Operativo Independencia
Encyclopedia
Operativo Independencia (Spanish
for "Operation Independence") was the code-name of the Argentine military operation in the Tucumán Province
, started in 1975, to crush the ERP
(Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo or People's Revolutionary Army), a Guevarist guerrilla group which attempted to secede part of Tucuman as an independent nation, in the north-west of Argentina. It was the first large-scale military operation of the Dirty War
.
to Argentina, marked by the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre which led to the split between left and right-wing Peronists, and then his return to the presidency in 1973, the ERP shifted to a rural strategy designed to secure a large land area as a base for military operations against the Argentine state. The ERP leadership chose to send Compañía de Monte Ramón Rosa Jiménez to the province of Tucumán at the edge of the long-impoverished Andean highlands in the northwest corner of Argentina. By December 1974, the guerrillas numbered about 100 fighters, with a 400 person support network, although the size of the guerrilla platoons increased from February onwards as the ERP approached its maximum strength of between 300 and 500 men and women. Led by Mario Roberto Santucho
, they soon established control over a third of the province and organized a base of some 2,500 sympathizers. The Montoneros
' leadership was keen to learn from their experience, and sent "observers" to spend a few months with the ERP platoons operating in Tucumán.
The military operation to crush the insurgency was authorized by the President of the lower house
, Ítalo Argentino Lúder
, who was granted executive power during the absence (due to illness) of the President María Estela Martínez de Perón, better known as Isabel Perón, in virtue of the Ley de Acefalía (law of succession). Ítalo Lúder issued the presidential decree
261/1975 which stated that the "general command of the Army will proceed to all of the necessary military operations to the effect of neutralizing or annihilating the actions of the subversive elements acting in Tucumán Province."
. These included the use of terrorism
, kidnapping
s, "forced disappearances" and concentration camps where hundreds of guerrilleros and their supporters in Tucumán were torture
d and assassinated. The logistical and operational superiority of the military, headed first by General Acdel Vilas, and starting in December 1975 by Antonio Domingo Bussi
, succeeded in crushing the insurgency within a few months and destroying the links between the ERP, led by Roberto Santucho, and the local population.
Brigadier-General Acdel Vilas deployed over 4,000 soldiers, including two companies of elite army commandos, backed by jets, dogs, helicopters, US satellitesand a naval Beechcraft Queen Air B-80 equipped with IR
surveillance assets. The ERP enjoyed considerable support from the local population and its members moved at will among the towns of Santa Lucía
, Los Sosa, Monteros
and La Fronterita around Famaillá
and the Monteros mountains, until the Fifth Brigade came on the scene, consisting of the 19th, 20th and 29th Regiments. and various support units. The guerrillas who had laid low when the mountain brigade first arrived, soon began to strike at the commando units. It was during the second week of February that a platoon from the commando companies was ambushed at Río Pueblo Viejo and took some losses including the death of its platoon commander First Lieutenant Héctor Cáceres. On 24 February an army UH-1H helicopter while supporting troops on the ground, crashes near the town of Ingenio Santa Lucia killing its pilot First Lieutenant Carlos María Casagrande and the co-pilot Second Lieutenant Gustavo P. López. Three months of constant patrolling or on 'cordons and search' operations, with helicopter-borne troops, soon reduced the ERP's effectiveness in the Famaillá area, and so in June, elements of the Fifth Brigade moved to the frontiers of Tucumán to guard against ERP and Montoneros
guerrillas crossing into the province from Catamarca
, and Santiago del Estero
.
In May 1975, ERP representative Amílcar Santucho, brother of Roberto, was captured along with Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, a member of the Chilean MIR
, trying to cross into Paraguay
to promote the Revolutionary Coordinating Junta
(JCR, Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria) unity effort with the MIR, the Uruguayan Tupamaros
and the Bolivian National Liberation Army
. During his interrogation, he provided information that helped the Argentine security agencies destroy the ERP. A June 6, 1975 letter from the United States Justice Department shows that Robert Scherrer, a FBI official, passed on information revealed by the two men to the Chilean DINA. By this point, Operation Condor
, the campaign of repressive cooperation between Latin American intelligence agencies, had already begun, the third phase of which included assassinations of political opponents in Latin America and abroad. Fuentes was then "released" and sent to Chile, where he was last seen in the torture center of Villa Grimaldi
before becoming a desaparecido
.
