Antonio Ramón
Encyclopedia
Antonio Ramón Ramón was a Spanish anarchist. He was born in the town of Molvizar, in Granada
, Spain
.
to seek support. On the 14th, the maritime workers joined them in the strike.
President Pedro Montt
appointed Colonel Roberto Silva Renard
to handle the situation. Colonel Silva Renard, under confidential orders from the minister of the interior, Rafael Sotomayor
ordered the miners to dissolve and return to work. When the miners refused, he ordered the Army to fire into the miner’s encampment at the schoolyard of the Domingo Santa María school. The official report was 140 deaths and 200 injured, but the real estimates range between 1,100 and 3,500 men, women and children killed. Colonel Silva Renard was promoted to Brigadier General as a reward for his defense of democracy, law and order.
.
Revenge for the Santa María massacre was the reason Ramón arrived in Chile from Argentina
, using his own identity. Ramón finally decided to take action seven years later. He found General Silva Renard walking alone to his office, in Viel street in Santiago
, 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 named Perfecto Salazar Acevedo. 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, and the worker's held public campaigns to raise money for his defense. He was eventually sentenced to five years in prison.
General Silva Renard survived the attack, but suffered permanent effects from the injuries: he lost all movement of half of his face, became blind, and was mostly an invalid until his death in 1920. Ramón was released in 1919 and all track of him was lost after that time.
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Santa María of Iquique School massacre
The bloodiest massacre in Chile’s history occurred on December 21, 1907. Workers in the nitrate mines, a leading industry owned largely by foreign (British and German) capital, struck on December 4 demanding humane working conditions and higher wages. By the 13th a general work stoppage in all the nitrate mines was announced. The miners were Bolivian, Argentine, Peruvian as well as Chileans. 18,000 workers, together with wives and children marched without food and water to the port of IquiqueIquique
Iquique is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Atacama Desert and the Pampa del Tamarugal. It had a population of 216,419 as of the 2002 census...
to seek support. On the 14th, the maritime workers joined them in the strike.
President Pedro Montt
Pedro Montt
Pedro Elías Pablo Montt Montt was a Chilean political figure. He served as the president of Chile from 1906 to his death from a probable stroke in 1910...
appointed Colonel Roberto Silva Renard
Roberto Silva Renard
Roberto Silva Renard was a Chilean military and political figure who served in the War of the Pacific and the Chilean Civil War...
to handle the situation. Colonel Silva Renard, under confidential orders from the minister of the interior, Rafael Sotomayor
Rafael Sotomayor Gaete
Rafael Segundo Sotomayor Gaete 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 Instituto Nacional and later graduated as a lawyer from the Universidad de Chile on January 7, 1871...
ordered the miners to dissolve and return to work. When the miners refused, he ordered the Army to fire into the miner’s encampment at the schoolyard of the Domingo Santa María school. The official report was 140 deaths and 200 injured, but the real estimates range between 1,100 and 3,500 men, women and children killed. Colonel Silva Renard was promoted to Brigadier General as a reward for his defense of democracy, law and order.
The assassin
Among the dead at the Santa María massacre was Manuel Vaca, a Spanish immigrant worker. Antonio Ramón was his half-brother, and the two were very close. At the time of the massacre, Ramón was living in Argentina, but when news stopped arriving from his brother, he travelled to Iquique to find out what had happened. There is some evidence that he already had plans to revenge himself, as he bought a dagger and some strychnineStrychnine
Strychnine is a highly toxic , colorless crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine causes muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion...
.
Revenge for the Santa María massacre was the reason Ramón arrived in Chile from Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, using his own identity. Ramón finally decided to take action seven years later. He found General Silva Renard walking alone to his office, in Viel street in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, 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 named Perfecto Salazar Acevedo. 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, and the worker's held public campaigns to raise money for his defense. He was eventually sentenced to five years in prison.
General Silva Renard survived the attack, but suffered permanent effects from the injuries: he lost all movement of half of his face, became blind, and was mostly an invalid until his death in 1920. Ramón was released in 1919 and all track of him was lost after that time.