Locals around the Chuquicamata continue to claim that the Ernesto Guevara who visited the area in 1952 was nothing more than a brawling drunk, with a penchant for one-night stands. If Che had caught the boat to Easter Island, as one story goes, there would have been no Cuban Revolution. That may well be an exaggeration; but a good case can be made for the proposition that the huge open-pit copper mine of Chuquicamata, or Chuqui as it is commonly known in Chile, remained firmly etched in the psyche of the Argentinean revolutionary right until his death.
Copper production in Chuquicamata began in 1915, just as German scientific successes in the quest for artificial nitrates had resulted in the collapse of the world market for Chiles traditional export: saltpetre (potassium nitrate). Since then copper acquired a pre-eminent position in Chiles economy, and thousands of indigenous workers deserted the floundering haciendas to find work in copper mines like Chuquicamata, El Salvador and El Teniente, all American-owned until the Chilean copper nationalization program of the late-1960s.
Initially, it was the plight of those mine workers which shocked Che as he headed...
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