Trial of the Recta Provincia, Ancud
In 1880 Chilean authorities in Ancud arrested and tried dozens of members of the 'Recta Provincia', a secret society of Chiloé said to rule the archipelago through witchcraft, on charges of illicit association.
1880 CE · -41.87, -73.83 · status: official
The account
Intendant Luis Martiniano Rodríguez acted on complaints of abuses and murders blamed on the society, also called 'La Mayoría', and its members were rounded up and held in Ancud while the case lasted about a year; one account counts around 80 accused. Legend gave the society a king, a council and seven 'republics', a headquarters in a cave near Quicaví guarded by the Invunche, and an origin in 1786. Historians have since read it partly as a Huilliche institution of popular justice and resistance, described in the press as a 'Republic of the Indigenous Race'.
The sceptical view
The trial is documented, but the supernatural powers attributed to the accused rest on testimony gathered under pressure and on sensational press coverage. Copies of the court file survive in the Vicuña Mackenna archive of Chile's National Library.