Montoneros
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Official logo of Montoneros |
The
Montonero Peronist Movement (
Spanish:
Movimiento Peronista Montonero) was an
Argentine radical
leftist nationalist catholic guerrilla group, active during the 1970s. Its motto was
venceremos ("we'll win").
The group formed around
1970 from the confluence of
Catholic groups with Social Studies students' groups and with left-wing supporters of
Juan Domingo Perón. Their best-known leader was
Mario Firmenich. The Montoneros hoped that Perón would return from exile in
Francoist Spain and transform Argentina into a "Socialist Fatherland".
The Montoneros initiated a campaign to destabilize the pro-American regime then in power. In retaliation against a massacre, the Montoneros kidnapped and executed former Argentinean dictator
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu (1955-58) and other citizens, among them, unionists, politicians, diplomats, and businessmen. They financed their operations by ransoming rich businessmen or foreign executives, gaining as much as $14.2 million in a single deal in 1974 for an
Exxon executive.
On
March 11,
1973, Argentina held general elections for the first time in ten years. Perón loyalist
Héctor Cámpora became president, before resigning in July to allow Perón to win the new elections in October. However a feud developed between right-wing Peronists and the Montoneros. The right-wingers, the unions, and the Radical Party leaded by
Ricardo Balbín, favoured a social pact between trade unions and employers rather than a socialist revolution. Right-wingers and Montoneros clashed at Perón's homecoming ceremony during the
June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre, leaving 13 dead and more than 300 wounded. Perón supported the
unions, the radicals leaded by
Ricardo Balbín and the right-wing peronists, among whom
José López Rega, founder of the
Alianza Anticomunista Argentina ("Triple A")
death squad, which had organized the massacre, along with the Peronist and non-Peronist guerrilla groups.
In May 1974, the Montoneros were expelled from the
Justicialist movement by Perón. However, the Montoneros waited until after the death of Perón in July 1974 to react, with the exception of the assassination of
José Ignacio Rucci, general secretary of the CGT (
General Confederation of Labour) on September 25, 1973, and some other military actions.
The Montoneros claimed the "social revolutionary vision of authentic Peronism" and started guerrilla operations against the government. In the government the more radically right-wing factions quickly took control;
Isabel Perón, President since Juan Perón's death, was essentially a figurehead under the influence of former police officer
José López Rega.
On July 15, 1974, Montoneros assassinated
Arturo Mor Roig, a former foreign minister. In September, in order to finance their operations, they kidnapped two members of the
Bunge and Born business family. They demanded and received as ransom $60 million in cash and $1.2 million worth of food and clothing to be given to the poor. This ransom is the highest ever paid according to
Guinness Book of Records.
The Triple A under López Rega's auspices began hunting down, killing, and arresting Montoneros and members of
Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) as well as other leftist militant groups.
The Montoneros and
ERP went on to attack business and political figures throughout Argentina as well as raid military bases for weapons and explosives. The Montoneros killed executives from
General Motors,
Ford and
Chrysler. The group also sank an Argentine naval ship in
1975. On
July 2,
1976 they detonated a powerful bomb in the Federal Intelligence Department of
Buenos Aires, killing 18 and injuring 66 people, many of them innocent civilians.
By the time
Videla's military Junta took power in March of '76, approximately ten thousand political prisoners were being held in various prisons around Argentina. These political prisoners were held throughout the years of the dictatorship, many of them never receiving trials, in prisons such as La Plata, Devoto, Rawson, and
Caseros.
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Alternate logo of Montoneros |
In March 1976, Isabel Perón was ousted and a
military junta installed, led by General
Jorge Rafael Videla. The Junta responded to guerrilla groups with a
Dirty War to counter terrorism. Up to 30,000 people died or disappeared at the hands of regular units of the armed forces and sanctioned vigilant organizations between 1976 and 1983. They relied on mass arrests, torture, and executions without trial, the bodies that were not helicoptered out into the
Atlantic Ocean, being left on the streets as an example to the militants still at large. The Montoneros suffered heavy losses, out of around 7000 active supporters 1600 were killed in
1976 and the rest forced to scatter.
The Montoneros were effectively finished by
1977, although some did fight on until
1981.During the
Falklands War, the Argentinian military conceived the failed
Operation Algeciras, a plan to convince some Montoneros to, out of patriotism and with some covert support, sabotage the British military facilities in
Gibraltar.
Argentina remained under military rule until
December 10,
1983, finally achieving democracy following the war fiasco.
*
Mario FirmenichGuerrillas and Generals: The Dirty War in Argentina, by Paul H. Lewis (2001).
Argentina's Lost Patrol: Armed Struggle 1969-1979 by María José Moyano (1995).
Argentina, 1943-1987: The National Revolution and Resistance, by Donald C. Hodges (1988).
Soldiers of Perón: Argentina's Montoneros, by Richard Gillespie (1982).
Guerrilla warfare in Argentina and Colombia, 1974-1982, by Bynum E. Weathers, Jr. (1982).
Guerrilla politics in Argentina, by Kenneth F. Johnson (1975).
*"
Dirty War"
*
Argentine Anticommunist Alliance
