Montoneros

Name	Montoneros
Logo	Montoneros Logo 2.png
Caption	Official logo of Montoneros
Dates	1970-1979
Leader	Mario Firmenich
Motives	Establishment of a socialist dictatorship in Argentina.
Area	Argentina
Ideology	Far-left Peronism, Marxism
Crimes	Individual terror, Improvised explosive devices
Attacks	Kidnap and execution of Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, sniper kill of José Ignacio Rucci
Status	Decree 261 by Isabel Martínez de Perón considered it a subversive group, and ordered its annihilation. The group was utterly defeated by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance and the National Reorganization Process.

Montoneros () was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 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 destroyed by 1977, during the Dirty War.

From 1970 to Videla's military junta

The Montoneros formed around 1970 out of a confluence of Roman Catholic groups, university students in social sciences, and fascist supporters of Juan Domingo Perón. "The Montoneros took their name from the pejorative term used by the 19th-century elite to discredit the mounted followers of the popular caudillos." 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".

The Montoneros initiated a campaign to destabilize by force what they deemed a pro-American regime. In 1970, claiming to act in retribution for the June 1956 León Suárez massacre and Juan José Valle's execution, the Montoneros kidnapped and executed former dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu (1955–1958) and others who they said were his collaborators, such as unionists, politicians, diplomats, and businessmen. In November 1971, in solidarity with militant car workers, Montoneros took over a car manufacturing plant in Caseros, sprayed 38 Fiats with petrol, and then set them afire.

In July 1972, they laid explosives in the Plaza de San Isidro in Buenos Aires that injured three policemen, blinded one fireman, and killed another. In April 1973, Colonel Héctor Irabarren, head of the 3rd Army Corps' Intelligence Service, was gunned down when resisting a kidnap attempt by the Mariano Pojadas and Susana Lesgart units of the Montoneros. They financed their operations by kidnapping and collecting ransom for businessmen or executives, making as much as $14.2 million in a single abduction of 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 the Montoneros. The right wing of the Peronist party, the unions, and the Radical Party led by Ricardo Balbín favored 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 the latter was a former federal police corporal, José López Rega, who was the founder of the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina ("Triple A") death squads, which had organized the massacre.

On 21 February 1974, the Montoneros killed Teodoro Ponce, a right-wing Peronist labor leader in Rosario. He had sought refuge in a business locality after being shot at while driving by a car load of masked gunmen. One of the gunmen who got out of the car shot him dead while he lay on the floor and also shot a woman, who screamed out "Murderer."

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 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 Rega.

On July 15, 1974, Montoneros assassinated Arturo Mor Roig, a former foreign minister. On July 17, they murdered journalist and editor-in-chief of El Día newspaper, David Kraiselburd. 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 orders began hunting down, kidnapping, and killing members of Montoneros and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) as well as other leftist militant groups, or anyone in general considered a leftist subversive or sympathizer, like their deputies or lawyers.

The Montoneros and the 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. On 16 September 1974 about forty Montoneros bombs exploded throughout Argentina, targeting foreign companies and also ceremonies commemorating the military revolt which had ended Juan Peron's first term as president. Targets included three Ford showrooms; Peugeot and IKA-Renault showrooms; Goodyear and Firestone tire distributors, the pharmaceutical manufacturers Riker and Eli Lilly, the Union Carbide Battery Company, the Bank of Boston, Chase Manhattan Bank, the Xerox Corporation, and the soft drink companies, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. Discouragement of foreign investment in Argentina came in the form of blowing up executives' homes. For example, in 1975 the homes of five executives of Lazar Laboratories were attacked with bombs in the suburb of La Plata in Buenos Aires. On 26 February 1975, the Montoneros kidnapped and killed John Patrick Egan, the US consul in the city of Córdoba, in the country's northern interior.

The Montoneros' leadership was keen to learn from the ERP's Compañía de Monte Ramón Rosa Jiménez operating in the Andean province of Tucumán and in 1975 sent "observers" to spend a few months with the ERP platoons operating against the 5th Infantry Brigade, then consisting of the 19th, 20th and 29th Mountain Infantry Regiments. On 28 August 1975 the Montoneros, in a gesture of solidarity with the ERP, planted a bomb in a culvert at the Tucumán air base airstrip. The blast destroyed an Air Force C-130 transport carrying 116 anti-guerrilla commandos of the Gendarmerie heading for home leave, killing five and wounding forty, one of whom died of his injuries. On 5 October 1975, in perhaps the most elaborate Montonero operation ever, the 5th Brigade suffered another blow at the hands of Montoneros, when a Montonero force numbering perhaps several hundred hijacked of a civilian airliner bound for Corrientes from Buenos Aires. The guerrillas redirected the plane towards Formosa province, where they took over the provincial airport. Along with a tactical support from a local group, the invaders broke into the barracks of the 29th Infantry Regiment, firing automatic weapons and throwing hand grenades. They met with fierce resistance from a group of conscripts and NCOs who recovered from initial surprise. In the aftermath, twelve soldiers and two policemen were killed and several injured; the Montoneros lost 16 men. The Montonero attackers made good their escape by air towards a remote area in adjoining Santa Fe province. The aircraft, a Boeing 737, landed on a crop field not far from the city of Rafaela. The sophistication of the operation, and the hideouts they used, suggest the involvement of not only several hundred guerrillas, but also dozens of supporters. During February 1976 the Montoneros sent assistance to the hard-pressed Compañía de Monte Ramón Rosa Jiménez in the form of a company of their elite "Jungle Troops", while the ERP backed them up with a company of their own guerrillas from Cordoba.

