Massacre of Salsipuedes

The Massacre of Salsipuedes (Spanish: Masacre de Salsipuedes), also known as the Slaughter of Salsipuedes (Spanish: Matanza de Salsipuedes) or simply Salsipuedes, was a genocidal attack carried out on 11 April 1831 by the Uruguayan Army, led by Fructuoso Rivera, as the culmination of the state's efforts to eradicate the Charrúa from Uruguay.^[1][2]

The massacre took place on the riverbanks of the Great Salsipuedes Creek, named after the massacre in question; the name is a contraction of the Spanish phrase sal si puedes ("get out if you can").^[3] According to official historiography, 40 were killed and 300 were taken prisoner, with an uncertain number managing to escape; following the massacre, the survivors were forcibly marched to Montevideo and sold into slavery, with 4 notably being sent to a human zoo in Paris. While descendants of the Charrúa are today believed to number between 160,000 and 300,000 across Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, the massacre decimated their communities and erased them from Uruguayan public memory; for this reason, it is popularly thought of as the event that exterminated the Charrúa as a people.