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| Patagonia Rebelde | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Arrested workers after the strike's suppression | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Argentine Regional Workers' Federation | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Antonio Soto Facón Grande  |
 Hipólito Yrigoyen Edelmiro Correa Falcón Héctor Benigno Varela | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 300[1]-1,500[1] | 5 police and 2 soldiers | ||||||
Patagonia Rebelde (or Patagonia Trágica) ("Rebel Patagonia" or "Tragic Patagonia" in English) was the name given to the uprising and violent suppression of a rural workers' strike in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz in Patagonia between 1920 and 1922. The uprising was put down by Colonel Héctor Benigno Varela's 10th Cavalry Regiment of the Argentine Army under the orders of President Hipólito Yrigoyen.[2] Approximately 300[3]-1,500[3] rural workers were shot and killed by the 10th Cavalry Regiment in the course of the operations, many of them executed by firing squads after surrendering. Most of the executed were Spanish and Chilean workers who had sought refuge in Argentina's Patagonia after their strike in the city of Puerto Natales in southern Chile in 1919 was crushed by the Chilean authorities, at the cost of four carabiniers killed[4] and the offices of their union were burned down by the civilians, policemen and the militaries in Punta Arenas on July 27, 1920.[5][2] At least two Argentine soldiers (privates Fernando Pablo Fischer and Domingo Montenegro), three local policemen (sergeant Tomás Rosa and constables Ernesto Bozán and Juan Campos) and a number of ranch owners and their relatives also died during the strife. According to the versions well publicized by the army and the landowners, several of the captured women were raped in the uprising as the rebel forces fought for control of the territory.[6][7] These versions have been widely discredited.[8] The most detailed narrative of these events is that by Argentine journalist Osvaldo Bayer (1972, below), summarized in English by Bruce Chatwin in 1976.[9]
- ^ a b La Patagonia Rebelde
- ^ a b San Martino de Dromi, María Laura (1986). Historia sindical argentina, 1853-1955. Ediciones Ciudad Argentina, p. 54. (in Spanish)
- ^ a b Los medios anarquistas hablan de 1.500 muertos, la prensa oficial de 300. La Causa Argentina, Juan Archibaldo Lanús, p 393, Emecé Editores, 1988
- ^ La revuelta obrera de Puerto Natales en 1919 – Un aporte a la historia de los trabajadores de la Patagonia (in Spanish)
- ^ Harambour, Alberto (2019). Soberanías Fronterizas. Estados y capital en la colonización de Patagonia (Argentina y Chile, 1830-1922). Valdivia: Universidad Austral de Chile.
- ^ Violan mujeres e inauguran el caos en el que sumen a la lejana gobernación resistiéndose a mano armada a las fuerzas policiales. La Tragedia Patagónica: Historia de un Ensayo Anarquista", Orlando Mario Punzi, p. 95, Círculo Militar, 1991
- ^ Muchos eran comandados por oficiales de carabineros chilenos disfrazados de paisanos y disponían de modernísimas armas entregadas por el país trasandino; todo ello matizado con saqueos, asesinatos, incendio de estancias y violaciones de mujeres. Los Fusilamientos de la Patagonia", Oscar Troncoso, p. 73, Centro Editor de América Latina, 1972
- ^ Bohoslavsky, Ernesto (2009). El complot patagónico. Nación, conspiracionismo y violencia en el sur de Argentina y Chile (siglos XIX y XX). Buenos Aires: Prometeo.
- ^ 'The Anarchists of Patagonia' in The Times Literary Supplement 11 Dec. 1976, also in Chatwin's Anatomy of Restlessness: Uncollected Writings, ed. Jan Borm and Matthew Graves (Jonathan Cape, 1996.)