The Montoneros were inspired by the British and Italian wartime commando raids on warships, and on 1 November 1974 the Montoneros successfully blew up General Commissioner Alberto Villar, the chief of the Argentine federal police in his yacht. His wife was also killed in the spot. On 24 August 1975 their frogmen planted a mine on the river's bed below the hull of a navy destroyer, the ARA Santísima Trinidad , as she remained docked at Rio Santiago before her commissioning. The explosion caused considerable damage to the ship's computer and electronic equipment. On 14 December 1975, using the same techniques, Montoneros frogmen placed explosives on the naval yacht Itati in an attempt to kill the Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy, Admiral Emilio Massera. While Massera was not injured, the yacht was badly damaged by the explosives.

While the ERP fought the army in Tucumán, the Montoneros were active in Buenos Aires. The Montonero leadership dismissed the tactics of the ERP in Tucumán as "old fashioned" and "inappropriate". On 26 October 1975 five policemen were killed in Buenos Aires when their patrol cars were ambushed near the San Isidro Cathedral. In December 1975, Montoneros raided an armaments factory in the capital's Munro neighborhood, fleeing with 250 assault rifles and submachineguns. That same month, a Montonero bomb exploded at the headquarters of the Argentine Army in Buenos Aires, injuring at least six senior officers. In January 1976, the son of retired Lieutenant-General Julio Alsogoray, Juan Alsogaray (El Hippie), copied from his father's safe a draft of "Battle Order 24 March" and passed it to the head of the Montoneros intelligence, Rodolfo Walsh, who informed the guerrilla leadership.On February 2, 1976 about fifty Montoneros attacked the Juan Vucetich Police Academy in the suburb of La Plata but were repelled when the police cadets fought back and reinforcements arrived.On 13 February 1976, the Argentine Army scored a major success when the 14th Airborne Infantry Regiment ambushed the 65-strong Montoneros Jungle Company in a fierce action near the town of Cadillal in Tucuman.In the week preceding the military coup, the Montoneros killed 13 policemen as part of its Third National Military Campaign. On July 2, 1976 they detonated a powerful bomb in the Argentine Federal Police in Buenos Aires, killing 24 and injuring 66 people. On 12 September 1976 a car bomb destroyed a bus carrying police officers in Rosario, killing 11 policemen and two passers-by. There were at least 50 wounded. On 17 October a bomb blast in an Army Club Cinema in downtown Buenos Aires killed 11 and wounded about 50 officers and their families. On 9 November, eleven police officers were wounded when a bomb exploded at the police headquarters of La Plata during a meeting of the Buenos Aires police chiefs. On November 16, about 40 guerrillas stormed the police station at Arana, 30 miles south of Buenos Aires. Five policemen and one army captain were wounded in the battle. On 15 December, another bomb planted in a Defense Ministry movie hall killed at least 14 and injured 30

By the time Videla's military Junta took power in March of 1976, approximately five 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 redoubled the Dirty War anti-guerilla campaign. According to different sources, 8,000 to 30,000 people, are estimated to have disappeared and died during the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. The Junta relied on mass illegal arrests, torture, and executions without trial to stifle any political opposition. Some victims were thrown from transport planes into the Atlantic Ocean on what have become famously known as death flights. Others had their corpses left on streets as intimidation of others. The Montoneros admit 5,000 guerrillas killed.

The Montoneros were effectively finished off by 1977, although their "Special Forces" did fight on until 1981. The Montoneros tried to disrupt the World Cup Soccer Tournament being hosted in Argentina in 1978 by launching a number of bomb attacks. In late 1979, the Montoneros launched a "strategic counteroffensive" in Argentina, and the security forces killed more than one hundred of the exiled Montoneros, who had been sent back to Argentina after receiving special forces training in camps in the Middle East. During the 1980s a captured Sandinista commando revealed that Montoneros "Special Forces" were training Sandinista frogmen and conducting gun runs across the Gulf of Fonseca to the Sandinista allies in El Salvador, FMLN guerrillas. During the Falklands War against Great Britain, the Argentine military conceived the aborted Operation Algeciras, a covert plan to support and convince some Montoneros, by appealing to their patriotism, to sabotage British military facilities in Gibraltar. Argentina's defeat led to the fall of the Junta, and Raúl Alfonsín became president in December 1983, thus initiating the democratic transition.

Notable Members

Esther Norma Arrostito

Dardo Cabo

Juan Gelman

Francisco Urondo

Rodolfo Walsh

Hector G. Oesterheld

See also

Dirty War

People's Revolutionary Army

Argentine Anticommunist Alliance

Political Military Organization

References

Books

Brown, Jonathan C. 2010. A brief history of Argentina. 2nd edition. Facts on File, Inc.

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).

Category:Guerrilla organizations Category:Terrorism in Argentina Category:Argentine revolutionaries Category:Operation Condor Category:History of Argentina (1955–1973) Category:History of Argentina (1973–1976)