Roberto Silva Renard
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Roberto Silva Renard (February 27, 1855 – July 7, 1920) was a
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an military and political figure who served in the War of the Pacific and the
1891 Chilean Civil War The Chilean Civil War of 1891 (also known as Revolution of 1891) was a civil war in Chile fought between forces supporting Congress and forces supporting the President, José Manuel Balmaceda from 16 January 1891 to 18 September 1891. The war ...
. He is mostly remembered as the military chief that carried out the Santa María of Iquique School massacre in 1907, where more than 2,000 striking saltpeter miners, along with their wives and children, were killed.


Early career

Silva Renard began his military career in 1879, when he joined the artillery corps at the beginning of the War of the Pacific. During that war he fought at the battles of
Tacna Tacna was known for its mining industry; it had significant deposits of sodium nitrate and other resources. Its economic prosperity attracted a wave of immigrants from Italy. Today, their Italian Peruvian descendants live in the city and many of t ...
, Chorrillos and Miraflores After the war, Silva Renard was sent to study artillery in Europe, and served as an adjunct in the German Army for five years. During the 1891 Chilean Civil War, he was one of the few army officers to join the congressional army, with the rank of
major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
, and fought with distinction at the battles of
Concón Concón is a Chilean city and commune in Valparaíso Province, Valparaíso Region. It is a major tourist center known for its beaches, ''balnearios'' (beachside resorts) and night life. Geography The commune of Concón spans an area of . It is ...
and
Placilla Placilla is a Chilean town and commune in Colchagua Province, O'Higgins Region. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Placilla spans an area of and has 8,078 inhabitants (4,134 men and 3,944 women). Of ...
. After the war, he was rewarded with a promotion to lieutenant colonel.


Political participation

Silva Renard was a firm believer in the absolute power of the central government. In 1903, Silva Renard was the military attorney in charge of the investigation into the deaths and injuries of striking workers at the port of
Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
. These workers had been fired upon by army soldiers sent to force them back to work. He absolved the soldiers from any misconduct, claiming that the real guilty party had been the workers by promoting disorders. On September 17, 1904 he was in charge of the troops that put down another (unrelated) strike at the ''Chile nitrate works''. As a consequence of his intervention, 13 workers died and another 32 were injured.


Meat riots

A march to protest against the high price of meat took place on October 22, 1905 in
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
. By the time that the march arrived peacefully to La Moneda presidential palace, it had swelled to more than 40,000 people. The original intention of the organizers was to ask for an audience and hand a petition to president German Riesco, but the people started to grow impatient and when the President did not appear (he was not at the palace that day, being sick at home) this was the spark that started the violence. The police tried to disperse them, but they fought back and tried to storm the presidential palace. The police responded by shooting at the crowd, and riots ensued. After the mob failed in their initial attack, they spread through the city. The violence lasted for almost a week, in what was called the meat riots or the ''"red week"''. The rioters looted stores and businesses, killing anyone who looked upper class. The police was overwhelmed and quite powerless (and in some cases, even passively supporting the rioters.) The army was called in, but it was away from the city, on military maneuvers. It only managed to arrive on October 24, under the command of Lt. Colonel Silva Renard, who immediately imposed martial law upon the city. The riots lasted until October 27, and between 200 and 250 people were killed over this period, while more than 500 were injured while the financial losses were staggering.


