723.2515/419: Telegram

The Consul at La Paz (Hazeltine), Temporarily at Iquique, to the Acting Secretary of State

Continuation of January 15, 12 noon.44

Mob violence occurred at Pisagua, November 21st and in Iquique November 23rd. Loss of property has not been determined but believed to be more than hundred thousand dollars. Residence[s] and also business places were smashed and looted by the mobs.

November 24, 10 a.m., Santiago Llosa, Peruvian Consul, Dean of the Consular Corps in Iquique, was taken from the Consulate in an automobile by five armed Chileans, who forced him to go aboard Chilean vessel Palena, sailing for Peruvian ports that day. His wife, children and consular archives were left in charge of French Consul Le Lorrain. The Chileans involved are known to be Armando Silva, municipal treasurer; Luis Peralta, customs officer; Fermin Quinteros, retired army officer; Xavier Barahona, broker; and Munoz Valenzuela, lawyer.

Expulsion effected by the Liga Patriotica led by Hernandez, President; De C. Diaz, recorder; Secretary Peralta; Doctor Cruzat; Manuel Godoy and others aided by a band of 200 ruffians called Matones, the chief of which is Jorge Pavelich. To facilitate their efforts several scurrilous newspapers are published, listing names of Peruvians and threatening them. Verbal as well as printed warnings to leave are being sent.

Out of approximately 18,000 Peruvian people in the Province of Tarapaca about 7,000 have returned to Peru or else are waiting to sail as soon as possible; some have gone to Bolivia.

Pitiful scenes occur everyday at the Consulate of France when [where] hundreds men, women and children gather together begging relief and transportation, many of them hungry and in distress.

It is a fact that a critical condition confronts nitrate industry and that commercial affairs are not encouraging. Similar conditions are reported to exist in Antofagasta and vicinity. Foreign residents in general indignant at the methods employed and at apathy [in the] Chilean Government.

I await instructions.

Hazeltine
  1. Ante, p. 144.