Silva Renard

Roberto Silva Renard was a military and general of the Chilean army, responsible for carrying out the massacre at the Santa Maria school.

Military career
He began his military career in 1879, entering the beginning of the Pacific War, belonged to the artillery gun. In this conflict he saw action in the battles of Tacna (on May 26, 1880), and during the Lima Campaign in those of Chorrillos and Miraflores (on January 13 and 15, 1881, respectively.) After the war, He was assigned to Europe, being commissioned in the German army for five years.

During the Civil War of 1891, with the rank of major. He embarked on the Maipo ship and fought in the battles of Concón and Placilla. His participation during the civil war in the congressional side earned him the promotion to colonel.

Villainy
After the civil war, Silva Renard acted in favor of the accused responsible for the Valparaíso massacre, saying they were the victims.

In 1903, he commanded the troops to carry out the massacre of the saltpeter office Chile, where they killed a large number of workers on strike.

Later, he sent the troops to perpetrate another massacre, this time against protesters who complained about Argentine meat taxes, a fact known as the "meat rally" massacre.

But undoubtedly his most abhorrent act, was the massacre in the Santa Maria school, where merciless massacre of an immense number of workers, there are no certain signs of the death toll, but it is speculated that they were between 195 and 3.600.

Murder
Silva Renard would be killed in 1914, by Antonio Ramón Ramón, a Spaniard who was the brother of one of the victims of the Santa Maria massacre.