Patagonia Rebelde

Background

Rural workers in Santa Cruz, a wool-producing region of Argentine Patagonia, organized through the Sociedad Obrera de Río Gallegos, led by Spanish anarchist Antonio Soto. Following the end of the First World War, the price of wool collapsed, deepening already harsh conditions for shearers and rural laborers, who worked up to 16-hour days for minimal wages, often paid in devalued currency or bonds. In September 1920, workers presented landowners with demands including better living conditions, a minimum wage, and recognition of the Sociedad Obrera as their representative. When these demands were rejected, a general strike was declared across the province.

First strike and initial repression

Strikes spread through Santa Cruz beginning in August 1920, with a general strike declared on 1 November. Armed clashes began on 2 January 1921 near El Cerrito, killing four policemen and one striker. The provincial government requested federal intervention, and President Hipólito Yrigoyen dispatched Colonel Héctor Benigno Varela's 10th Cavalry Regiment. An initial, comparatively restrained deployment produced a negotiated settlement by May 1921, but the regiment returned in October 1921 after ranch owners reneged on promised reforms and strikes resumed.

Second strike and mass killings

The 10th Cavalry Regiment, reinforced by National Gendarmerie troops, returned to Santa Cruz in November 1921. Strikers took hostages, including ranch owners and their families, some of whom were reportedly killed. The regiment responded with widespread arbitrary arrests and executions, including of unarmed workers suspected of collaboration, such as Santiago González and Albino Argüelles. Ranch owner Daniel Ramírez, accused of aiding strikers, was tortured and executed in early February 1922. At Cañadón León, the regiment captured roughly 480 strikers, more than half of whom were executed by firing squad. Further mass executions, estimated around 500 people, followed the capture of La Anita and Menéndez Behety estancias. Strikers made a final stand at Tehuelches train station before being defeated and executed. Two soldiers died during the campaign: Private Fernando Pablo Fischer, killed in action, and Corporal Domingo Montenegro, killed accidentally by a fellow soldier.

Aftermath

News of the mass executions reached Buenos Aires, but the government did not open an official investigation. In January 1923, German immigrant Kurt Gustav Wilckens killed Colonel Varela in a gun and bomb attack, citing opposition to what he called a "criminal system." Wilckens was subsequently killed in Villa Devoto prison by José Pérez Millán Temperley, who was later found guilty of manslaughter, declared insane, and eventually killed by a fellow psychiatric patient. The events have been the subject of extensive historical research, notably by Argentine journalist Osvaldo Bayer, and were dramatized in the 1974 film "La Patagonia rebelde," which was censored under both Juan Domingo Perón and Isabel Perón's governments before being shown freely after Argentina's return to democracy in 1984.