Argentine Revolution ( es, Revolución Argentina, links=no) was the
name given by its leaders to a military
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
which overthrew the government of
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
in June 1966 and began a period of
military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
by a
junta
Junta may refer to:
Government and military
* Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones
** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...
from then until 1973.
The ''Revolución Argentina'' and the "authoritarian-bureaucratic state"
The June 1966 coup established General
Juan Carlos Onganía as ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' president, supported by several leaders of the
General Confederation of Labour (CGT), including the general secretary
Augusto Vandor
Augusto Timoteo Vandor (1923–1969) was an Argentine trade unionist leader, naval non-commissioned officer and politician.
Career
Vandor was born in Bovril, Entre Ríos Province, to a Dutch father and a French mother, in 1923. He enlisted in ...
.
This was followed by a series of
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
-appointed presidents and the implementation of
liberal economic
Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalis ...
policies, supported by
multinational companies, employers' federations, part of the more-or-less corrupt
workers' movement, and the
press
Press may refer to:
Media
* Print media or news media, commonly called "the press"
* Printing press, commonly called "the press"
* Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers
* Press TV, an Iranian television network
People
* Press (surname), a famil ...
.
While preceding military coups were aimed at establishing temporary, transitional ''
juntas
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
'', the ''Revolución Argentina'' headed by Onganía aimed at establishing a new political and social order, opposed both to
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...
and to
Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, which would give the
Armed Forces of Argentina
The Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, in es, Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina, are controlled by the Commander-in-Chief (the President) and a civilian Minister of Defense. In addition to the Army, Navy and Air Force, there are t ...
a leading political and economic role. Political scientist
Guillermo O'Donnell
Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure (February 24, 1936 – November 29, 2011) was a prominent Argentine political scientist, specializing in comparative politics, who spent most of his career working in Argentina and the United States, and who m ...
named this type of
regime
In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...
"authoritarian-bureaucratic state", in reference to the ''Revolución Argentina'', the
1964–1985 Brazilian military regime and
Augusto Pinochet's regime (starting in 1973).
Onganía's rule (1966–70)
Onganía implemented
corporatist
Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests. The ...
policies, experimenting in particular in
Córdoba under the governance of
Carlos Caballero. The new
Minister of Economy
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...
,
Adalbert Krieger Vasena Adalbert Krieger Vasena (1920 in Buenos Aires – 15 June 2001) was an Argentine economist who served twice as Minister of Economy of the country, first between 1957 and 1958, during the military dictatorship of Pedro Aramburu, and later between 196 ...
, decreed a wage freeze and a 40% devaluation, which weakened the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
– in particular the agricultural sector – and favored foreign capital. Vasena suspended
collective labour conventions, reformed the "hydrocarbons law" which had established a partial monopoly of the ''
Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales
YPF S.A. (, formerly ; English: "Fiscal Oilfields") is a vertically integrated, majority state-owned Argentine energy company, engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, and the transportation, refining, and marketing of gas and petr ...
'' (YPF) state firm, and passed a law facilitating the
eviction of tenants over their non-payment of domestic rent. Finally, the
right to strike was suspended (Law 16,936) and several other laws passed reversing previous progressive
labor legislation
Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...
(reducing retirement age, etc.).
The workers' movement divided itself between Vandoristas, who supported a "
Peronism
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 ...
without
Perón" line (
Augusto Vandor
Augusto Timoteo Vandor (1923–1969) was an Argentine trade unionist leader, naval non-commissioned officer and politician.
Career
Vandor was born in Bovril, Entre Ríos Province, to a Dutch father and a French mother, in 1923. He enlisted in ...
, leader of the
General Confederation of Labour, declared that "to save Perón, one has to be against Perón") and advocated negotiation with the junta, alongside "Participationists" headed by
José Alonso, and Peronists, who formed the
General Confederation of Labour of the Argentines
The CGTA (''CGT de los Argentinos'', or General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine) was an offshoot of the General Confederation of Labour created during the Normalisation Congress of the CGT of 28–30 March 1968, and which lasted until 19 ...
(CGTA) in 1968 and were opposed to any kind of participation with the military junta. Perón himself, from his exile in
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
, maintained a cautious and ambiguous line of opposition to the regime, rejecting both endorsement and open confrontation.
Cultural and education policies
Onganía ended university autonomy, which had been achieved by the
University Reform of 1918
The Argentine university reform of 1918 was a general modernization of the universities, especially tending towards democratization, brought about by student activism during the presidency of Hipolito Yrigoyen, the first democratic government. T ...
