Battle of Laguna Aluminé
On 17 February 1883, near Laguna Aluminé, in what was then the National Territory of Río Negro (now the province of Neuquén, Argentina), an armed incident known as the Battle of Laguna Aluminé took place, in the context of Argentina’s Conquest of the Desert and Chile’s Occupation of Araucanía. An Argentine Army scouting patrol, made up of three officers and 33 soldiers under the command of Sergeant Major Juan Gabriel Díaz, was reduced to 19 effective men after sending out two reconnaissance groups. This force was surrounded by a group of approximately 100 to 150 Indigenous people (mainly Araucanians, self-identifying as Mapuche), who were threatening to attack.
At that moment, a Chilean infantryman approached the Argentine left flank carrying a flag of truce. When Díaz detected that an infantry company was advancing behind him under cover, he ordered his men to open fire. The attackers charged with bayonets, but were repelled by the Argentines. According to the official Argentine report, seven Chileans were killed in the field, while the wounded were evacuated by the Indigenous men. Six Martini-Henry rifles were captured; these were standard issue in the Chilean Army during that period (see), having been adopted around the time of the War of the Pacific (1879-1884).
Argentine sources describe the episode as a clash with Chilean troops, emphasising the heroism of the local patrol. However, Chilean or neutral versions clarify that the Chileans involved may not have been regular soldiers of the Chilean Army, but possibly deserters, settlers or individuals allied with the Mapuche in a context of blurred frontiers and territorial tensions. The incident, one of several minor frictions in Patagonia, did not escalate into a larger conflict and was resolved through diplomatic channels between Argentina and Chile.
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