La Noche de los Bastones Largos
Encyclopedia
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
(UBA) in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
on July 29, 1966 by the Federal Police
Policía Federal Argentina
The Policía Federal Argentina is a police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country, but its main responsibility is policing the Federal District of Buenos Aires...
. The faculties had been taken by the students, professors and graduates (members of the autonomous government of the university) who opposed the military government's measure of intervening the universities and revoke the regime of the 1918 university reform.
Background
On June 28, 1966, a coup led by General Juan Carlos OnganíaJuan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
had overthrown elected president
President of Argentina
The President of the Argentine Nation , usually known as the President of Argentina, is the head of state of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.Through Argentine history, the...
Arturo Illia and started the military government known as the Revolución Argentina.
The Argentine public universities were by then organised as dictated by the university reform, which established the autonomy of the university, and a political power divided in a tripartite government of students, professors and graduates.
The repression was particularly violent in the faculties of Exact and Natural Sciences
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
The Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences is a faculty of the University of Buenos Aires, functioning in the pavilions I, II and pabellón de industrias at the Ciudad Universitaria.-Organisms of the FCEyN:*************-Other academic Units:**-UBA-CONICET Institutes:Research...
and Philosophy and Literature of the UBA.
The name given to the events refers to the long batons used by the police to hit students, professors and graduates while taking them out detained of the buildings. 400 people were detained, with laboratories and libraries completely destroyed.
Consequences
In the following months hundreds of professors were fired, resigned to their positions or abandoned the country.In total, 301 university professors emigrated, of which 215 were scientists, and 166 found their place in other Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n universities, mainly in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. 94 went to universities of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and 41 moved to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
In some cases, complete research teams were dismantled as in the Instituto de Cálculo de Ciencias Exactas, where the first computer in Latin America was functioning, of which all its 70 members resigned and left the country. Similar cases were those of the Instituto de Psicología Evolutiva and the Instituto de Radiación Cósmica.
Some of the best known affected professors were:
- Sergio BagúSergio BagúSergio Bagú was an Argentinian Marxist historian, sociologist and political philosopher.Bagú, who was born in Buenos Aires, was a lecturer at the University of Illinois, Middlebury College and the University of Buenos Aires. As a university professor, he was exiled by the military junta in...
, historian and sociologist, one of the pioneers of the Theory of dependence. Exiled - Manuel SadoskyManuel SadoskyManuel Sadosky was an Argentine mathematician, born in Buenos Aires to Jewish Russian immigrants fleeing the pogroms. He is widely considered the father of computer science studies in Argentina....
, pioneer of Computer ScienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
in the country. Exiled - Gregorio Klimovsky, epistemology; one of the most important figures in logical mathematics and science philosophy in the country.
- Pablo Miguel Jacovkis, mathematician, dean of the FCEyNFacultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)The Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences is a faculty of the University of Buenos Aires, functioning in the pavilions I, II and pabellón de industrias at the Ciudad Universitaria.-Organisms of the FCEyN:*************-Other academic Units:**-UBA-CONICET Institutes:Research...
, president of the CONICET (1999~2000). - Rolando GarcíaRolando GarcíaRolando García is a Paraguayan footballer currently playing for Defensa y Justicia of the Primera B Nacional in Argentina.-External links:* Profile at* Profile at...
, meteorology, worked with Jean PiagetJean PiagetJean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
. Exiled. - Félix González Bonorino, most important geology scientist of the country.
- Tulio Halperín DonghiTulio Halperín DonghiTulio Halperín Donghi is an Argentine historian.Halperín Donghi was born in Buenos Aires, in 1926. He received both a juris doctor and a Doctorate in History from the University of Buenos Aires, in 1955. Halperín Donghi has since become among Latin America's most renowned historians...
, among Latin America's most renowned historians. - Risieri Frondizi, philosopher and ex-dean of the UBA.
- Juan Roederer, astronomer in charge of the Instituto de Radiación Cósmica.
- Catherine Gattegno de Cesarsky, world-wide known astronomer, since 2006 president of the International Astronomical UnionInternational Astronomical UnionThe International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
. - Telma Reca, psychologist, director of the Instituto de Psicología Evolutiva, fired.
- Mariana Weissmann, atomic physician, receiver of the L'Oréal-Unesco award 2003, and first woman incorporated to the Academia Argentina de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Exiled
Dismantling of the reformist university
With the intervention of the military government to the universities, a strict censorship was applied to the contents of the programs, and the scientific project of tight relationship between education and investigation in the universities.The act of the military government is considered a central reference of the cultural and academic decadence, and the brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...
in Argentina.
Recognition and memory
In 2004 film director Tristán BauerTristán Bauer
Tristán Bauer is an Argentine film maker and screenwriter. His work has received several international awards, particularly for his films Iluminados por el fuego , Después de la tormenta and Cortázar .Bauer serves, from 2007 as the director of the Public Media System of...
presented his film La noche de los bastones largos: el futuro intervenido', based in the events of July 29, 1966.
In July 2005 the Federación Universitaria Argentina
Federación Universitaria Argentina
The Argentine University Federation is the most important student organization in Argentina...
delivered recognition diplomas to the 70 professors that resigned in 1966 to their positions at the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
External links
- Police repression at the Universidad de Buenos Aires - University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
- Events - Ortiba.org (in Spanish)
- La ciencia corrida - ClarínClarín (newspaper)Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
(in Spanish)* La Noche de los Bastones Largos, the 30 anniversary book La noche de los bastones largos