Roberto Eduardo Viola (13 October 1924 – 30 September 1994) was an

Argentine military 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 ...

officer who briefly served as

president of Argentina The president of Argentina ( es, Presidente de Argentina), officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Presidente de la Nación Argentina), is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under the national cons ...

from 29 March to 11 December 1981 as a military dictator.

Early life

He was born as Roberto Eduardo Viola on 13 October 1924. His parents were Italian immigrants Angelo Viola and Rosa Maria Prevedini, both from Casatisma, a town in the

Province of Pavia The province of Pavia ( it, Provincia di Pavia) is a province in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy; its capital is Pavia. , the province has a population of 548,722 inhabitants and an area of ; the town of Pavia has a population of 72,20 ...

President of Argentina

After Videla's departure, Viola formally assumed the post of

President of Argentina The president of Argentina ( es, Presidente de Argentina), officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Presidente de la Nación Argentina), is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under the national cons ...

Economic policy

Viola appointed

Lorenzo Sigaut Lorenzo Juan Sigaut (born 6 June 1933) is an Argentine economist. Minister of Economy He served as Minister of Economy of Argentina from April to December 1981, during the dictatorship of Roberto Eduardo Viola.

as finance minister, and it became clear that Sigaut were looking for ways to reverse some of the economic policies of Videla's minister

José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz (13 August 1925 – 16 March 2013) was an Argentine lawyer, businessman and economist. He was Minister of Economy under Jorge Rafael Videla's administration between 1976 and 1981, and shaped economic policy at th ...

. Notably, Sigaut abandoned the sliding

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

mechanism and devalued the

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named "dollar" ...

, after boasting that "they who gamble on the

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, ...

, will lose". Argentines braced for a recession after the excesses of the ''sweet money'' years, which destabilized Viola's position.''La nueva política económica argentina se basa en la modificación del esquema de cambios de la moneda. Según Lorenzo Sigaut, el nuevo ministro de Economía ''
El País, reproducción del artículo publicado el 8 de abril de 1981. Viola was also the victim of infighting within 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 ...

. After being replaced as Navy chief,

Eduardo Massera Emilio Eduardo Massera (19 October 1925 – 8 November 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer, and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2 (also known as ''Propaganda Due'' ...

started looking for a political space to call his own, even enlisting the enforced and unpaid services of political prisoners held in concentration camps by the regime. The mainstream of the Junta's support was strongly opposed to Massera's designs and to any attempt to bring about more "

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develope ...

" economic policies.

Foreign policy

Ronald Reagan, Roberto Viola and Jorge A Aja Espil

Argentina-United States relations improved dramatically with the Ronald Reagan administration, which asserted that the previous

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican Presiden ...

had weakened US diplomatic relationships with

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

allies in Argentina and reversed the previous administration's official condemnation of the junta's

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

practices. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties allowed for

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service in arming and training the Nicaraguan

Contras The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded Right-wing politics, right-wing Rebellion, rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxism, Marxist Sandinista National Liberation Front, Sandinista Junta of Nat ...

against the

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a Socialism, socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after ...

government. The 601 Intelligence Battalion, for example, trained Contras at

Lepaterique Lepaterique is a municipality in the Honduran department of Francisco Morazán. Military base A military base located in Lepaterique was used during the 1980s by the Contras and by the Argentine 601 Intelligence Battalion, which was involved ...

base, in Honduras. Argentina also provided security advisors, intelligence training and some material support to forces in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

to suppress local rebel groups as part of a U.S.-sponsored program called

Operation Charly Operation Charly ( es, Operación Charly, links=no), was allegedly the code-name given to a program during the 1970s and 1980s undertaken by the junta in Argentina with the objective of providing military and counterinsurgency assistance to righ ...

."Los secretos de la guerra sucia continental de la dictadura"
Clarín, March 24, 2006

Ousted in a coup

Viola found his maneuvering space greatly reduced, and was ousted by a military coup in December 1981, led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General

Leopoldo Galtieri Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri (; 15 July 1926 12 January 2003) was an Argentine general and politician of Italian descent who served as President of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982. Galtieri ruled as a military dictator during the Nati ...

, who soon became President. The official explanation given for the ousting was Viola's alleged health problems. Galtieri swiftly appointed

Roberto Alemann Roberto Alemann (December 22, 1922 – March 27, 2020) was an Argentine lawyer, economist, publisher, and academic. Twice Minister of Economy, he was also the Argentine ambassador to the United States and director of the traditional Argentine-Ge ...

as finance minister and presided over the build-up and pursuit of the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland I ...

Later years

After the collapse of the military regime and the election of

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 tha ...

in 1983, Viola was arrested, judged for

violations committed by the military junta during the

Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...

, and sentenced to 17 years in prison. His health deteriorated in prison; Viola was pardoned by

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. ...

in 1990 together with all junta members. He died on 30 September 1994, two weeks before his 70th birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viola, Roberto Eduardo Acting presidents of Argentina Presidents of Argentina 1924 births 1994 deaths People from Buenos Aires Recipients of Argentine presidential pardons Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine generals Colegio Militar de la Nación alumni Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery 20th-century Argentine politicians Heads of government who were later imprisoned Argentine politicians convicted of crimes Grand Crosses of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru Leaders ousted by a coup