Everything about Montoneros totally explained
The
Montonero Peronist Movement (
Spanish:
Movimiento Peronista Montonero) was an
Argentine left-wing
Peronist guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. Its motto was
venceremos ("we will win"). After
Juan Perón's return from 20 years of exile and the June 20, 1973
Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing Peronism, the Montoneros were expelled from the
Justicialist party in May 1974 by Perón. The group was almost completely dismantled in 1977, during
Videla's
dictatorship.
From 1970 to Videla's military junta
The group formed around
1970 from the confluence of
Roman Catholic groups with Social Studies students' groups and with left-wing supporters of
Juan Domingo Perón. Their best-known leader was
Mario Firmenich. Montoneros hoped that Perón would return from exile in
Francoist Spain and transform Argentina into a "Socialist Fatherland".
Montoneros initiated a campaign to destabilize by force what they deemed was a pro-American regime. Claiming retaliation against the June 1956
León Suárez massacre and
Juan José Valle's execution, Montoneros kidnapped and executed former dictator
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu (1955–1958) and other citizens who they said collaborated with him, such as unionists, politicians, diplomats, and businessmen. They financed their operations by kidnapping and collecting ransom for businessmen or executives, making as much as $14.2 million in a single abduction for an
Exxon executive in 1974.
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 held in October. However, a feud developed between right-wing Peronists and Montoneros. The right-wing of the Peronist party, the unions, and the Radical Party led by
Ricardo Balbín, favoured a social pact between trade unions and employers rather than a violent 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 led 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 right-wing.
In May 1974, Montoneros were expelled from the
Justicialist movement by Perón. However, 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.
Montoneros claimed to have what they called 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 federal police corporal
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 the
Guinness Book of Records.
The Triple A under López Rega's auspices began hunting down, kidnapping, and killing Montoneros and members of
Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) as well as other leftist militant groups.
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
destroyer, the
ARA Santisima Trinidad in
1975. On
July 2,
1976 they detonated a powerful bomb in the
Argentine Federal Police in Buenos Aires, killing 24 and injuring 66 people. Their numbers (at their strongest, just a few thousand) were no match against the highly organized and ruthless branches of the military, who under the cloak of paramilitary forces (operating out of uniform and without any accountability) didn't hesitate to kidnap and kill even remote acquaintances of militants, or force captured members, through torture, to become informers and turn in their comrades-in-arms.
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, some with political connections and some just guilty by association. 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.
Under Jorge Videla's junta
On
24 March 1976 Isabel Perón was ousted and a
military junta installed, led by General
Jorge Rafael Videla. The Junta reinforced counter-revolutionary operations, leading to the so-called "
Dirty War", which saw approximately 30,000 victims. The Junta relied on mass arrests, torture, and executions without trial to stifle any political opposition. The victims' bodies that were not
helicoptered out into the Atlantic Ocean were left on the streets as an example to militants still at large. The Montoneros suffered heavy losses in 1976 - 1980 out of around 7000 active supporters were killed, with the rest forced to scatter.
Montoneros were effectively finished by 1977, although some did fight on until 1981. During the
Falklands War against Great Britain, the Argentine military conceived the failed
Operation Algeciras, a covert plan to support and convince some Montoneros (appealing to their patriotism) to sabotage
British military facilities in
Gibraltar. Argentina's defeat led to the fall of the Junta, and
Raul Alfonsin became president in December 1983, thus initiating the
democratic transition.
Members
Books
Guerrillas 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).Further Information
Get more info on 'Montoneros'.
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