Puerto Montt, Chile

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Puerto Montt is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the
northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos
Region. It has a population of 153,118 (city only, 2002 census) and a city
area of 39.58 km².

History

Originally, the site was covered by a thick forest and was called Melipulli
(Means Four hills in Mapudungun). It was selected as an entrance to Lake
Llanquihue when its proximity to the open sea was discovered. In the summer
of 1851, an expedition arrived from Chiloé to begin the clearing of the area
and the building of houses for the new inhabitants. The city itself was
founded on February 12, 1853, after government-sponsored immigration from
Germany that began in 1848 populated the region and integrated it
politically to the rest of the country. It was named after Manuel Montt,
President of Chile between 1851 and 1861, who set in motion the German
immigration.

On March 4, 1969, approximately 90 landless squatters decided to settle on
otherwise unoccupied farmland — without any title, right, or payment of rent
— belonging to an absentee landlord. The squatters received advice from
Socialist member of parliament Luis Espinoza due to the local authority
never granting them any land they wanted to build houses. Five days later,
local Police Chief Rolando Rodríguez Marbán reassured the squatters that
they would not be disturbed and could proceed with their home construction.
However, new orders received from the ministry of the interior the following
day led to a change of plans: At midnight on March 9, Espinoza was charged
with breaking the law, arrested, and moved to the city of Valdivia. At dawn,
250 policemen launched an assault on the squatters, following direct orders
from Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Zujovic. The final result was that all
newly-built homes were burned to the ground and 11 squatters were shot dead.

The massacre of Puerto Montt and the public outcry that followed were major
factors contributing to the fall of Eduardo Frei's government, which was
succeeded by Salvador Allende's Unidad Popular in the next year's elections.
The events were described by singer-songwriter Víctor Jara in his song
Preguntas por Puerto Montt.

Economy

The city's economy is now based upon agriculture, forestry, fishing and
salmon aquaculture in the surrounding islands and fjords. It is the
fastest-growing city in southern Chile, mainly because of the explosive
growth of salmon culture. Puerto Montt is also the gateway to Chiloé Island
and the many other smaller islands in Chile's inland sea.

Puerto Montt has an airport, El Tepual, where three airlines have regular
flights from Santiago, Punta Arenas, Balmaceda, Concepción, Temuco and
Bariloche (Argentina). The airlines operating at the airport are LAN
Airlines (the country's largest), Sky Airlines and Air Comet Chile. The
flight to Santiago takes two hours.