry!"
At around 03.00 areinforcement of four carabineros arrived on apickup truck. These reinforcements erroneously fired at carabineros at first, and by the time they had arrived, the attack was almost over and the MCR people had retired.
There were no deaths in the assault and the police station did not suffer mayor damage. The police attempted to identify the weapons used but the investigation could not find any of the bullets fired against the station. In October 1973, 12 people were executed inValdivia for these actions and "guerrilla activities" in Neltume.[4] On November 3, 1973 three young men were condemned in acourt martial to death for their participation in the assault. In 1990 General Bravo qualified the execution of the three men as "terrible" as there had not been any proof of their participation in the assault. In the days around September 18, Chile's national day, of 1973 paratroop commandos under Alejandro Medina Lois searched through the Neltume zone in search for the leader of MCR,Comandante Pepe, who was captured and some days later executed by theCaravan of Death.[5]
During the 1973 events in Neltume villager Luís Ancapi is reported to have survived adeath flight by falling into a "mattress" ofChusquea quila.[6]
During themilitary dictatorship in Chile theRevolutionary Left Movement (MIR in Spanish) drew up plans for a popular guerrilla war in southern Chile. They sought to create afocus of resistance inspired by theFidel Castro's26th of July Movement in theSierra Maestra. The area of Neltume was chosen due to the presence of an indigenousMapuche population and"a large and explosive ruralproletariat" among thesawmill workers of Neltume. It was also considered convenient that the place was close to the cities ofValdivia,Temuco andOsorno.[7]
On 12 July 1980, theMIR sent the first unit of its newly formed guerrilla group "DestacamentoToquiLautaro" into the mountainous area around Neltume. Most of the guerrillas had beendetained in 1973 following the1973 Chilean coup d'état and had to enter illegally into Chile from their exile countries aboard. Thefoco was discovered by the authorities in July 1981 when it had been active for less than one year. TheChilean army succeeded in isolating the group by August 1981 and in October of the same year its last members were captured. Three guerrillas are claimed to have been captured, tortured, and executed. Another six died in combat and during ambushes. Two more were captured in neighboring areas inArgentina, and were transferred to Chile in accordance withOperation Condor.[7]
During the last years of thePinochet dictatorship, between 1987 and 1990, large portions of land that were formerly part of theComplejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli were sold under obscure circumstances to Chileanbillionaires, among themAndrónico Luksic, whose family now ownsFundo Chanchan andFundo Enco alongEnco River and other properties around Neltume. Another wealthy businessman,Víctor Petermann, took control of Fundo Huilo-Huilo in the 1990s and established the luxuriousHuilo-Huilo Biological Reserve dedicated to bothecotourism and preservation ofbiodiversity.
39°48′S71°57′W / 39.800°S 71.950°W /-39.800; -71.950
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