The Military Dictatorship in Argentina

The Military Dictatorship in Argentina

The military dictatorship in Argentina: March 24th, 1976 – December 10th, 1983

The military dictatorship in Argentina was the result of political, social and economic turmoil. It refers to the state-sponsored violence against Argentine citizenry from roughly 1976 to 1983 carried out primarily by the military government. The exact chronology of the repression is still debated, as trade unionists were targeted for assassination as early as 1973.

In 1955, a coup d'état against Juan Perón's government took place leading to Peronism (political party named after the president Perón) being banned by the armed forces and the citizens forbidden to participate in elections until 1973. In 1970, one of the leaders of the 1955 coup was kidnapped and killed by the Peronist guerilla “Montoneros”. By the early seventies, military and police officers were being kidnapped and killed in Peronist and leftist guerilla actions almost weekly, as Argentina was still ruled by military forces.

In 1973, as Juan Perón returned from exile, there was a massacre that marked the end of the alliance between left- and right-wing factions of Peronism. In 1974, Perón withdrew his support of Montoneros shortly before his death, and the far-right paramilitary death squad Argentine Anticommunist Alliance emerged during his widow's presidency. Armed struggle increased, and in 1975 Isabel Martínez de Perón (president’s widow) signed a number of decrees empowering the military and the police to "annihilate" left-wing subversion, most prominently the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) armed activity in the province of Tucumán.
Martínez de Perón was ousted in 1976. Starting that year, the juntas were responsible for the illegal arrest, torture, killing or forced disappearance of thousands of people, primarily trade-unionists, students and activists. This dictatorship referred to its systematized persecution of the Argentine citizenry as the "National Reorganization Process"....

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