In the evening of March 23, 1976, Argentina's president, Isabel Martínez de Perón, received a reassuring phone call from her minister of defense. Beleaguered on all sides, with little support from the populace, growing civil unrest and incidents of domestic terrorism, and hostility from the upper echelons of her armed forces, Isabel was told: "Madame, you can rest peacefully. Tonight there won’t be a military coup.” [1]
A few hours later, around one o'clock in the morning, exactly forty years ago today, President Isabel Perón, the world's first woman president, was arrested and deposed from office.
The Argentine reign of terror had begun.
Peronism (peronismo in Spanish) is an enigmatic thing: a national and economic philosophy, a political affiliation, and a pragmatic and personal approach to crafting solutions, temporary or long-term, to vexing problems of the state and its populace. Considered to be a particularly Argentine flavor of populism, Peronism defies attempts to classify it as belonging to either the right or left. As is often the case with populism, it incorporated elements from both ends of the political and economic spectrum:
- Nationalism and racial identity politics on the right with broad acceptance of immigrants on the left
- Integration of business and government (especially the military) on the right with a wide array of endeavors to effect socio-economic improvements for the poor and working class on the left
- Authoritarian rule and support for the Catholic Church and traditional values on the right with commitments to equality for women and universal health care and free education through university on the left
In short, Peronism was often whatever Juan Perón judged appropriate and useful considering the circumstances and problems of the moment. His supporters ranged to both extremes and Perón carefully kept both sides in play, united in personal loyalty to himself and each believing that El Presidente was in full agreement but had to compromise at times for political reasons.
Because Peronism was so pliable, it was easy to attribute any particular position to it and even believe that Perón himself could be mistaken about the implementation of his own philosopy. One Peronista once opposed one of Peron's policies and famously said “to save Perón, one has to be against Perón." [2]
In 1955, Perón was deposed during his second term as president and exiled to Panama (and later, Spain). The years after Perón's fall from power had not been kind to Argentina. Economic changes in the world's markets had left Argentina behind, falling from one of the globe's wealthiest nations to a middling developing country. Democracy had been fractured with Perón's banishment and mediocre leaders in the intervening decades left few Argentinos confident and trusting toward government. The U.S.-Soviet proxies of the Cold War divided the world into enemy camps, competing for dominance, and Argentina fit into neither one.
Its rightwing authoritarian and fascist elements were openly in armed conflict, at times, with its leftist reformers. The powerful and ubiquitous Catholic Church itself was torn asunder; the ranking bishops and archbishops, traditional upholders of the rich and the oligarchy, were battling insurrection by the laity, nuns and parish priests who were practicing Liberation Theology rather than Roman platitudes for society's lowest rungs. [3] Civil life was unstable, the economy was riding a roller coaster, and both the left and right felt that collapse of the existing order was imminent.
In 1973 most of the country thought that the only person who could right things and restore Argentina to stability and greatness was Juan Perón. He was still in exile and banned from standing for election but his faithful companion, Hector Campora, stood in for him and was elected president. Perón was invited back to his homeland a month later.
Remember that quote about saving Perón by opposing Perón? Both the left and right peronistas believed that they must do that, must force Perón to acknowledge their unique claim to being representatives of his true legacy and the valid path forward for Argentina. Accordingly, some three million peronistas, mostly leftists, flocked to Ezeiza Airport, outside Buenos Aires, to greet their returning savior on June 20, 1973.
Rightwing peronistas, camouflaged and hidden on rooftops at the terminal, opened fire on the crowd, killing 13 and injuring 365 more of those they considered traitors to "true" peronismo. [4] The war for the heart and soul of Peronism and Argentina's future was in full swing.
Campora called for new elections and resigned the presidency shortly thereafter. Perón, now legally eligible to be a candidate, easily won the election with 62% of the vote, with Isabel elected as his vice-president. Perón, who had previously courted Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and the revolutionary Montoneros, eventually entrusted more power and authority in the radical right wing of his party. Perón spurned the left wing that he had nurtured for decades, leaving them feeling betrayed and powerless to effect changes via conventional politics. They turned to violence, purportedly even plotting to kill their erstwhile leader and his wife, Isabel. [5]
His minister of social welfare, José López Rega, created the Triple A (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina or Argentine Anticommunist Alliance), a death squad that targeted leftists. Its victims included students, writers, attorneys, judges, police chiefs and more; more than a thousand Argentinos were killed and that was just a precursor to the terror that would begin a few years later.
When Juan Perón died in July of 1974, the country he had returned to save was instead caught in a spiral of polarized violence and economic turmoil. The extreme factions of Peronism, previously united only by the charisma and force of personality of their titular leader, were determined to wrest power and set the course for Argentina's future.
Isabel assumed the presidency bereft of strategic allies. The heads of the army, navy and air force considered her a weak leader even though she granted them more and more powers to quell the unrest and incidents of domestic terrorism. The trade unions, very powerful in the corporatist state model of Argentine nationalism, also rejected Isabel's authority and succeeded in the effort to impeach her in Congress on suspicion of corruption and embezzlement of state funds. Isabel used executive actions to remove many leftists from offices in the federal and provincial governments and universities, earning her yet more detractors.
The Triple A was not the only source of political assassinations: the Montoneros and other revolutionary leftists also enacted reprisals against their enemies. Although it was the rightwing government-sponsored kidnappings and murders that were most prevalent, the instances of similar violence by the left gave Isabel and her advisers sufficient reason to declare a state of siege in November, shutting down newspapers critical of the government, suspending habeas corpus, and censoring television broadcasts.
Isabel could not count on the support of the people. Unlike Eva (Evita) Duarte de Perón—the beloved second wife of Juan—Isabel was not a popular and respected figure. Although there was initial public sympathy for Perón's widow, Isabel had little else other than her late marriage to qualify her to lead the nation. A grade school education, her pre-Perón career as a cabaret dancer, her reliance on blatantly corrupt cronies, and her credence in astrology and mysticism did little to inspire public confidence in her abilities—casting horoscopes to make decisions about public policy was not a good substitute for critical analysis and capable advisers.
Rampant inflation (as high as 700% annually), price shocks at the markets and on utility bills, and widespread general strikes made for an angry and frustrated citizenry. By early March of 1976, the nation's newspapers were openly speculating on how much longer she would last before the military seized power. The answer would be measured in days.
In Part II tomorrow, we will examine the terrifying years of the military dictatorship and its brutal history of torture, kidnapping and murder. Update: Part II has now been published.
Today is a national holiday in Argentina, the Day for Remembrance of Truth and Justice (Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia) . Events and activities are scheduled throughout the country to mourn the dead and missing, the best known being the march of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who assemble in front of the Casa Rosada (presidential palace) with photos of their "disappeared" children. Solemn tours of some of the state torture and detention centers are given, as evidence of the depths to which the nation can sink should it not remain watchful and proactive to ensure "never again."
[1] The night before the Argentine military coup 24 March 1976, according to Videla, MercoPress
[2] Augusto Vandor at Wikipedia
[3] A Concise History of Liberation Theology by Leonardo and Clodovis Boff
[4] The Ezeiza Massacre by Christopher Minster
[5] THE MONTONEROS: Argentina’s National Revolutionaries by Dan Canuckistan