The Argentine Revolution, 1966-72
The military dominated Argentine politics once more after Illia's removal from office. On June 29 a military junta offered the presidency to Ongania, an ultraconservative Catholic who commanded the support of the local industrialists linked to foreign capital. On July 29 the government ordered police and troops to close the University of Buenos Aires under the force of arms and took control of all Argentine universities. This resulted in the mass resignations and exile of the most liberal and leftist professors and generated widespread student reaction against the government.
Ongania's economic policy was geared toward creating favorable conditions for foreign investments, thus reinforcing the country's economic dependence. These were hard times for the Argentine labor force, which suffered from a reduction of the minimum wage, a subsequent wage freeze, and a change in the retirement age from 55 to 60 years. Real wages declined by 8 percent between 1966 and 1970. The protective policies toward basic industries had the effect of increasing foreign ownership from 14 percent of the total in 1957 to 59 percent in 1969 and caused the elimination of locally owned small and medium-sized textile and food-processing enterprises, which lacked access to government credit.
Between 1966 and 1971 over US$2 billion left the country in the form of repatriation of profits, royalties, and dividends. To fill the growing deficit in the balance of payments, Argentina resorted to foreign loans that generated a foreign debt of US$5.3 billion between 1969 and 1971. The government tried to recover its losses by imposing a 5-percent tax on land used in the production of exports and additional taxes on meat and agricultural exports.
The policy of "rationalization" of the agrarian sector led to the closing of 12 sugar mills in 1966, provoking thousands of layoffs and stepping up migration of rural workers to major cities.
Seventeen percent of the population shared 60 percent of the country's total income in 1968, whereas the remaining 83 percent earned only 40 percent. Economic deterioration reached down to the educational system: one-third of all school-age children did not have access to education, and over half of those who entered the educational system never completed it.
Opposition' to Ongania became more militant in 1968 with the creation of the General Confederation of Labor of the Argentines (Confederacion General del Trabajo de los Argentinos — CGTA), under Peronist leadership and supported by the left and the student movement. The CGTA was hampered by its lack of organizational and ideological cohesiveness. Another problem was its lack of support by the large unions (all of which were then under government control). However, the CGTA fulfilled an important role in generating a certain degree of labor militancy among the Argentine working class, which was best exemplified in the events of May 1969 in the city of Cordoba.
The second largest city of Argentina had historically been opposed to administrative centralism. After 1955 Cordoba became a major industrial center, but by the 1960s it was surpassed by Buenos Aires as a center of automobile production. Córdoba's economic decline, together with the institutionalized repression under Ongania, ignited conflicts among local businessmen, foreign automobile interests, workers, and students.
Encouraged by the Cuban Revolution and the May 1968 uprisings in France, the Cordobazo (literally, coup of Córdoba) sprang from the militant working classes and received support from the local business community, students, and the liberal sectors of the Catholic church. The events in Córdoba had important repercussions throughout the country.
The conflicts that led to the Cordobazo started in mid-May. A few isolated incidents of protest were met by armed force, creating a common bond among different sectors of Argentine society. A rise in the price of meal tickets in the universities sparked student protests in the interior. In Rosario the local CGTA supported the student protests against armed intervention; in Córdoba, police brutality provoked street clashes with the workers.
In response to these events, the CGT and the CGTA of Cordoba organized a strike and a demonstration for May 29. In the center of Cordoba the students joined the demonstration, which was met by police and army troops and transformed the city into a battlefield for two days. The violence left 100 dead or injured. Despite the harsh repression coordinated by the National Security Council, the Cordobazo promoted an alliance among students, workers, and local business groups against the government. Government control of the university system and bleak economic prospects brought about the radicalization of these groups.
The Cordobazo inspired a wave of strikes and protests against the Ongania administration, which became more heavy-handed as the opposition turned more militant. A series of political assassinations took place, including that of former president Aramburu.
The unity among the opposition proved to be short-lived. On June 8, 1970, the joint chiefs of staff, led by General Lanusse, deposed Ongania and appointed to the presidency General Roberto Marcelo Levingston, who was recalled from his post as military attaché in Washington. New government economic policies replaced wage freezes with indexing, leading to inflation and discontent among government supporters (bankers and business interests), while the radicalized intellectuals — including many university professors and students, lawyers, and journalists — started an open campaign against the regime. Riots in Córdoba, economic chaos, and lack of political support led the way to Levingston's dismissal by the joint chiefs of staff on March 23, 1971.
Three days later Lanusse was sworn in as president while maintaining his post as army commander. Lanusse immediately contacted Perón in Madrid, approved a project for legalization of all political parties, proposed the "Great National Agreement" for the constitutional reorganization of Argentina, and announced elections for 1973. Lanusse's plan for the process of transition to be directed by the military was legitimized by the proposed agreement, in which Peronism was to be legalized in exchange for Perón's support of the government and condemnation of the budding guerrilla movement.
Between 1968 and 1970 several guerrilla groups began to operate in Argentina, among them the People's Revolutionary Army, the Peronist Armed Forces, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the Montoneros. Revolutionary activism was shared by sectors of the Catholic clergy. The Movement of Priests for the Third World was organized in 1968 by the liberal wing of the Argentine clergy, which applied the tenets of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and those of the 1968 Latin American Bishops' Conference in Medellin, Colombia, to the Argentine reality. Many priests were arrested for their opposition to government violence.
By the end of 1971 the widespread repression had provoked open criticism from groups such as the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, which denounced the obstruction of justice, intimidation, and persecution of Argentine lawyers who defended political prisoners.
Lanusse institutionalized censorship to control the press, other mass media, and the performing and visual arts. Militant groups suffered systematic abductions, arrests, torture, and assassinations. Government backing was provided by over 20 laws passed between 1966 and the early 1970s proscribing "subversion and communism" and establishing the death penalty for political crimes. Lanusse created a new judicial body, the Federal Court Against Subversion, to try political cases.
Twenty-five political prisoners were released in 1971 after being subjected to torture, and several others disappeared; 16 people who were alleged to have helped in the hijacking of a plane in Rawson (Chubut Province) were executed in 1972 after attempting an escape from Rawson Prison. The executions fomented popular demonstrations throughout the country. After the incident and the resulting protests, the administration imposed even more severe treatment on the remaining 2,000 political prisoners in Argentina.
Prior to the 1973 elections, the government established eligibility requirements for all presidential candidates, including residence in Argentina before August 25, 1972. Perón refused to comply with the residence requirement or to declare himself a candidate, although he arrived in December to carry out political negotiations. Instead, he appointed Hector J. Cámpora candidate of a coalition of the Peronist Justicialist Party (Partido Justicialista — PJ) and a large number of small parties. The last year of Lanusse's administration entailed intense political activity as all factions tried to build their political bases in preparation for the elections of 1973.
The economy deteriorated further in 1971 and 1972. The most important indicators of this were rising inflation, a lack of foreign currency reserves, a trade deficit, and meat shortages. Labor strikes, demonstrations, increasing violence and police torture, and terrorist attacks and counterattacks were widespread. There was a general climate of disintegration and the threat of a major national insurrection unless the government allowed free elections to take place in 1973.
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