The National Reorganization Process ( PRN;https://www.perfil.com/bnoticias/sociedad/estados-unidos-revelo-que-agentes-ultima-dictadura-dinamitaron-cuerpos-30-personas.phtml often simply , "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from the coup d'état of 24 March 1976 until the transfer of power on 10 December 1983 to a government elected at the 1983 general election. In Argentina it is often known simply as the ("last military junta"), ("last military dictatorship"), ("last civil–military dictatorship"), or ("last civil–clerical-military dictatorship")—because there have been several in the country's history and no others like it since it ended. In journalism, and more rarely in academic literature, it has sometimes been referred to as totalitarian for its state terrorism mechanisms and an ideology centered around "national integrity", although the more commonly used terms in academia are "authoritarian" and "bureaucratic-authoritarian".Attributed to multiple sources:Phillip W. Gray. Totalitarianism: The Basics. Routledge, 2023: "The military junta of Chile under Augusto Pinochet (1974–1990) and the Argentinian military dictatorship (1976–1983) involved a great deal of brutality... And yet, these regimes lacked other traits that would be totalitarian in nature. [...] While brutality is a notable trait for totalitarianism (at least potentially), this is a trait shared with authoritarian and other types of regimes." Some scholars describe the regime as an example of neo-fascism.
The Argentine Armed Forces seized political power during the March 1976 coup against the presidency of Isabel Perón, the successor and widow of former President Juan Perón, at a time of growing economic and political instability. Congress was suspended, political parties were banned, civil rights were limited, and free market and deregulation policies were introduced. The President of Argentina and his ministers were appointed from military personnel while leftists and Peronists were persecuted. The junta launched the Dirty War, a campaign of state terrorism against opponents involving torture, extrajudicial murder and systematic forced disappearances. Some 30,000 citizens were killed or "disappeared" during the military dictatorship.
Public opposition due to civil rights abuses and inability to solve the worsening economic crisis in Argentina caused the junta to invade the Falkland Islands in April 1982. After starting and then losing the Falklands War against the United Kingdom in June, the junta began to collapse and finally relinquished power in 1983 with the election of President Raúl Alfonsín.
Members of the National Reorganization Process were prosecuted in the Trial of the Juntas in 1985, receiving sentences ranging from life imprisonment to courts-martial for mishandling the Falklands War. They were pardoned by President Carlos Menem in 1989 but were re-arrested on new charges in the early 2000s. Almost all of the surviving junta members are currently serving sentences for crimes against humanity and genocide.
Background
The military of Argentina has always been highly influential in Argentine politics, and Argentine history is laced with frequent and prolonged intervals of military rule. The popular Argentine leader Juan Perón, three-time President of Argentina, was a colonel in the army who first came to political power in the aftermath of a 1943 military coup. He advocated a new policy dubbed Justicialism, a nationalist policy that he claimed was a "Third Position", an alternative to both capitalism and communism. After being reelected president by popular vote, Perón was deposed and exiled by the in 1955.
After a series of weak governments and a seven-year military government, Perón returned to Argentina in 1973 after 18 years in exile in Francoist Spain, amid escalating political unrest, divisions in the Peronist movement, and frequent outbreaks of political violence. His return was marked by the 20 June 1973 Ezeiza massacre, after which the right wing of the Peronist movement became dominant.
Perón was democratically elected president in 1973, but died in July 1974. His vice president and third wife, Isabel Perón, succeeded him, but she proved to be a weak, ineffectual ruler. A number of revolutionary organizations—chief among them , a group of far-left Peronists—escalated their wave of political violence (including kidnappings and bombings) against the campaign of harsh repressive and retaliatory measures enforced by the military and the police. In addition, right-wing paramilitary groups entered the cycle of violence, such as the Triple A death squad, founded by José López Rega, Perón's Minister of Social Welfare and a member of the P2 masonic lodge. The situation escalated until Mrs. Perón was overthrown. She was replaced on 24 March 1976 by a military junta led by Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla.
Dirty War
Official investigations undertaken after the end of the Dirty War by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons documented 8,961 (victims of forced disappearance) and other human rights violations, noting that the correct number must be higher. Many cases were never reported, when whole families disappeared, and the military destroyed many of its records months before the return of democracy. Among the "disappeared" were pregnant women, who were kept alive until giving birth under often primitive circumstances in the secret prisons. The infants were generally illegally adopted by military or political families affiliated with the administration, and the mothers were generally killed. Thousands of detainees were drugged, loaded into aircraft, stripped naked and then thrown into the Rio de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean to drown in what became known as "death flights".Wright, Thomas C. (2006). State Terrorism in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights (Latin American Silhouettes), Rowman & Littlefield. p. 160. Calvin Sims (13 March 1995). "Argentine Tells of Dumping 'Dirty War' Captives Into Sea". . The New York Times. Retrieved 23 September 2015.Ed Stocker (27 November 2012). "Victims of 'death flights': Drugged, dumped by aircraft – but not forgotten". . The Independent. Retrieved 23 September 2015.Teresa Bo (29 November 2012). "Argentina holds 'death flights' trial". . Al Jazeera America. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
The film The Official Story (1984), which won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film category in 1985, addresses this situation. The Argentine secret service SIDE (Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado) also cooperated with the DINA in Pinochet's Chile and other South American intelligence agencies. Eight South American nations supported endeavours to eradicate left-leaning groups on the continent, known as Operation Condor, a United States-backed campaign of anti-democratic and political repression and state terror. It is estimated to have caused the deaths of more than 60,000 people. SIDE also trained—for example in the Honduran Lepaterique base—the Nicaraguan Contras who were fighting the Sandinista government there.
