Seguro Obrero massacre
| Seguro Obrero Masacre | |||||||
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 Troops of the Tacna Regiment pulling a cannon towards the occupied University of Chile building |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Nacistas
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Jorge González von Marées
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 Arturo Alessandri Óscar Novoa Humberto Arriagada Valdivieso
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The Seguro Obrero massacre (Spanish: Matanza del Seguro Obrero, literally in English: Workers Insurance's Massacre) occurred on September 5, 1938, and was the Chilean government's response to an attempted coup d'état by the National Socialist Movement of Chile (MNSCh), whose members were known at the time as Nacistas. After a failed coup involving a stand-off and a shootout, about 60 Nacistas who had surrendered after being given assurances, were in fact summarily shot.
The Seguro Obrero Massacre took place on 5 September 1938, in the midst of a heated three-way election campaign between the liberal-conservative Gustavo Ross Santa María, the radical Popular Front's Pedro Aguirre Cerda, and the newly formed Popular Alliance candidate, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. The Nationalsocialist Movement of Chile supported Ibáñez's candidacy, which had been announced on September 4. In order to preempt Ross's victory, the Nationalsocialists mounted a coup d'état that was intended to take down the right wing government of Arturo Alessandri Palma and place Ibáñez in power.
At around 12:30 on September 5, 1938, approximately 30 armed youths affiliated with the Nationalsocialist Movement occupied the Seguro Obrero building. José Luis Salazar, a carabinero (uniformed police) who was on watch, upon observing the situation, thought that the youths were concealing weapons under their coats, and prepared to respond. However, a member of the movement who observed the reaction of the serviceman started to fire, mortally wounding Salazar.
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