Lodge of Rational Knights

The Lautaro Lodge (Spanish: Logia Lautaro) was a revolutionary secret lodge active in Latin American politics in the 19th Century. It was initially known as the Lodge of Rational Knights (Spanish: Logia de los Caballeros Racionales). Its initial purposes were to apply the goals of the Spanish Enlightenment, and when Spain began the Absolutist Restauration they promoted instead the emancipation of the South American colonies.

It was for many years believed to have been founded as an extension of the British lodge "The Great American Reunion", created by Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda. However, recent research suggests that the Lodge was founded in Cadiz, Spain, and that Miranda was not amongst its founders, as he himself was living in Paris at the time, from where he returned to London in January 1798. As with other secret societies, such details are difficult to investigate by historians, given the secrecy of their activities. Both lodges had just a superficial compromise with freemasonry, taking advantage of their secret societies merely as a tool to promote liberal agendas, evading punishment from absolutist governments of the time.

A number of officers from the Peninsular War, such as José de San Martín, Carlos María de Alvear, José Matías Zapiola, Francisco Chilavert and Eduardo Kailitz left Cádiz and moved to Buenos Aires. They began to organize a secret lodge, similar to the one in Cádiz. There were other secret lodges already working in Buenos Aires: the anglophile lodges "Hiram sons" and "Southern Star", and the "Patriotic Society" that united the former supporters of Mariano Moreno. This last lodge, opposed to the first two ones, was integrated into the new one created by the Spanish generals.

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