The regime shut down the legislature and restricted both freedom of the press and freedom of speech, adopting severe media censorship. The 1978 World Cup, which Argentina hosted and won, was used as propaganda to rally its people under a nationalist pretense.
Corruption, a failing economy, growing public awareness of the harsh repressive measures taken by the regime, and the military defeat in the Falklands War eroded the regime's image. The last de facto president, Reynaldo Bignone, was forced to call for elections by the lack of support within the Army and the steadily growing pressure of public opinion. On 30 October 1983, elections were held, and democracy was formally restored on 10 December, when President Raúl Alfonsín was sworn in.
Economic policies As Argentina's new de facto president, Videla faced a collapsing economy wracked by soaring inflation. He largely left economic policies in the hands of Minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, who adopted a free trade and deregulatory economic policy.
Martínez de Hoz took measures to restore economic growth, reversing Peronism in favour of a free market economy. His economic measures were moderately successful. He enjoyed the personal friendship of David Rockefeller, who facilitated Chase Manhattan Bank and International Monetary Fund loans of nearly US$1 billion after of his arrival.
He eliminated all price controls and the exchange controls regime. The black market and shortages disappeared. He freed exports (removed existing prohibitions and quotas and export taxes were repealed) and imports (removed existing prohibitions, quotas, and licenses and gradually reduced import tariffs). During his tenure, the foreign debt increased fourfold, and disparities between the upper and lower classes became much more pronounced.Lewis, Paul.The Crisis of Argentine Capitalism. University of North Carolina Press, 1990. The period ended in a tenfold devaluation and one of the worst financial crises in Argentine history.Argentina: From Insolvency to Growth, World Bank Press, 1993.
Viola appointed Lorenzo Sigaut as Finance Minister, and it became clear that Sigaut was looking for ways to reverse some of Martínez de Hoz's policies. Notably, Sigaut abandoned the sliding exchange rate mechanism and devalued the peso, after boasting that "they who gamble on the dollar will lose". Argentines braced for a recession after the excesses of the "sweet money" years, which destabilized Viola's position.La nueva política económica argentina se basa en la modificación del esquema de cambios de la moneda. Según Lorenzo Sigaut, el nuevo ministro de Economía , El País, reproducción del artículo publicado el 8 de abril de 1981.
He appointed conservative economist and publisher Roberto Alemann as Economy Minister. Alemann inherited an economy in deep recession in the aftermath of Martínez de Hoz's policies. Alemann slashed spending, began selling off government-owned industries (with only minor success), enacted a tight monetary policy, and ordered salaries frozen (amid 130% inflation).Lewis, Paul. The Crisis of Argentine Capitalism. University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
The Central Bank Circular 1050, which tied mortgage rates to the value of the U.S. dollar locally, was maintained, leading to further deepening of the crisis; GDP fell by 5%, and business investment by 20% over the weakened levels of 1981.Argentina: From Insolvency to Growth. World Bank Press, 1993.
Bignone chose Domingo Cavallo to head the Argentine Central Bank. Cavallo inherited a foreign debt installment guarantee program that shielded billions of private debt from the collapse of the peso, costing the treasury billions. He instituted controls over the facility, such as the indexation of payments, but this move and the rescission of Circular 1050 threw the banking sector against him; Cavallo and Dagnino Pastore were replaced in August.
The President of the Central Bank, Julio González del Solar, undid many of these controls, transferring billions more in private foreign debt to the Central Bank, although he stopped short of reinstating the hated "1050."
Six years of intermittent wage freezes had left real wages close to 40% lower than during Perón's tenure, leading to growing labor unrest. Bignone's decision to restore limited rights of speech and right to assembly, including the right to strike, led to increased strike activity. Saúl Ubaldini, leader of the General Confederation of Labour, Argentina's largest labor union, was particularly active. The new Economy Minister, Jorge Wehbe, a banking executive with previous experience in the post, reluctantly granted two large, mandatory wage increases in late 1982.
Foreign policy U.S. support