Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli was a Chilean state-owned company that managed forested lands as well as sawmills in the Valdivian Cordillera from 1971 to 1988. CFMP managed more than 360,000 ha (890,000 acres) in the zones of Panguipulli, Neltume, Liquiñe and Chihuío, and had more than three thousand employees. [1]
Main fundos of Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli were, from north to south: [1]
As of 1972 the fundos Neltume and Puñire-Releco had the largest numbers of workers with 470 and 270 employees respectively. [1]
In 1971 after several land occupations in the zone of Neltume informally known as Operación ardillas (Spanish for Operation Squirrels) the government of the UP expropriated the fundo Carranes from the Sociaded Agrícola y Maderera de Neltume creating the Complejo Maderero Panguipulli merging with it other expropriated lands reaching an area of 360.000 ha of wooded terrain. [2] Property in Liquiñe and Chihuío, localities outside the proper Neltume area, were also placed under the Complejo Maderero Panguipulli. In 1972 president Salvador Allende visited Neltume.
In the mid-1970s Aysén Region's CONAF chief Tomás Monfil was installed as director of the enterprise. He started a policy of sustainable development and responsible forest management avoiding monoculture and substitution of native species. During the military regime, Julio Ponce Lerou, son-in-law of Augusto Pinochet, became president of Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli, a post he held until 1982. He was simultaneously president of CELCO, another forestry company. [3] During its existence Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli faced several problems such as military interventions and participation of its workers in resistance against the Military Regime, as well as the installment of guerrillas in its lands during the years of 1980-1981.
During the later days of the Pinochet Regime the neoliberal policies of the Chicago Boys were applied, substantially reducing state property holdings. CFMP land was divided and sold under obscure circumstances to Chilean billionaires, among them Andrónico Luksic, whose family now owns Fundo Chanchan and Fundo Enco along the Enco River as well as other properties around Neltume. Another wealthy businessman, Víctor Petermann, took control of Fundo Pilmaiquen and established the Huilo-Huilo Biological Reserve in 1999. It is dedicated to both ecotourism and preservation of biodiversity. Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli effectively ceased to exist in 1988. [3]
The territory of Chile has been populated since at least 3000 BCE. By the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors began to colonize the region of present-day Chile, and the territory was a colony between 1540 and 1818, when it gained independence from Spain. The country's economic development was successively marked by the export of first agricultural produce, then saltpeter and later copper. The wealth of raw materials led to an economic upturn, but also led to dependency, and even wars with neighboring states. Chile was governed during most of its first 150 years of independence by different forms of restricted government, where the electorate was carefully vetted and controlled by an elite.
A right-wing authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between September 11, 1973 and March 11, 1990. The dictatorship was established after the democratically-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a US-backed coup d'état on 11 September 1973. During this time, the country was ruled by a military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet. The military utilized the breakdown of democracy and the economic crisis that took place during Allende's presidency to justify its seizure of power. The dictatorship presented its mission as a "national reconstruction." The coup was the result of multiple forces, including pressure from conservative and women's groups, certain political parties, union strikes and other domestic unrest, as well as international factors. According to an article written by lifelong CIA operative Jack Devine, although it was widely reported that the CIA was directly involved in orchestrating and carrying out the coup, subsequently released sources suggest a much reduced role of the US government.
The Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean left-wing political organization and former urban guerrilla organization founded on October 12, 1965. At its height in 1973, the MIR numbered about 10,000 members and associates. The group emerged from various student organizations, mainly from University of Concepción, that had originally been active in the youth organization of the Socialist Party. They established a base of support among the trade unions and shantytowns of Concepción, Santiago, and other cities. Andrés Pascal Allende, a nephew of Salvador Allende, president of Chile from 1970 to 1973, was one of its early leaders. Miguel Enríquez Espinosa was the General Secretary of the party from 1967 until his assassination in 1974 by the DINA.
The Los Ríos Region is one of Chile's 16 regions, the country's first-order administrative divisions. Its capital is Valdivia. It began to operate as a region on October 2, 2007, having been created by subdividing the Los Lagos Region in southern Chile. It consists of two provinces: Valdivia and the newly created Ranco Province, which was formerly part of Valdivia Province.
Valdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately 15 km (9 mi) east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla. Since October 2007, Valdivia has been the capital of Los Ríos Region and is also the capital of Valdivia Province. The national census of 2017 recorded the commune of Valdivia as having 166,080 inhabitants (Valdivianos), of whom 150,048 were living in the city. The main economic activities of Valdivia include tourism, wood pulp manufacturing, forestry, metallurgy, and beer production. The city is also the home of the Austral University of Chile, founded in 1954 and the Centro de Estudios Científicos.
Panguipulli is a city and commune in Valdivia Province, southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Panguipulli. It is located on the western edge of Panguipulli Lake, and is on a moraine in the Chilean Central Valley. Most of the commune lies on Andean mountains and valleys.
Mocho-Choshuenco is a glacier covered compound stratovolcano in the Andes of Los Ríos Region, Chile. It is made of the twin volcanoes Choshuenco in the northwest and the Mocho in the southeast. The highest parts of the volcano are part of the Mocho-Choshuenco National Reserve while the eastern slopes are partly inside the Huilo-Huilo Natural Reserve.
Huilo-Huilo Biological Reserve is a private for profit natural reserve and ecotourism area in southern Chile. It is by the community of Neltume along the international road to Hua Hum Pass near the border to Argentina. The reserve has unique hotels, including Montana Mágica, the Nothofagus hotel, cabins, and a lodge for backpackers. The grounds also include a brewery, various animal habitats, a funicular, and many miles of trails. The reserve includes many waterfalls and the eastern slopes of Mocho-Choshuenco, a glacial compound stratovolcano.
Neltume is a Chilean town in Panguipulli commune, of Los Ríos Region. It lies along the 203-CH route to Huahum Pass into Argentina. The town's main economic activities are forestry and, more recently, tourism since the Huilo-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 by MIR to fight the military dictatorship in Chile.
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Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean Army General, politician and military dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and after from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Tomás Monfil was a Chilean forester, and one of the principal persons behind the reforestation program of CONAF in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region in the 1960s. Monfil contributed to the reforestation of about 8,000 ha in Aysen where 2,800,000 ha forest had previously been burned during the colonization in the early 20th century. Later he served as regional director of CONAF in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region in the 1970s before being appointed chief executive of CONAF's Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli that managed more than 300,000 ha in the zones of Panguipulli and Neltume and had more than two thousand employees.
The Chilean land reform was a process of land ownership restructuring that occurred from 1962 to 1973 in different phases. For much of the 20th century agriculture was one of the most backward sectors of Chilean economy. The land reform was initially supported by Chilean right, centre and left political parties plus the Catholic Church and the United States. After the 1973 Chilean coup d'état the ruling right-wing dictatorship initiated a counter-reform that reverted part of it and directed Chilean agriculture into a "neoliberal" model.
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Julio Ponce Lerou is a Chilean billionaire who is the principal shareholder of Soquimich. He is a former son-in-law of Augusto Pinochet. Until 1982 he was president of Chilean state-owned forestry company Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli while he was simultaneously president of CELCO, a wood pulp company.
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