Nevertheless the military was not to have everything its own way. On 28August 1975 a culvert bomb was planted at the Tucumán air base airstrip by Montoneros
, as a support action to their comrades the ERP. The blast destroyed an Air Force C-130 transport carrying 116 anti-guerrilla Gendarmerie commandos heading for home leave, killing six (Sergeants Juan Rivero and Pedro Yáñez and Corporals Marcelo Godoy, Raúl Cuello, Juan Luna and Evaristo Gómez) and wounding 60.The following day saw the derailment of a train carrying troops back from the guerrilla front about 40 miles south of the city of Tucumán, fortunately without casualties on this occasion.
By July 1975, the commandos were mounting search-and-destroy missions in the mountains. Army forces discovered Santucho's hideout in August, then raided the ERP urban headquarters in September.
With the underground network of ERP supporters in the form of Montoneros sympathizers largely uprooted in the capital of Tucumán province, the last week of the month of August 1975 saw a large number of armed actions on the part of the left-wing guerrillas in the city of Córdoba in order to divert the 2nd and 14th Airborne Infantry Regiments ordered to assist the 5th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which resulted in the death of at least 5 policemen and practically the whole of the elite 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade was called in to restore order and stand guard at strategic points around the city of Córdoba for the remainder of the year, after the bombing of the local police headquarters and radio communications centre.
Most of the Compañía de Monte's general staff was killed in a special forces raid in October but the guerrilla unit continued to fight. Between 7 and 10 October 1975, a sergeant and 7 soldiers and over 30 rural guerrillas were killed in clashes in Tucumán province.On 28 October in a night action that takes place on the banks of Fronterista River the 5th Brigade suffers three killed: Second Lieutenant Diego Barceló and Privates Orlando Moya and Carlos Vizcarra. Between 8 and 16 November 1975 there were other engagements in which the 5th Brigade suffered another six killed.
. Extreme right-wing death squad
s used their hunt for far-left guerrillas as a pretext to exterminate any and all ideological opponents on the left and as a cover for common crimes. Assassinations and kidnappings by the Peronist Montoneros
and the ERP contributed to the general climate of fear. In July, there was a general strike
.
During his brief interlude as the nation's chief executive, interim President Ítalo Lúder
then extended the operation to the whole of the country through decrees 2270, 2271 and 2272, issued on 6 July 1975. The July decrees created a Defense Council headed by the president and including his ministers and the chiefs of the armed forces. It was given the command of the national and provincial police and correctional facilities and its mission was to "annihilate … subversive elements throughout the country". Military control and the state of emergency
was thus generalized to all of the country. The "counter-insurgency" tactics used by the French during the 1957 Battle of Algiers
(relinquishing of civilian control to the military, state of emergency, block warden system (quadrillage), etc.), were perfectly imitated by the Argentine military.
These "annihilation decrees" are the source of the charges against Isabel Perón which led to her arrest in Madrid more than thirty years later, in January 2007, and subsequent extradition to Argentina. The country was then divided into five military zones through a 28 October 1975 military directive of "Struggle Against Subversion". As had been done during the 1957 Battle of Algiers, each zone was divided in subzones and areas, with its corresponding military responsibles. General Antonio Domingo Bussi
replaced in December 1975 Acdel Vidas as responsible of the military operations. A reported 656 persons disappeared in Tucumán between 1974 and 1979, 75% of which were laborers and labor union officials.
