By Pablo Taricco – @tariccopablo.
(Editor's note: We continue to recover fantastic chronicles from the archives of our brothers at NTD.la, and this time we'll talk about the strategies of our national heroes as they sought to achieve their goals against the invader. This article is accompanied by twenty spy songs from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, in the styles of blues, ska, garage, punk, hardcore, and metal—classics of yesterday, today, and always.).
Espionage deployed by men and women under the command of General San Martín The campaigns for independence in Chile and Peru are a chapter of South American history that deserves to be told. The so-called "war of attrition" challenged the royalists and paved the way for military victory.
San Martín, master of spies
In February 1816, General San Martín received a secret letter from Buenos Aires. In it, the then Director Ignacio Álvarez Thomas He recommended a series of tactics aimed at “to alarm Chile, seduce the royalist troops, promote desertion, distort the events, misrepresent their leaders, instill fear in enemy soldiers and try to disrupt their plans.”. The espionage promoted by Buenos Aires in that letter was already an important part of the plan that the then Governor of Cuyo had initiated to reconquer Santiago, after the defeat of the patriot armies in Rancagua in 1814. It was necessary to prepare the ground to defeat the Spanish army in Chile and then advance by sea towards Lima, the last royalist stronghold in America.
“The underhanded warfare I wage against them is terrible.” San Martín was saying to his friend Thomas Guido in a letter dated May 1816. “I already have eight deserters inside their bodies, including two sergeants, people I trust completely, who went in that capacity.”.
The impressive array of resources used by the man from Corrientes in organizing his intelligence service was bound to baffle his enemies. So much so that even the Spanish governor of Chile, Casimiro Marcó del Pont He would confess in his epistolary exchanges with the metropolis that “"The plans are reduced to continuous changes and variations according to occurrences and news from the enemy, whose Chief in Mendoza is astute in observing my situation, having countless communications and spies infiltrated around me and tries to surprise me.".
“The German”
Historians agree in highlighting the intelligence work carried out by the Chilean Manuel Rodríguez Erdoíza, alias The German, Rodríguez, who had arrived in Mendoza in exile after the defeat of 1814. While his importance cannot be reduced to the role assigned to him by San Martín within the espionage network of the Army of the Andes—Rodríguez was one of the protagonists of trans-Andean political life during the first quarter of the 19th century—his actions deserve to be highlighted within the famous “war of attrition.” In his book “The voice of the Great Chief”, Felipe Pigna explains that “To provide cover for his return to Chile, he agreed with San Martín to orchestrate a risky operation: the Liberator, accusing him of conspiracy, sent him to San Luis under house arrest, and on the way Rodríguez pretended to escape and crossed the Andes. Back in Chile, Rodríguez not only organized a spy network, but also formed patriotic guerrilla groups.”.
Following the mission to sow confusion among the Spanish authorities, Rodríguez set about encouraging the actions of various groups of conspirators and bandits. Thus he contacted José Miguel Neira, The leader of a notorious outlaw gang that robbed travelers and rural properties, whom he convinced to join the resistance against the Spanish, providing him with military clothing and rank. The alliance between Rodríguez and Neira forced the royalists to disperse their soldiers to various locations., weakening to the rhythm of the pillaging and rebellions of the guerrillas, and thus clearing the way for the arrival of San Martín and his army.
Meanwhile, the ongoing correspondence between Rodríguez and San Martín, intended to be intercepted by the royalists, It was riddled with false data and information that added to the confusion for Governor Marcó's men, Cornered by discontent and intrigues fomented from Mendoza, Manuel Rodríguez's life and work were later portrayed in various books and films, and even in songs such as We need a guerrilla fighter by Violeta Parra, or in poems like Song to Manuel Rodríguez by Pablo Neruda.
Condarco, the cartographer
In his History of San Martín, Bartolomé Mitre It points out the mission that the Liberator ordered one of his assistants, Don José Antonio Álvarez Condarco: “"Major, I am going to entrust you with a very delicate mission."” The historian quotes, “"that he recognizes the steps of Los Patos and Uspallata, and that he raises within his head a plan of the two without making any notes, but without forgetting any stone.".
Condarco, an explosives engineer with a prodigious memory, prepared for the journey. He had to cross the mountain range, going through Los Patos and returning through Uspallata, memorizing every feature of the road, every place where soldiers could advance, set up camp, gather firewood, or hide. During the journey he had to avoid being captured by the royalist guard, who would not spare his life if they caught him with maps of those crossroads. That's why I had to memorize the route. San Martín handed Condarco a copy of the Declaration of Independence, signed a few months earlier in Tucumán. It was his alibi. If captured, the cartographer had to claim his mission was to deliver that declaration to Marcó del Pont for his acceptance or rejection. The move was extremely audacious. Tensions between both sides of the Andes were rising, and Santiago's reaction could have been the messenger's execution.
Condarco crossed the mountain range through Los Patos, memorizing every detail, and upon reaching Chilean soil, he was intercepted by the authorities, who received with displeasure the document sent by San Martín. Marcó del Pont ordered the document to be publicly burned, but spared the life of the envoy., not without sending the Liberator a threatening letter in which he boasted of his mercy: “I consider this reason for the arrival of your parliamentarian frivolous and apparent: this obliges me to state to your lordship that any other of the same class will not deserve the inviolability and attention with which I allow the one from this mission to return.”. Condarco returned via Uspallata, And once in Mendoza, he drew with admirable precision the maps of both mountain crossings. A few months later, the Army of the Andes would travel the same steep paths, cross the same rivers and reach its destination to win at Chacabuco.
Dozens of spies in action
The “war of attrition” waged by San Martín in the campaigns of Chile and Peru is detailed by several authors, including Jaime Cañas, who provides the names and activities of many men and women whose identities remain hidden, largely due to the very nature of their work: espionage. Among them are women such as Carmen Ureta, decorated and awarded by the Chilean government after Chacabuco, or Rafaela Riesco, whose mission remains secret and is only known to have been paid the hefty sum of 3,000 pesos for her services. Or Águeda de Monasterio, whose asylum to conspirators earned him torture and an unburied death at the hands of the fearsome Vincent Saint Bruno.
Or double agents, like the priest Francisco López, sent to Mendoza by Marcó del Pont, but “turned around” by San Martín to the point that all the correspondence sent by the religious man towards Santiago It was dictated by the Governor of Cuyo himself, sowing falsehoods in the royalist archives.
Or infiltrators in the Cuyo reaction, like Don Pedro Vargas, a wealthy citizen of Mendoza who was accused of treason and imprisoned by San Martín in San Juan and San Luis, in order to insert him into local royalist circles, identifying conspirators and thwarting sabotage against the Army of the Andes.
Spies who played an important role in the independence of South America and that require a few paragraphs to go down in history.