.
[Carmen Bernand, « D’une rive à l’autre », ''Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, Materiales de seminarios'', 2008 (''Latin-Americanist Review'' published by the ]EHESS
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
), Put on line on 15 June 2008. URL : http://nuevomundo.revues.org//index35983.html Accessed on 28 July 2008.
He was responsible for the July 1966 ''
La Noche de los Bastones Largos
La Noche de los Bastones Largos ("The Night of the Long Batons") was the violent dislodging of students and teachers from five academic faculties of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), by the Federal Argentine Police, on July 29, 1966. The ac ...
'' ("The Night of the Long Truncheons"), where university autonomy was violated, in which he ordered police to invade the Faculty of Sciences of the
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...
. They beat up and arrested students and professors. The university repression led to the exile of 301 university professors, among whom were
Manuel Sadosky
Manuel Sadosky (April 13, 1914 – June 18, 2005) was an Argentine mathematician, civil servant and author who was born in Buenos Aires to Jewish Russian immigrants who had fled the pogroms in Europe.Jacovkis, Pablo (2015). "MANUEL SADOSKY Y SU I ...
,
Tulio Halperín Donghi
Tulio Halperin Donghi (October 27, 1926 – November 14, 2014) was an Argentine historian. After earning a Ph.D in history and a law degree at the University of Buenos Aires, he taught at the institution's Faculty of Arts from 1955 to 1966. Halperi ...
,
Sergio Bagú and Risieri Frondizi.
[Marta Slemenson et al., ''Emigración de científicos argentinos. Organización de un éxodo a América Latina ''(?, Buenos Aires, 1970:118)]
Onganía also ordered repression on all forms of "immoralism", proscribing
miniskirts
A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, separated as mini skirt, or sometimes shortened to simply mini) is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a ...
,
long hair for young men, and all
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
artistic movements.
[ This moral campaign alienated the middle classes, who were massively present in ]universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
.[
]
Change of direction of the Armed Forces
Towards the end of May 1968, General Julio Alsogaray dissented from Onganía, and rumors spread about a possible coup d'état, with Algosaray leading the opposition to Onganía. At the end of the month Onganía dismissed the leaders of the Armed Forces: Alejandro Lanusse replaced Julio Alsogaray, Pedro Gnavi replaced Benigno Varela, and Jorge Martínez Zuviría replaced Adolfo Alvarez.
Increasing protests
On 19 September 1968, two important events affected Revolutionary Peronism. John William Cooke
John William Cooke (14 November 1919 – 19 September 1968) was an Argentine lawyer and politician. An early follower of President Juan Perón, Cooke went on to form part and lead the revolutionary leftist wing of the Peronist movement. Followi ...
, former personal delegate of Perón, an ideologist of the Peronist Left and friend of Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
, died from natural causes. On the same day a group of 13 men and one woman who aimed at establishing a ''foco
A guerilla foco is a small cadre of revolutionaries operating in a nation's countryside. This guerilla organization was popularized by Che Guevara in his book Guerilla Warfare, which was based on his experiences in the Cuban Revolution. Guevara w ...
'' in Tucumán Province, in order to head the resistance against the junta, was captured;[Oscar R. Anzorena, ''Tiempo de violencia y utopía (1966-1976)'', Editorial Contrapunto, 1987, p.48 ] among them was Envar El Kadre, then a leader of the Peronist Youth.[
In 1969, the ''CGT de los Argentinos'' (led by ]Raimundo Ongaro
Raimundo José Ongaro (13 February 1924̣ – 1 August 2016) was an Argentine union leader. He was secretary general of the General Confederation of Labour of the Argentines (CGTA) between 1968 and 1974.
Early career and rise to prominence
Ongaro ...
) headed protest movements, in particular the Cordobazo
The Cordobazo was a civil uprising in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, at the end of May 1969, during the military dictatorship of General Juan Carlos Onganía, which occurred a few days after the ''Rosariazo'', and a year after the global protest ...
, as well as other movements in Tucumán, Santa Fe and Rosario
Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...
(''Rosariazo
The Rosariazo () was a protest movement that consisted in demonstrations and strikes, in Rosario, , between May and September 1969, during the military dictatorial rule of ''de facto'' President General Juan Carlos Onganía. The Rosariazo was c ...