, when over one-hundred or perhaps several hundred guerrillas and supporing militants carried out the most elaborate guerrilla operation of the so-called "Dirty War". Its code name inside Montoneros was Operación Primicia ("Operation Scoop"). The action involved the hijacking 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. Joined by a tactical support unit, they broke into the nearby 29th Infantry Regiment's barracks, firing automatic weapons and throwing hand grenades. They met fierce resistance from a group of conscripts and NCOs who reacted after the initial surprise. In the aftermath, 12 soldiers and two policemenwere killed and several injured; Montoneros
lost 16 men.
Once the operation was over, Montoneros
made good their escape by air towards a remote area in Santa Fe province
. The aircraft, a Boeing 737
, eventually landed on a crop field not far from the city of Rafaela
. The sophistication of the operation, and the getaway cars and safehouses they used to escape from the crash-landing site, suggest several hundred guerrillas and their supporters were involved.
In December 1975 most 5th Brigade units were committed to the border areas of Tucumán with over 5,000 troops deployed in the province. There was, however, nothing to prevent 30 of Santucho's most experienced jungle fighters infiltrating through this outer ring and the ERP were still strong inside Buenos Aires. Mario Santucho's Christmas offensive began on 23 December 1975. The operation was a dramatic showdown, with ERP units, supported by Montoneros
, mounting a large scale assault against the army supply base Domingo Viejobueno in the industrial suburb of Monte Chingolo
, south of Buenos Aires. The ERP guerrillas had planned to seize some 20 tons of armaments: 900 FAL rifles with 60.000 magazines of 7.62mm rounds, 100 M-16 assault rifles with 100.000 magazines of 5.56mm rounds, six 20mm Rheinmetall anti-aircraft guns, fifteen 105mm Czekalski anti-tank rifles, Itakas shotguns and 150 submachineguns.The attackers were defeated and driven off with heavy casualties. In this particular battle the ERP and Montoneros
guerrillas had about 1,000 guerrillas and militantsdeployed against 1,000 government forces. This large-scale operation was made possible not only by the audacity of the guerrillas involved, but also by their supporters who provided houses to hide them, supplies, and the means to escape. A soldier who took part in the fighting recalled that many of the guerrillas were very young, some only teenage girls. On 30 December 1975 supporting urban guerrillas exploded a bomb inside the headquarters of the Argentine Army in Buenos Aires, injuring six soldiers.
During their 1975 stint in Tucumán the Fifth Mountain Brigade killed 160 guerrillas at a cost of 22 officers and 21 other ranks killed. This figure does take into account local bodyguards, policemen, and Gendarmerie troops killed in Tucumán, nor soldiers who died defending their barracks in Formosa Province
on 5 October 1975.
Tucumán kept the 5th Mountain Infantry Brigade and 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade busy through 1976, and the mountain and parachute units remained essential as military support for the local police and gendarmerie security forces, and for the apprehension of several hundred ERP and Montoneros
guerrillas who still remained operating in the jungles and mountains and sympathizers hidden among the civilian population. The Baltimore Sun reported at the time, "In the jungle-covered mountains of Tucuman, long known as "Argentina's garden," Argentines are fighting Argentines in a Vietnam-style civil war. So far, the outcome is in doubt. But there is no doubt about the seriousness of the combat, which involves 2,000 or so leftist guerrillas and perhaps as many as 10,000 soldiers."During February 1976, in an effort to rekindle the guerrilla campaign in Tucumán, the Montoneros
had sent in reinforcements in the form of a company of their elite "Jungle Troops". The leader of this Montoneros force, was initially commanded by Juan Carlos Alsogaray (El Hippie), son of General Julio Alsogaray
, who had served as head of the Argentine Army
from 1966 to 1968. The ERP sent their elite "Decididos de Córdoba" Company from Córdoba.General Bussi achieved a major success on 13 February 1976 when the 14th Airborne Infantry Regiment killed El Hippie and ambushed his elite Montoneros
company. Corporal Héctor Roberto Lazarte and Private Pedro Burguener are killed in this action but the guerrillas suffered severe losses. On 10 April 1976 Private Mario Gutiérrez is killed in a guerrilla ambush in Tucuman. In mid-April 1976 the 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade in a major operation conducted against the ERP network in the province of Córdoba, took into custody and forcefully disappeared some 300 militants of that organization.In 5 May 1976, during an armed reconnaissance mission, an army UH-1H helicopter crashed on the banks of Río Caspichango killing Captain José Antonio Ramallo, Lieutenant César Gonzalo Ledesma, Sergeant Walter Hugo Gómez and Corporals Carlos Alberto Parra and Ricardo Zárate. On 7 May in a gunfight near the river, Corporal Ricardo Martín Zárate is killed in a guerrilla ambush. On 10 May, Private Carlos Alberto Fricker is accidentally shot dead by nervous sentries while stationed in Famaillá. On 17 May 1976 Sergeant Alberto Eduardo Lai and Private Juan Ángel Toledo are killed in a remote controlled bomb blast near the town of Caspinchango. In 1976 there were 24 patrol battles resulting in the deaths of 74 guerrillas and 18 soldiers and police in the province of Tucumán.
