The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami or the Great Chilean earthquake on 22 May 1960 was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Various studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale. It occurred in the afternoon, and lasted for approximately 10 minutes. The resulting tsunamis affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia, and the Aleutian Islands.
The Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean far-left Marxist-Leninist communist party and former urban guerrilla organization founded on 12 October 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 was the General Secretary of the party from 1967 until his assassination in 1974 by the DINA.
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.
The Ranquil massacre was a massacre of forestry workers by the Chilean Army in the upper Bio-Bio River in 1934. The upper Bio-Bio region had recently been opened for Chilean and foreign settlers due to the occupation of the Araucania, and huge extensions of former Mapuche land were available. The workers rebelled against the lumber mill administrators, later the Chilean Army was called to restore order. 477 workers, many of them Mapuches, were killed as result. Around 500 prisoners were taken.
Zona Sur is one of the five natural regions on which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. Its northern border is formed by the Bío-Bío River, which separates it from the Central Chile Zone. The Southern Zone borders the Pacific Ocean to the west, and to the east lies the Andean mountains and Argentina. Its southern border is the Chacao Channel, which forms the boundary with the Austral Zone. While the Chiloé Archipelago belongs geographically to the Austral Zone in terms of culture and history, it lies closer to the Southern Zone.
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.
Neltume River is a river in the commune of Panguipulli, southern Chile. It drains Neltume Lake and flows southward where it joins Fuy River and creates together Llanquihue River.
Fuy River is a river in the commune of Panguipulli, southern Chile. It drains Pirihueico Lake and flows southward along the village of Neltume where it joins the Neltume River and together they create the Panguipulli Lake. The river's origin is near the village of Puerto Fuy (es).
Llanquihue River is a river in the commune of Panguipulli, southern Chile. It is formed by the union of Neltume River and Fui River. Llanquihue River flows in a south and westward and outflows in Panguipulli Lake.
International Route 203-CH is a branch line road going eastward from Lanco at Chile Highway 5 to Huahum Pass at the border to Argentina. Some settlements along the road includes: Lanco, Malalhue, Panguipulli and Neltume. The road is paved from Lanco to the north side of Panguipulli Lake where it becomes a gravel road.
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.
Chihuío is a hot spring and hamlet along Curringue River in the Andes of Futrono commune, southern Chile.
José Gregorio Liendo Vera, also known as "Compañero Pepe", "Comandante Pepe" or "Loco Pepe" was a Chilean university student, political leader, and militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a Marxist-Leninist and Guevarist urban guerrilla and political movement. He was also a leader and a member of the "Movimiento Campesino Revolucionario" (MCR), the MIR's Front of the Masses among the Chilean peasantry, which participated in the fundos occupations during the government democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende and served with the leftist political coalition Unidad Popular in the early 1970s.
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 in the zones of Panguipulli, Neltume, Liquiñe and Chihuío, and had more than three thousand employees.
Following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, an armed leftist resistance movement against Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship developed until 1990 when democracy was restored. This conflict was part of the South American theater in the Cold War, with the United States backing the Chilean military and the Soviet Union backing the guerrillas. The main armed resistance groups of the period were the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), the armed wing of the Communist Party. These groups had a long-standing rivalry, including over Marxist orthodoxy and its implementation.
Lake CECs is a subglacial lake in Antarctica at approximately latitude 80°S. It has an estimated area of 18 km2. The territory where the lake is located, some 160 km from Union Glacier, is claimed only by Chile.
The Forrahue massacre was the killing of 15 Mapuche-Huilliche farmers in Forrahue, southern Chile by Chilean police in 1912. The massacre occurred as police moved to oust Mapuche-Huilliche farmers form lands claimed by Atanasio Burgos Villalobos. The farmers had previously lost a lawsuit and had armed themselves, according to the police, with sticks, boiling water and a few rifles to attempt to resist eviction. The killings took place on October 21 when police returned after a failed eviction attempt in October 14. Local family history tell that a ruka was burned with people inside, yet this is lacking from the reports of contemporary newspapers. Events became known outside Forrahue when the bodies of the dead arrived in carts to the nearby city of Osorno. News of the event caused outrage as far as in Santiago, the capital of Chile. The National Congress of Chile requested a report on the massacre, which was later written by police officer Julio Farías.