Santa María of Iquique School massacre

On December 10, 1907, a
general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...
broke out in Tarapacá Province. This was the start of the 18 Pence Strike ( es, La huelga de los 18 peniques), the name referring to the size of the wage being demanded by the nitrate miners. On December 16, thousands of striking workers arrived at the provincial capital, the port city of Iquique, in support of the nitrate miners' demands and with the aim of prodding the authorities to act. Previous entreaties to the government, in particular petitions presented by delegations in 1901, 1903, and 1904, had been fruitless. The national government in Santiago sent extra regiments by land and sea to reinforce the two regiments stationed in Iquique. President
Pedro Montt Pedro Elías Pablo Montt Montt (; 29 June 1849, Santiago, Chile – 16 August 1910, Bremen, Germany) was a Chilean political figure. He served as the president of Chile from 1906 to his death from a probable stroke in 1910. His government furth ...
appointed General Silva Renard to handle the situation. Silva Renard, under confidential orders from the
minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
,
Rafael Sotomayor Rafael Sotomayor Baeza (13 September 1823  – 20 May 1880) was a Chilean lawyer and politician. As Minister of War and Navy he was the main organiser of Chilean forces during the War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific ( es, lin ...
, was ordered to use all necessary means to force the miners to dissolve and return to work. More and more worker contingents joined the strike by the day. It has been estimated that by December 21 the strikers in Iquique numbered ten to twelve thousand. Soon after the journeys to Iquique began, this great conglomeration of workers met at the Manuel Montt plaza and at the Santa María School, asking the government to mediate between them and the bosses of the foreign (English) nitrate firms to resolve their demands. For their part, the bosses refused to negotiate until the workers went back to work. The arrival at the port December 19 of the titular intendant,
Carlos Eastman Quiroga Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...
, of General Silva Renard, chief of the First Military Zone of the Chilean Army, and of Colonel Sinforoso Ledesma was cheered by the workers because a nitrate miners' petition to the government nearly two years earlier, under the previous president, had received an encouraging response, although the demands had not been satisfied.Devés, Eduardo (1985) ''Los que van a morir te saludan'', Chile. But the interior ministry felt no solidarity with the demands of the strikers. The ministry relayed orders to the strikers to leave the plaza and the school and gather at the horse racing track, where they were to board trains and return to work. They refused, sensing that if they went back to work, their requests would be ignored. In the face of the growing tension between the groups, on December 20, 1907 the strikers' representatives held a meeting with Intendant Eastman. Simultaneously, a decree published in the press announced the declaration of a state of siege, which entailed the suspension of constitutional rights. While the meeting with Intendant Eastman was taking place in the ''"Buenaventura nitrate works"'', a group of workers and their families tried to leave the spot, but troops opened fire on them by the railroad tracks and kept shooting. As a result, six workers died and the rest of the group was wounded. The funerals of the slain workers were held the next day, December 21, 1907. Immediately at their conclusion, all workers were ordered to leave the school premises and vicinity and relocate to the Club Hípico (horsetrack). The workers refused to go, fearing they might be bombarded by the guns of warships which were lined up alongside the road they would have to travel. At 2:30 in the afternoon, General Silva Renard told the leaders of the workers' committee that if the strikers did not start heading back to work within one hour, the troops would open fire on them. The workers' leaders refused to go, and only a small group of strikers left the plaza. At the hour indicated by Silva Renard, he ordered the soldiers to shoot the workers' leaders, who were on the school's roof, and they fell dead with the first volley.
Elías Lafertte Elías Lafertte Gaviño (December 19, 1886 – Santiago, February 17 , 1961) was a Chilean worker in saltpeter mining and a communist politician. Lafertte ran in the 1931 and 1932 presidential elections ending in third and fifth place. He was sena ...
, who witnessed the events, tells: The multitude, desperate and trying to escape, surged toward the soldiers, and were fired upon with rifles and machine guns. After a period of firing from the Manuel Montt plaza, the troops stormed the school grounds with machine guns, firing into the school's playgrounds and classrooms, killing in a frenzy without regard to the women and children screaming for mercy. The survivors of the massacre were brought at saber point to the Club Hípico, whence they were sent back to work, where they were subjected to a reign of terror.


Assassination attempt

Among the dead at the Santa María massacre was Manuel Vaca, a Spanish immigrant worker. His half-brother,
Antonio Ramón Antonio Ramón Ramón (13 November 1879 - c. 1924) was a Spanish anarchist. He was born in the town of Molvizar, in Granada, Spain. He is mostly known for his execution attempt against Colonel Roberto Silva Renard in the aftermath of Santa María ...
arrived in Chile from
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
decided to seek revenge. Ramón finally took action seven years later and bought a dagger and some
strychnine Strychnine (, , US chiefly ) is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the eye ...
. He found General Silva Renard walking alone to his office, on December 14, 1914, and stabbed him seven times on his back and head. The General started shouting ''“Murderer! Murderer!”'' and several passersby came to his help. Ramón, in turn, stopped the attack and tried to run away, only to be captured by an off-duty prison guard. When Ramón saw himself surrounded and all escapes blocked, he drank the bottle of strychnine he was carrying, but vomited most of it and was unharmed. Once in custody, Ramón vehemently denied other parties' involvement in the assassination, while the worker's organizations held public campaigns to raise money for his defense. He was eventually sentenced to five years in prison.


Aftermath

General Silva Renard survived the attack, but suffered permanent effects from the injuries: he lost all movement on half of his face, became blind, and was mostly an invalid until his death in 1920. Ramón was released in 1919 and all trace of him was lost after his release. Silva Renard lived his last days in
Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it is Chile's fourth largest city w ...
where he died in 1920. His remains were buried with full honors at the
General Cemetery of Santiago A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...
. He was honored post-mortem by giving his name to the Artillery Regiment Nº 3 stationed in Concepción. In 2007, his name was removed as part of the 100th anniversary remembrance events of the Santa María School massacres.


See also

*
Pedro Montt Pedro Elías Pablo Montt Montt (; 29 June 1849, Santiago, Chile – 16 August 1910, Bremen, Germany) was a Chilean political figure. He served as the president of Chile from 1906 to his death from a probable stroke in 1910. His government furth ...
*
Rafael Sotomayor Gaete Rafael Segundo Sotomayor Gaete (November 16, 1848 – February 16, 1918) was a Chilean politician and several times minister. He was born in Cauquenes, the son of Rafael Sotomayor Baeza and of Pabla del Carmen Gaete Ruiz. He studied at the In ...
*
Meat riots The Meat riot (Spanish: ''Huelga de la carne''), in the Chilean capital Santiago in October 1905, was a violent riot that originated from a demonstration against the tariffs applied to the cattle imports from Argentina. Primeros movimientos soc ...
* Santa María de Iquique Massacre


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva Renard, Roberto 1855 births 1920 deaths Chilean Army generals People from Santiago Chilean military personnel of the War of the Pacific