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "Operation Independence") was the code-name of the Argentine military operation in the Tucumán Province
Tucumán Province
Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...
, started in 1975, to crush the ERP
People's Revolutionary Army (Argentina)
The Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo was the military branch of the communist Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores in Argentina...
(Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo or People's Revolutionary Army), a Guevarist guerrilla group which attempted to secede part of Tucuman as an independent nation, in the north-west of Argentina. It was the first large-scale military operation of the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
.
Prologue
After the return of Juan PerónJuan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
to Argentina, marked by the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre which led to the split between left and right-wing Peronists, and then his return to the presidency in 1973, the ERP shifted to a rural strategy designed to secure a large land area as a base for military operations against the Argentine state. The ERP leadership chose to send Compañía de Monte Ramón Rosa Jiménez to the province of Tucumán at the edge of the long-impoverished Andean highlands in the northwest corner of Argentina. By December 1974, the guerrillas numbered about 100 fighters, with a 400 person support network, although the size of the guerrilla platoons increased from February onwards as the ERP approached its maximum strength of between 300 and 500 men and women. Led by Mario Roberto Santucho
Mario Roberto Santucho
Mario Roberto Santucho was an Argentine revolutionary. He was the leader of ERP . He was killed by the military in a shootout after his hideout was undercovered in 1976. His wife Liliana Delfino was also killed by the military of Argentina the same year.-References:*...
, they soon established control over a third of the province and organized a base of some 2,500 sympathizers. The Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
' leadership was keen to learn from their experience, and sent "observers" to spend a few months with the ERP platoons operating in Tucumán.
February 1975 "annihilation decree"
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
, Ítalo Argentino Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder was an Argentinian politician who served as the acting President of Argentina from September 13, 1975 until October 16, 1975, for Isabel Perón....
, who was granted executive power during the absence (due to illness) of the President María Estela Martínez de Perón, better known as Isabel Perón, in virtue of the Ley de Acefalía (law of succession). Ítalo Lúder issued the presidential decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
261/1975 which stated that the "general command of the Army will proceed to all of the necessary military operations to the effect of neutralizing or annihilating the actions of the subversive elements acting in Tucumán Province."
The military operation
The Argentine military used the territory of the smallest Argentine province to implement, within the framework of its national security doctrine, the methods of the "counter-revolutionary warfare" taught first by the French military, then by The PentagonThe Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
. These included the use of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
s, "forced disappearances" and concentration camps where hundreds of guerrilleros and their supporters in Tucumán were torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d and assassinated. The logistical and operational superiority of the military, headed first by General Acdel Vilas, and starting in December 1975 by Antonio Domingo Bussi
Antonio Domingo Bussi
Antonio Domingo Bussi was an Army General and politician prominent in the recent history of Tucumán Province, Argentina.-Early career:...
, succeeded in crushing the insurgency within a few months and destroying the links between the ERP, led by Roberto Santucho, and the local population.
