Assassination of Jorge Montt Álvarez
| Assassination of Jorge Montt Álvarez | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Antonio-Cylon Main Theater, San Miguel de Martínez, Rakeo, Creeperopolis |
| Date | 1 May 1867 |
| Target | Captain General Jorge Montt Álvarez |
Attack type | Assassination, bombing |
| Weapons | "Arjena" bomb |
| Deaths | 23 |
| Injured | 36 |
| Perpetrators | Rakeoian Sovereignty Front |
| Assailants | Josuo Havat Rajano Cevey Ana Genati |
No. of participants | 3 |
| Motive | Anti-Creeperian sentiment Anti-colonial sentiment |
The assassination of Jorge Guillermo y José Montt y Álvarez occurred on 1 May 1867 at the Antonio-Cylon Main Theater in San Miguel de Martínez, Rakeo, which at the time, was a colony of Creeperopolis. The assassination was carried out by three members of the Rakeoian Sovereignty Front (RSF) as a part of the group's efforts to overthrow the Creeperian military government governing the territory and attain independence for Rakeo.
His assassination caused many ethnic-Rakeoians to be attacked and killed by Creeperans in retribution for the assassination in the subsequent months. Of the three individuals involved in the assassination, one was killed at the scene by policemen and two were publicly executed. The attack is considered to be the largest plot of the Rakeoian Sovereignty Front during the Creeperian colonial era of Rakeo.
Contents
Background
Assailants
Josuo Havat
Josuo Havat (12 July 1836 – 1 May 1876, aged 39) was a bartender at a local establishment in San Miguel de Martínez. He joined the Rakeoian Sovereignty Front two years prior to the attack, citing grievances with the authorities' handling of a family dispute, as well as resentment towards Creeperans and Catholics, who he saw as harming his field of employment.
Rajano Cevey
Rajano Cevey (4 January 1825 – 5 May 1867, aged 42) was a chemist studying applications of explosive in mining. He was responsible for creation of the bomb according to testimony from the two other assailants. His motives for joining the Rakeoian Sovereignty Front are unknown.
Ana Genati
Ana Genati (2 April 1847 – 5 May 1867, aged 30) was a servant of a nearby Creeperian-owned estate. In her testimony, said that she was hired for a large sum of money to "cause a disturbance" in front of the theater, and was not aware of exactly aware of the details. In later questioning, this was contradicted.
Plot
It is believed that one of the assailants was supposed to carry out the assassination itself, with the others somehow aiding in their escape following the act, however, the exact details of the plot are unclear. Cevey had begun work on the Arjena bomb a year prior, and his workshop yielded several other similar devices, although it is unknown if they were prototypes or variants. The Arjena bomb itself was a contact explosive using mercury fulminate and around 1.8kg of gunpowder.
Assassination
According to bystanders, a fight broke out just prior to the intermission between a two men, a woman, and an attendant. The attendant was alerted when they tried to enter the theatre without paying, and blocked them with the aid of an usher. At 6:12 p.m., when the performance was supposed to resume, a male bomb thrower made it to the stage, and an explosion followed. In the ensuing chaos, rescuers brought wounded into the street, where doctors tried to stem the worse injuries. The man who threw the bomb was identified as among the wounded.
Reprisals
Havat, the man who threw the bomb, was identified and beat to death by policemen at the scene. Genati was arrested as she attempted to leave the theater. Genati, whose role in the assassination is unclear, said that her role was as a distraction, likely for Havat to get to the rear entrance. She implicated Cevey in the assassination, alleged that only Havat and Cevey knew the ultimate goal of the scheme, and that she was not a member of the Rakeoian Sovereignty Front, but her knowledge of the working of the bomb suggested that she may have originally been the bomber. Cevey, the Arjena bomb's designer, was arrested by the police the following day.
On 5 May 1867, Cevey and Genati were publicly hanged in front of the theater where the assassination took place at noon. In the subsequent months following the assassination, ethnic Rakeoians were attacked and often killed by Creeperans in retribution for the assassination. In some instances, policemen and soldiers were also involved in such attacks and killings. An estimated 500 to 1,000 Rakeoians were killed in May and June 1867 as a sort of anti-Rakeoian sentiment and revenge for the assassination. Montt Álvarez's successor as Captain General, Admiral Alexander Sandoval Ménjiva, did nothing to stop the attacks and killings.
Funeral
Montt Álvarez's funeral was held on 6 May 1867 in San Miguel de Martínez. He was buried in the Cathedral of San Miguel de Martínez. An estimated 20,000 people attended his funeral.
Legacy
In Rakeo, the brutal reprisals following the assassination drove more extreme violence among ethnic lines, and the killing of a Captain General reinvigorated nationalist calls for separatism. During the Rakeoian Civil War, the hangings were used as justification for mass looting against Creeperans living in San Miguel de Martínez. The assassination is, in its entirety, missing from national education, though no formal publication ban is in place. A plaque on the theatre has a portion of a eulogy given at Montt Álvarez's funeral, although it is frequently defaced.
See also
External links
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