''). While Perón managed a reconciliation with Augusto Vandor, he followed, in particular through the voice of his delegate Jorge Paladino, a cautious line of opposition to the military junta, criticizing with moderation the neoliberal policies of the junta but waiting for discontent inside the government ("''hay que desensillar hasta que aclare''", said Perón, advocating patience). Thus, Onganía had an interview with 46 CGT delegates, among them Vandor, who agreed on "participationism" with the military junta, thus uniting themselves with the ''Nueva Corriente de Opinión'' headed by José Alonso and Rogelio Coria.
In December 1969, more than 20 priests, members of the ''Movement of Priests for the Third World
The Movement of Priests for the Third World (Spanish: ''Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo'', MSTM) was a tendency among the Catholic Church in Argentina which aimed at combining reform ideas which followed the Second Vatican Council ...
'' (MSTM), marched on the Casa Rosada to present to Onganía a petition pleading him to abandon the eradication plan of ''villas miserias
A ''villa miseria'' (), or just ''villa'', is the informal term for a type of shanty town slum found in Argentina, mostly around the largest urban settlements.
Name
The term is a noun phrase made up of the Spanish words ''villa'' (''village'', ' ...
'' (shanty towns).[Oscar Anzorena, 1987, p.49]
The same year, the MSTM issued a declaration supporting Socialist revolutionary movements, which led the Catholic hierarchy, by the voice of Juan Carlos Aramburu
Juan Carlos Aramburu (February 11, 1912 – November 18, 2004) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 1975 to 1990, and was named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Paul VI in 1976.
Biography
Aramburu was born in rura ...
, coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires
The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires (''Archidioecesis Bonaerensis'') is one of thirteen Latin Metropolitan archdioceses of the Catholic Church in Argentina, South America.
The Archbishopric of Buenos Aires is the Primatial see (protocollary first-ra ...
, to proscribe priests from making political or social declarations.[Oscar Anzorena, 1987, p.53]
Various armed actions, headed by the ''Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación'' (FAL), composed by former members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, occurred in April 1969, leading to several arrests among FAL members. These were the first left-wing urban guerrilla
An urban guerrilla is someone who fights a government using unconventional warfare or domestic terrorism in an urban environment.
Theory and history
The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of industrialised society, resting both ...
actions in Argentina. Beside these isolated actions, the Cordobazo
The Cordobazo was a civil uprising in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, at the end of May 1969, during the military dictatorship of General Juan Carlos Onganía, which occurred a few days after the ''Rosariazo'', and a year after the global protest ...
uprising of 1969, called forth by the CGT de los Argentinos, and its Cordobese leader, Agustín Tosco
Agustín ''Gringo'' Tosco (May 22, 1930 – November 5, 1975) was an Argentine union leader, member of the CGT de los Argentinos and an important participant in the historic local uprising known as the ''Cordobazo''.
Thought and maturity
Tos ...
, prompted demonstrations in the entire country. The same year, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) was formed as the military branch of the Trotskyist Workers' Revolutionary Party, leading an armed struggle against the dictatorship.
Levingston's rule (1970–71)
Faced with increasing opposition, in particular following the ''Cordobazo
The Cordobazo was a civil uprising in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, at the end of May 1969, during the military dictatorship of General Juan Carlos Onganía, which occurred a few days after the ''Rosariazo'', and a year after the global protest ...
'', General Onganía was forced to resign by the military junta, composed of the chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. He was replaced by General Roberto M. Levingston
Roberto Marcelo Levingston Laborda (January 10, 1920 – June 17, 2015) was an Argentine Army general who was President of Argentina from June 18, 1970 to March 22, 1971, during the Revolución Argentina period in Argentine history...
Early life ...
, who, far from calling free elections, decided to deepen the ''Revolución Argentina''. Levingston expressed the nationalist-developmentist sector of the Armed Forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
, and was supported by the most intransigent military elements. He named the radical economist Aldo Ferrer
Aldo Ferrer (April 15, 1927 – March 8, 2016) was an Argentine economist. He was one of the leading proponents of economic nationalism in Argentina.
Early career
Aldo Ferrer was born in Buenos Aires in 1927, and enrolled at the University of Bu ...
as Minister of Economy
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...
.
A coalition of political parties issued the statement known as ''La Hora del Pueblo'', calling for free and democratic elections which would include the Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party ( es, Partido Justicialista, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism.
Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party (and has, since 2021, served ...
. Under this pressure, Levingston was ousted by an internal coup headed by the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and strongman of the ''Revolución Argentina'', General Alejandro Agustín Lanusse
Alejandro Agustín Lanusse (August 28, 1918 – August 26, 1996) was the ''de facto'' president of the Argentine Republic between March 22, 1971, and May 25, 1973, during the military dictatorship of the country called the "Argentine Revolution" ...
