Revisiting Pampa Irigoin: Social Movements, Repression, and Political Culture in 1960s Chile

This essay examines urban social movements and state repression in 1960s Chile. Housing became a central political and social demand in Cold War Chile, and poor urban dwellers organized and challenged state authorities and traditional property laws. Through the history of Pampa Irigoin (Puerto Montt, 1969), a land occupation and brutal police repression in the south of the country, this essay demonstrates the growing tensions in Chilean cities and how housing demands inspired larger projects of social and political reforms. This article is also a window into the ways local elites and the political right had legitimated violence to repress social movements.