Massacre of Salsipuedes

The Massacre of Salsipuedes (Spanish: Masacre de Salsipuedes), or the Slaughter of Salsipuedes (Spanish: Matanza de Salsipuedes), was a genocidal attack carried out on 11 April 1831 by the Uruguayan Army, led by President Fructuoso Rivera, as part of the state's efforts to eradicate the Charrúa from the Uruguayan countryside.

The massacre took place on the riverbanks of the Great Salsipuedes Creek, whose name is a contraction of the Spanish phrase sal si puedes ("get-out-if-you-can"). According to the official report made by Rivera, 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, and 4 were notably sent to a human zoo in Paris. While partial descendants of the Charrúa are today believed to number between 160,000 and 300,000 across Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, the massacre became a major event in the decimation of their communities and began to erase them from Uruguayan public memory; for this reason, it is remembered as the event that exterminated the Charrúa as a people.