The Liberating Revolution, 1955-66
On 16 September 1955 the navy revolted with the support of army battalions in the interior, and from Córdoba, General Eduardo Lonardi proclaimed a "Liberating Revolution." A military junta in Buenos Aires took control of the government on September 18, and Perón fled into exile. On September 23 Lonardi was nominated provisional president until Argentina's constitutional democratic institutions were restored. PerOn's ouster showed that his populist administration had proved incapable of responding to the needs of the dominant classes in Argentina.
Lonardi's provisional government was lenient toward the old Peronist order, and it failed to fulfill the economic expectations of the elite and the military — a freeze on wages and a redistribution of wealth away from the working class.
On November 13, 1955, General Pedro E. Aramburu, who had participated in Perón's expulsion, overthrew Lonardi. Aramburu had the tacit support of the moderate left (communists and socialists), the Radicals, and the right wing of the conservative faction to carry out the "de-Peronization" of Argentina. The CGT was put under military control; independent unions were consigned to the care of friendly communists or socialists, and the formation of new parallel unions was encouraged.
Meanwhile, the government began a bloody campaign against the Peronists, who were imprisoned, tortured, and executed. All Peronist organizations were banned, the constitutional reform of 1949 was abrogated, and Decree Number 4161, which banned the use of words associated with the Peronist regime, was issued in March 1956.
The Peronist resistance still counted on a few supporters in the army, whose frustrated coup d'etat of 1956 prompted an official reprisal and the execution of 27 Peronist military officers. The Peronist leadership was disbanded, and a series of indiscriminate terrorist bombings took place between 1956 and 1958. Nonunionized labor groups with Peronist sympathies resorted to work stoppages and sabotage in response to wage freezes and the drop in workers' purchasing power.
The growing labor unrest and the deteriorating economic situation worried the army and the economic elites, who called for new elections. Repression of the Peronist movement led to the creation of the conservative People's Radical Civic Union (Union Civica Radical del Pueblo — UCRP) under Balbin, and the Intransigent Radical Civic Union (Union Civica Radical Intransigente—UCRI), led by Arturo Frondizi.
Frondizi's campaign strategy promised to integrate Peronism into the regime. He established personal contacts with Peron, who was in exile, and promised a general amnesty, legal recognition of the Peronists, and a restoration of the social and economic gains of the workers. Despite a high rate of Peronist abstention, Frondizi won the election of February 1958 with more than 4 million votes and was inaugurated in May.
Frondizi upheld his promises to the Peronists, but his economic program was geared toward opening up the national economy to foreign capital as a means of industrializing the country at any cost. In mid-1958 the government passed a law regulating professional associations that provided for centralization and control of the unions, and in October a general strike was declared.
The government responded by instituting a state of siege and launching a massive campaign of repression. From 1958 to 1962 austerity measures brought forth increasing labor agitation and repression, and the government attempted to make amends with the military and the Peronist movement.
The Peronists carried 40 percent of the votes in the congressional elections of March 1962, and before the end of the month the military staged a coup d'etat that ousted Frondizi and installed José M. Guido as provisional president. Guido's administration conducted an economic program that favored United States interests in Argentina, thus provoking dissension within the armed forces. Two groups surfaced: the colorados (reds), which represented the more reactionary sector of the armed forces, and the less reactionary azules (blues), which included such high-ranking officers as generals Juan Carlos Ongania and Alexandro Agustin Lanusse.
The presidential candidate from the UCRP, Arturo Illia, won the elections of 1963. His victory was limited, however, by a preelectoral agreement between his party and the military that gave the military veto power over all legislation. Although Illia supported moderately conservative policies, he shared middle-class apprehensions about both the workers and the upper classes. His weak measures against the trade unions, foreign interests, and the export sector pleased the lower middle class but irritated employers' associations.
Illia granted a general amnesty to all political prisoners, created a flat tax on total income, and started to curtail foreign oil interests by canceling oil concessions. This hampered the development of the oil industry and led to greater dependence on United States investments. Illia's government was unable to overcome economic stagnation, which was visible in the lack of services to the urban population, rising unemployment and inflation, lack of capital investments, a thriving black market in foreign currencies, and a continuous decline of trade.
The government lacked the political support necessary to enable it to strike a balance among the different interest groups. At the same time, the Peronists began a series of labor actions designed to force the government to allow for Perón's return. Elements in the military felt that stability could be achieved only through the repression of some of those groups. On June 28, 1966, General Ongania led a coup d'etat against Illia, removed all provincial governors, dissolved Congress, banned all political parties, declared all public demonstrations illegal, and proclaimed the Act of the Argentine Revolution.
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