Brigadier-General Acdel Vilas deployed over 4,000 soldiers, including two companies of elite army commandos, backed by jets, dogs, helicopters, US satellitesand a naval Beechcraft Queen Air B-80 equipped with IR
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
surveillance assets. The ERP enjoyed considerable support from the local population and its members moved at will among the towns of Santa Lucía
Santa Lucia
Santa Lucia is a traditional Neapolitan song. It was transcribed by Teodoro Cottrau and published by the Cottrau firm, as a "barcarolla", at Naples in 1849. Cottrau translated it from Napuletano into Italian during the first stage of the Risorgimento, the first Neapolitan song to be given Italian...
, Los Sosa, Monteros
Monteros
Monteros is a town in Tucumán Province, Argentina, located south-west of the provincial capital San Miguel de Tucumán, and which lies at an altitude of . It has 23,771 inhabitants according to the , and is the head town of the Monteros Department...
and La Fronterita around Famaillá
Famaillá
Famaillá is a city in the province of Tucumán, Argentina, located 30 km south from the provincial capital San Miguel de Tucumán. It has 30,951 inhabitants as per the , and is the head town of the Famaillá Department....
and the Monteros mountains, until the Fifth Brigade came on the scene, consisting of the 19th, 20th and 29th Regiments. and various support units. The guerrillas who had laid low when the mountain brigade first arrived, soon began to strike at the commando units. It was during the second week of February that a platoon from the commando companies was ambushed at Río Pueblo Viejo and took some losses including the death of its platoon commander First Lieutenant Héctor Cáceres. On 24 February an army UH-1H helicopter while supporting troops on the ground, crashes near the town of Ingenio Santa Lucia killing its pilot First Lieutenant Carlos María Casagrande and the co-pilot Second Lieutenant Gustavo P. López. Three months of constant patrolling or on 'cordons and search' operations, with helicopter-borne troops, soon reduced the ERP's effectiveness in the Famaillá area, and so in June, elements of the Fifth Brigade moved to the frontiers of Tucumán to guard against ERP and Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
guerrillas crossing into the province from Catamarca
Catamarca
Catamarca may refer to:*San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, Argentina*Catamarca Province, Argentina...
, and Santiago del Estero
Santiago del Estero
Santiago del Estero is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 244,733 inhabitants, making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a surface area of 2,116 km². It lies on the Dulce River and on National Route 9, at a distance of...
.
In May 1975, ERP representative Amílcar Santucho, brother of Roberto, was captured along with Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, a member of the Chilean MIR
Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)
Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean political party and former left-wing guerrilla organization founded on October 12, 1965...
, trying to cross into Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
to promote the Revolutionary Coordinating Junta
Revolutionary Coordinating Junta
The Revolutionary Coordinating Junta or JCR was an alliance of leftist South American guerrilla organizations in the mid 1970s...
(JCR, Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria) unity effort with the MIR, the Uruguayan Tupamaros
Tupamaros
Tupamaros, also known as the MLN-T , was an urban guerrilla organization in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. The MLN-T is inextricably linked to its most important leader, Raúl Sendic, and his brand of social politics...
and the Bolivian National Liberation Army
National Liberation Army (Bolivia)
The National Liberation Army was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization that operated in Bolivia during the 1960s and 1970s. It was formed by Che Guevara and backed by Fidel Castro's government in Cuba and the Soviet-led alliance in the Cold War...
. During his interrogation, he provided information that helped the Argentine security agencies destroy the ERP. A June 6, 1975 letter from the United States Justice Department shows that Robert Scherrer, a FBI official, passed on information revealed by the two men to the Chilean DINA. By this point, Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...
