Neltume, Chile
| Neltume | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
| Region | Los Ríos |
| Province | Valdivia |
| Municipalidad | Panguipulli |
| Comuna | Panguipulli |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipalidad |
| • Alcade | René Aravena Riffo (RN) |
| Population (2002 census [1]) | |
| • Total | 2,125 |
| Time zone | Chilean Standard (UTC−04:00) |
| • Summer (DST) | Chilean Daylight (UTC−03:00) |
| Area code(s) | Country + town = 56 + 63 |
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 crack down of the "Toqui Lautaro" guerrilla set of by MIR to fight the military dictatorship in Chile.
The area of Neltume was colonized in the first decades of the 20th century as part of the economic boom that the wood industry was experiencing in Chile at that time. The humid and forested areas of Neltume had not had any recorded human occupation until that years as native Mapuches lived rather on the lake shores of Calafquén, Panguipulli and Riñihue Lakes and visited sporadically the eastern parts of these lakes for gathering food. In 1885 Panguipulli became settled by the first non-indigenous persons and on 1898 a small forestry enterprise was installed in Neltume. In 1942, an engineered wood plant is installed in Neltume. Before the gravel road to Neltume built the town relied on steam boat transport across Panguipulli Lake.
Neltume got its first police station in 1945 when one of the fundos (country estates) that where part of the Echavarri y Bravo company became subject of unrest and mobilization for social demands among lumberjacks and campesinos. The campesinos were strongly repressed by authorities and some 20 families where expelled from the zone. In 1951 there was another strike among sawmill and forestry workers, who tried to form a trade union and demanded higher salaries, as consequence about 40 leaders and their families where driven out of Neltume. Witnesses from this period record people being taken to Valdivia by Carabineros and estimates the duration of the strike in three months. The same witness states that Carabineros were asked by the sawmill boss to gun any striker found walking around in nighttime. The repression of this movement was according to historians Pino and Jelin so strong that only in the 1960s and during the Unidad Popular government did the workers managed form trade unions in the zone.
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