Roberto Eduardo Viola (13 October 1924 – 30 September 1994) was an Argentine military officer who briefly served as president of Argentina 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 Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 72,205. ...

President of Argentina

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

Economic policy

Viola appointed Lorenzo Sigaut 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 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. 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 develop ...

" 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 had weakened US diplomatic relationships with Cold War 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 against the

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

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 in ...

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

."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, who soon became President. The official explanation given for the ousting was Viola's alleged health problems. Galtieri swiftly appointed Roberto Alemann as finance minister and presided over the build-up and pursuit of the Falklands War.

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 than ...

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 as ...

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