, the campaign of repressive cooperation between Latin American intelligence agencies, had already begun, the third phase of which included assassinations of political opponents in Latin America and abroad. Fuentes was then "released" and sent to Chile, where he was last seen in the torture center of Villa Grimaldi
Villa Grimaldi
Villa Grimaldi was a complex of buildings used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners by DINA, the Chilean secret police, during the government of Augusto Pinochet. The complex was located in Peñalolén, in the outskirts of Santiago, and was in operation from mid-1974 to mid-1978...
before becoming a desaparecido
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
.
Montoneros
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...
, as a support action to their comrades the ERP. The blast destroyed an Air Force C-130 transport carrying 116 anti-guerrilla Gendarmerie commandos heading for home leave, killing six (Sergeants Juan Rivero and Pedro Yáñez and Corporals Marcelo Godoy, Raúl Cuello, Juan Luna and Evaristo Gómez) and wounding 60.The following day saw the derailment of a train carrying troops back from the guerrilla front about 40 miles south of the city of Tucumán, fortunately without casualties on this occasion.
By July 1975, the commandos were mounting search-and-destroy missions in the mountains. Army forces discovered Santucho's hideout in August, then raided the ERP urban headquarters in September.
With the underground network of ERP supporters in the form of Montoneros sympathizers largely uprooted in the capital of Tucumán province, the last week of the month of August 1975 saw a large number of armed actions on the part of the left-wing guerrillas in the city of Córdoba in order to divert the 2nd and 14th Airborne Infantry Regiments ordered to assist the 5th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which resulted in the death of at least 5 policemen and practically the whole of the elite 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade was called in to restore order and stand guard at strategic points around the city of Córdoba for the remainder of the year, after the bombing of the local police headquarters and radio communications centre.
Most of the Compañía de Monte's general staff was killed in a special forces raid in October but the guerrilla unit continued to fight. Between 7 and 10 October 1975, a sergeant and 7 soldiers and over 30 rural guerrillas were killed in clashes in Tucumán province.On 28 October in a night action that takes place on the banks of Fronterista River the 5th Brigade suffers three killed: Second Lieutenant Diego Barceló and Privates Orlando Moya and Carlos Vizcarra. Between 8 and 16 November 1975 there were other engagements in which the 5th Brigade suffered another six killed.
Generalisation of the state of emergency
The country had become the stage for widespread violence during 1975, and by December, a total of 137 servicemen and police had been killed by left-wing terrorismLeft-wing terrorism
Left-wing terrorism, sometimes called Marxist-Leninist terrorism or revolutionary/left-wing terrorism is a tactic used to overthrow capitalism and replace it with Marxist-Leninist or socialist government.-Ideology:...
. Extreme right-wing death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s used their hunt for far-left guerrillas as a pretext to exterminate any and all ideological opponents on the left and as a cover for common crimes. Assassinations and kidnappings by the Peronist Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
and the ERP contributed to the general climate of fear. In July, there was a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
.
During his brief interlude as the nation's chief executive, interim President Ítalo Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder was an Argentinian politician who served as the acting President of Argentina from September 13, 1975 until October 16, 1975, for Isabel Perón....
then extended the operation to the whole of the country through decrees 2270, 2271 and 2272, issued on 6 July 1975. The July decrees created a Defense Council headed by the president and including his ministers and the chiefs of the armed forces. It was given the command of the national and provincial police and correctional facilities and its mission was to "annihilate … subversive elements throughout the country". Military control and the state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
was thus generalized to all of the country. The "counter-insurgency" tactics used by the French during the 1957 Battle of Algiers
Battle of Algiers
Battle of Algiers or Algiers expedition may refer to:* The Siege of Algiers by Spain leading to the establishment of the Peñón of Algiers* The Capture of Algiers by Aruj Barbarossa* The Capture of Algiers by Hayreddin Barbarossa...
(relinquishing of civilian control to the military, state of emergency, block warden system (quadrillage), etc.), were perfectly imitated by the Argentine military.
