Military coups in Argentina
The military coup of September 6, 1930 was led by General José Félix Uriburu and overthrew president Hipólito Yrigoyen of the Radical Civic Union, who had been democratically elected to exercise his second term in 1928.
On September 10, Uriburu was recognized "interim" president of the nation by the Supreme Court by the agreement that led to the doctrine of de facto governments and that would be used to legitimize all other military coups.
[2] Following a trend which was repeated in future coups, Uriburu appointed a civilian as head of the Ministry of Economy, José S. Pérez, who had links with the large landowners and the more conservative factions.
All of the military groups fighting for power during the Revolution of '43 were markedly anti-communist and maintained strong ties to the Catholic Church which reestablished its presence (absent since the 19th century), especially in the area of education.
Internal fighting unleashed two more coups, meaning there were three dictators succeeding each other in power and carrying the title of "president": Arturo Rawson, Pedro Pablo Ramírez and Edelmiro Farrell.
[8][9] During this period, the Argentinian unions, mainly the socialists and the syndicalists as well as a few communists, formed an alliance with a group of young army officials led by the Colonel Juan Perón.
The so-called Revolución Libertadora was a transitional military dictatorship, brought about by a coup d'état which overthrew the president Juan Domingo Perón and lasted between 16 and 23 September 1955.
Peronism had been banned by the government of the Revolución Libertadora but Frondizi had allowed it in the elections, although he continued to prohibit Juan Perón from returning to the country and from running as a candidate.
The night of the coup, some lawyers associated with the Supreme Court, one of whom was Horacio Oyhanarte, decided that the downfall of Frondizi had led to the case of a leaderless government and proposed to Guido that, since he was next in line of succession, he assume the presidency, which he did on the morning of March 30.
The military leaders of the coup, who were surprised, skeptical and angry, ended up reluctantly accepting the situation and called Guido to the Casa Rosada to inform him that he would be recognized as the president, provided that he promised committed in writing to execute certain policies stipulated by the Armed Forces, the first of which was to annul the elections won by the Peronist factions.
Guido accepted the military impositions, signed an act affirming this support and only then was he allowed to be given the title "president", but with the obligation of bringing the National Congress to a close and taking control of the provinces.
Guido upheld the military orders he had been given, annulling the elections, shutting down the National Congress, reinstating the ban on Peronism, taking control of the provinces and designating a right-wing economic team which included such figures as Federico Pinedo and José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz.
On June 28, 1966, a military uprising led by General Juan Carlos Onganía overthrew President Arturo Illia (of the Radical Civic Union of the People - UCRP).
[21] The deep political and social conflict generated during the "Argentine Revolution" and the infighting between the many military divisions led to two internal coups, with three dictators succeeding each other in power: Juan Carlos Onganía (1966–1970), Marcelo Levingston (1970–1971) and Alejandro Agustín Lanusse (1971–1973).
On the economic front, the dictatorship handed over the Ministry of Economy to the most conservative-liberal sectors of the civilian population, which was epitomized by Adalberto Krieger Vasena, who had already served as minister under the "Revolución Libertadora".
However, during the dictatorship of Levingston, a nationalist-developmentalist group of the Armed Forces became dominant and named Aldo Ferrer of the Intransigent Radical Civic Union as Minister of the Economy.
On March 24, 1976, a new military uprising overthrew president Isabel Perón and established a permanent dictatorship (a bureaucratic-authoritarian state), calling itself the "National Reorganization Process".
The National Reorganization Process began the Dirty War, a type of state terrorism which massively violated human rights and led to the disappearance of tens of thousands of opponents.
On November 21, 1981, the military junta declared Roberto Eduardo Viola incapable of exercising his functions as president of Argentina due to "health problems."
Vice Admiral Carlos Alberto Lacoste temporarily replaced General Viola, until December 22, 1981, when Galtieri took office as president of Argentina, becoming the new dictator of his country.
The economic teams formed by the military government tended to be made of the same figures, mainly coming from the conservative-liberal sections of society, leading some to say that the Armed Forces behaved as a political party of the upper classes.
[31] During the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution, the doctrine of de facto governments and methods of preventing them from establishing themselves in future coups d'état were discussed at length.
