The Guerrilla Movement (1955-1976)

The bond between the working class and the military proved flimsy without the glue of Perón's remarkable charisma. Perón's departure kicked off an unstable succession of military-led or military-approved administrations whose first order of business was to purge the government of pro-labor elements. Peronist party members were labeled as communists, fired, and barred from elections. President Aramburu did his best to neutralize the powerful symbolism of the Peróns, displaying their surprisingly luxurious belongings to the public and even sending Evita's body abroad to be hidden.

Despite these efforts, Juan and Evita lived on in the hearts of workers, many of whom kept secret shrines to the couple in their shantytown homes. And they would need all the spiritual support they could get, since those in power were set on rolling back wages, lengthening the workweek, and crushing union power. In this antagonistic climate, workers organizations became increasingly radicalized. Young workers and organizers, shut out of politics by a corrupt and oppressive regime, eventually embraced acts of violence and even terrorism to achieve their goals. In the late 1960s they were joined by the frustrated youth of the urban middle class.

In 1966, President Ongonía took the unprecedented step of purging the University of Buenos Aires of leftist sympathizers. The resulting protest was beaten down with a brutal police attack that left 30 students and professors injured and 200 in jail. Over the next few years, student hardliners joined forces with the extreme labor organizations, creating dozens of guerrilla organizations devoted to restoring Peronism by whatever means necessary. Che Guevara's execution in Bolivia (1967) provided these groups with an inspiring martyr. Rioters took control of downtown Córdoba (1969) in what became known as the Cordobazo; the army fought its way in over the next several days. A palpable movement gathered steam as retired president Aramburu was kidnapped and executed by the most prominent guerrilla group, the Montoneros. A wave of assassinations, bombings, and ransom operations ensued. The guerrillas attacked military bases and occupied small towns, mounting over a thousand attacks from 1969 to 1971.

Out of desperation, the junta called elections in 1973, this time allowing Peronists to run. The Peronists were thrilled when their candidate, Héctor Cámpora, swept the polls; all that was missing was Perón himself, scheduled to arrive on June 20. But the glorious return of the man who gave birth to Peronism went awry when a gunfight broke out between Peronist factions at Ezeiza airport, forcing Perón to land elsewhere and exposing the deep divisions within the movement. At Perón's bidding Cámpora hastily called another election and resigned. The 78 year old Perón handily won his third term as Argentina's commander in chief, with his wife, Isabel Peron, as vice president.

Whether Perón could have succeeded in patching up the growing fractures in Peronism and Argentine society at large will never be known. He died of heart failure just a year after his return, leaving Isabel to be the first female head of state in the Americas. Unfortunately she proved unable to stitch up the increasingly volatile state of the nation, as the Montoneros declared war on the government, inflation soared, wealthy Argentines fled the country, and the population at large waited in horror to see what would happen next.

Isabel will forever be remembered for her reliance on astrology to make decisions and her tacit support of an anti-guerrilla death squad known as the Triple A. The guerrillas responded to the Triple A's atrocities with their own campaign of terror, killing hundreds, including innocent bystanders. By 1976 Argentina seemed to be in its deepest mess yet. With massive civil unrest and inflation running at 600%, the military stepped into politics yet again with public support. Little did people know that the worst was ahead.

The Dirty War