Dawson Island

Strait of Magellan with Dawson Island

Dawson Island (Lat: 53.97° S Long: 70.58° W)^[2] is an island in the Strait of Magellan that forms part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, 100 km south of the city of Punta Arenas in Chile, and part of the Municipality of Punta Arenas. It is located southeast of Brunswick Peninsula and is an approximately 1290 km² tract of land that is often lashed with harsh Antarctic weather. Its population was 415 as of the 1992 census of population,, and 301 as of 2002 Punta Arenas. The settlements are Puerto Harris, Puerto San Antonio and Puerto Almeida.

History

Dawson Island was used as a concentration camp for the Selknam and other native people in the late 1800s. In 1890, the Chilean government granted Salesian missionaries from Italy a 20-year concession to Dawson Island to educate, care for, and adapt indigenous people. One of the structures from the Salesian operation remains and is now a Chilean national monument.

In more recent history, after the 1973 military coup in Chile, the island was used as a place to house political prisoners suspected of being communist activists, under strict control of the Chilean Navy, as each individual case was investigated. According to an International Red Cross report in 1974 and the Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig report) it was home to some 99 political detainees who were sentenced to forced labor and lived in squalor. Others have estimated that as many as 400 persons were held at the two camps. Members of the International Red Cross, the BBC, and Brazilian press corps were permitted to visit the camps. The camps were temporary holding locations and the internees were transferred elsewhere or released in 1974.

In 2009 a film was produced about the camp experience, called Dawson, Isla 10 directed by Miguel Littin. The film was based on a book written by Sergio Bitar, a political prisoner.