.
Lanusse's rule (1971–73)
The last of the military presidents ''de facto'' of this period, Alejandro Lanusse, was appointed in March 1971. He was as unpopular as his predecessors. His administration started building infrastructure projects (roads, bridges, etc.) necessary for the development of the country, without responding to popular demands concerning social and economic policies.
General Lanusse tried to respond to the ''Hora del Pueblo'' declaration by calling elections but excluding Peronists from them, in the so-called ''Gran Acuerdo Nacional'' (Great National Agreement). He nominated Arturo Mor Roig (Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union ( es, Unión Cívica Radical, UCR) is a centrist and social-liberal political party in Argentina. It has been ideologically heterogeneous, ranging from social liberalism to social democracy. The UCR is a member of the So ...
) as Minister of Interior, who enjoyed the support of the ''Hora del pueblo'' coalition of parties, to supervise the coming elections.
There had been no elections since 1966, and armed struggle groups came into existence, such as the '' Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo'' (ERP, the armed wing of the Workers' Revolutionary Party, PRT), the Catholic nationalist Peronists Montoneros
Montoneros ( es, link=no, Movimiento Peronista Montonero-MPM) was an Argentine left-wing Peronist guerrilla organization, active throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The name is an allusion to the 19th-century cavalry militias called Montoner ...
and the ''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias'' (FAR).
In August 1972, an attempt by several revolutionary members to escape from prison, headed by Mario Roberto Santucho
Mario Roberto Santucho (12 August 1936 – 19 July 1976) was an Argentine revolutionary and guerrilla combatant, founder of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores ( Workers' Revolutionary Party, PRT) and leader of Argentina's largest Marxi ...
(PRT), was followed by what became known as the Trelew massacre
The Trelew Massacre was a mass execution of 16 political prisoners, militants of different Peronist and left (politics), left organizations, in Rawson, Chubut, Rawson prison by the military dictatorship of Argentina. The prisoners were recaptured a ...
. Fernando Vaca Narvaja, Roberto Quieto, Enrique Gorriarán Merlo
Enrique Haroldo Gorriarán Merlo (18 October 1941 – 22 September 2006) was an Argentine guerrilla, born in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Buenos Aires Province.
His family was affiliated with the Radical Civic Union, but at the age of 27 Gorr ...
and Domingo Menna managed to complete their escape, but 19 others were re-captured. 16 of them, members of the Montoneros, the FAR, and the ERP, were killed, and 3 managed to survive. On the same night of August 22, 1972, the junta approved law 19,797, which proscribed any information concerning guerrilla organizations. The massacre led to demonstrations in various cities.
Finally, Lanusse lifted the proscription of the Justicialist Party, although he maintained it concerning Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...
by increasing the number of years of residency required of presidential candidates, thus excluding ''de facto'' Perón from the elections since he had been in exile since the 1955 ''Revolución Libertadora
''Revolución Libertadora'' (; ''Liberating Revolution'') was the coup d'état that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on 16 September 1955.
Background
President Perón was first elected in 1946. In 1949, a ...
''.
Henceforth, Perón decided to appoint as his candidate his personal secretary Héctor José Cámpora
Héctor José Cámpora (26 March 190918 December 1980) was an Argentine politician. A major figure of left-wing Peronism, Cámpora was briefly Argentine president from 25 May to 13 July 1973 and subsequently arranged for Perón to run for preside ...
, a leftist Peronist, as representative of the FreJuLi (''Frente Justicialista de Liberación'', Justicialist Liberation Front), composed of the Justicialist Party and minor, allied parties. The FreJuLi's electoral slogan was "Cámpora in Government, Perón in power" (''Cámpora al Gobierno, Perón al poder'').
See also
*History of Argentina
The history of Argentina can be divided into four main parts: the pre-Columbian time or early history (up to the sixteenth century), the colonial period (1536–1809), the period of nation-building (1810–1880), and the history of modern Argenti ...
Notes
References
*Oscar R. Anzorena, ''Tiempo de violencia y utopía (1966-1976)'', Editorial Contrapunto, 1987
{{Authority control
20th-century revolutions
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
1966 in Argentina
20th century in Argentina
History of Argentina (1955–1973)
Military coups in Argentina
Political repression in Argentina
Revolutions in Argentina
June 1966 events in South America