Aldo Rico (born 4 March 1943) is an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
retired Lieutenant Colonel and politician, famous for his role in the episodes of 1987 (usually referred to as "Semana Santa", or Easter week) and 1988 (the "Monte Caseros" mutiny) where sectors of the Armed Forces, known as
carapintadas
The ' ( en, Painted Faces) were a group of mutineers in the Argentine Army, who took part in various uprisings between 1987 and 1990 during the presidencies of Raúl Alfonsín and Carlos Menem in Argentina. The rebellions, while at first thought t ...
("painted faces", due to their facial camouflage), revolted to protest the policies of President
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (12 March 1927 – 31 March 2009) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after more than ...
. Rico later created the
MODIN political party and contested several elections. Rico was elected mayor of
San Miguel (1997–2003) and was Minister of Police of
Buenos Aires province
Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...
for a short period in 1999.
Role in Falklands (Malvinas) war
Rico was born in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, and was an army
major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
at the time of the 1982
Falklands (Malvinas) War, serving as commander of the
602 Commando Company
The 602 Commando Company ( es, Compañía de Comandos 602) is a special operations unit of the Argentine Army.
Unit insignia
The members of the unit wear green berets with unit badges. The company is divided into three assault sections.
History ...
.
The ''Carapintada'' uprising
After the Falklands war, Rico achieved the rank of
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
and started agitating against the prosecution for crimes against humanity of the
1976-1983 juntas. In 1987, Rico and his followers took up arms in
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
week and negotiated a series of demands. The Argentine public was overly sensitive to any military claims (as every President elected democratically since 1928 was deposed by successive coups d'état) and rallied around Alfonsín, who agreed to consider the demands of the ''
Carapintadas
The ' ( en, Painted Faces) were a group of mutineers in the Argentine Army, who took part in various uprisings between 1987 and 1990 during the presidencies of Raúl Alfonsín and Carlos Menem in Argentina. The rebellions, while at first thought t ...
''. No blood was shed in the episode, but Alfonsín was accused of caving to insurgent demands, and came to be perceived as a weak president. Rico was condemned to house arrest and escaped in 1988, whereupon he led a second armed episode in 1988. In its aftermath, Rico was imprisoned.
Mohamed Alí Seineldín
Mohamed Alí Seineldín (Arabic:محمد علي زين الدين) (November 12, 1933 – September 2, 2009) was an Argentine army colonel who participated in two failed uprisings against the democratically elected governments of both President Ra ...
took over the leadership of the military rebellion, and Rico shifted his focus to electoral politics.
Politics
President
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
pardoned Rico in 1989 (in the context of a series of pardons that included all Junta members). Rico created the
MODIN party (Spanish initials of ''Movimiento por la Dignidad Nacional'', "Movement for National Dignity"). Rico occupied several elective offices, including as a member of the Constitutional Convention during the Menem administration. He was elected as mayor of
San Miguel in 1997. Two years later, Buenos Aires province governor
Carlos Ruckauf named Rico as Minister of Police, but a series of scandals made Rico quit the post after four months.
In the 2000s, Modin was merged into the
Peronists
Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...
; Rico declared his intent of running again for mayor in 2011.
On 24 February 1998, Rico was accosted at the door of his house by two assailants in a pickup truck. One of them triggered a firearm twice, but it misfired. On 20 July 2007 he was attacked again while leaving his house to take his two step-daughters to school; he fired four or five shots in the air, and the robbers fled in a car.
On 6 February 2011 four or more armed men attempted to rob Rico and his family in their car at
Moreno
Moreno may refer to:
Places Argentina
*Moreno (Buenos Aires Metro), a station on Line C of the Buenos Aires Metro
*Moreno, Buenos Aires, a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
*Moreno Department, a depatnent of Santiago del Estero Province, A ...
; he repelled the attack with his 9mm pistol. He was hit three times, and may have fatally wounded an attacker.
[ Links to several news reports and videos (in Spanish) about the 2011 attack on Rico.]
Notes
* Monte Caseros: incendio en las chilcas Aldo Rico, Carlos Bernardo Borovinsky, Novela, Ediciones de la Osa Mayor, Buenos Aires. 1988, 240 páginas.
External links
''Aldo Rico: De carapintada a la política''''Falta de mérito para Aldo Rico''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rico, Aldo
1943 births
Living people
People from Buenos Aires
Carapintadas
Argentine anti-communists
Argentine nationalists
Argentine military personnel of the Falklands War
Shooting survivors
Argentine Army officers
Argentine prisoners of war
Mayors of places in Argentina