These "annihilation decrees" are the source of the charges against Isabel Perón which led to her arrest in Madrid more than thirty years later, in January 2007, and subsequent extradition to Argentina. The country was then divided into five military zones through a 28 October 1975 military directive of "Struggle Against Subversion". As had been done during the 1957 Battle of Algiers, each zone was divided in subzones and areas, with its corresponding military responsibles. General Antonio Domingo Bussi
Antonio Domingo Bussi
Antonio Domingo Bussi was an Army General and politician prominent in the recent history of Tucumán Province, Argentina.-Early career:...
replaced in December 1975 Acdel Vidas as responsible of the military operations. A reported 656 persons disappeared in Tucumán between 1974 and 1979, 75% of which were laborers and labor union officials.
Later stages
Efforts to restrict the rural guerrilla activity to Tucumán, however, remained unsuccessful despite the use of recently-supplied ex-US Army troop-transport helicopters. In early October the 5th Brigade suffered a major blow once again at the hands of MontonerosMontoneros
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...
, when over one-hundred or perhaps several hundred guerrillas and supporing militants carried out the most elaborate guerrilla operation of the so-called "Dirty War". Its code name inside Montoneros was Operación Primicia ("Operation Scoop"). The action involved the hijacking of a civilian airliner, bound for Corrientes from Buenos Aires. The guerrillas redirected the plane towards Formosa Province
Formosa Province
Formosa Province is in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Its northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and borders the provinces of Chaco and Salta to its south and west, respectively...
, where they took over the provincial airport. Joined by a tactical support unit, they broke into the nearby 29th Infantry Regiment's barracks, firing automatic weapons and throwing hand grenades. They met fierce resistance from a group of conscripts and NCOs who reacted after the initial surprise. In the aftermath, 12 soldiers and two policemenwere killed and several injured; Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
lost 16 men.
Once the operation was over, Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
made good their escape by air towards a remote area in Santa Fe province
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
. The aircraft, a Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
, eventually landed on a crop field not far from the city of Rafaela
Rafaela
Rafaela is a city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, about 96 km from the provincial capital. It is the head town of the Castellanos Department. It has a population of 99,150 per the ....
. The sophistication of the operation, and the getaway cars and safehouses they used to escape from the crash-landing site, suggest several hundred guerrillas and their supporters were involved.
In December 1975 most 5th Brigade units were committed to the border areas of Tucumán with over 5,000 troops deployed in the province. There was, however, nothing to prevent 30 of Santucho's most experienced jungle fighters infiltrating through this outer ring and the ERP were still strong inside Buenos Aires. Mario Santucho's Christmas offensive began on 23 December 1975. The operation was a dramatic showdown, with ERP units, supported by Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
, mounting a large scale assault against the army supply base Domingo Viejobueno in the industrial suburb of Monte Chingolo
Monte Chingolo
Monte Chingolo is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Located in Lanús Partido in the south of the Greater Buenos Aires connurbation.-External links:...
, south of Buenos Aires. The ERP guerrillas had planned to seize some 20 tons of armaments: 900 FAL rifles with 60.000 magazines of 7.62mm rounds, 100 M-16 assault rifles with 100.000 magazines of 5.56mm rounds, six 20mm Rheinmetall anti-aircraft guns, fifteen 105mm Czekalski anti-tank rifles, Itakas shotguns and 150 submachineguns.The attackers were defeated and driven off with heavy casualties. In this particular battle the ERP and Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
guerrillas had about 1,000 guerrillas and militantsdeployed against 1,000 government forces. This large-scale operation was made possible not only by the audacity of the guerrillas involved, but also by their supporters who provided houses to hide them, supplies, and the means to escape. A soldier who took part in the fighting recalled that many of the guerrillas were very young, some only teenage girls. On 30 December 1975 supporting urban guerrillas exploded a bomb inside the headquarters of the Argentine Army in Buenos Aires, injuring six soldiers.
During their 1975 stint in Tucumán the Fifth Mountain Brigade killed 160 guerrillas at a cost of 22 officers and 21 other ranks killed. This figure does take into account local bodyguards, policemen, and Gendarmerie troops killed in Tucumán, nor soldiers who died defending their barracks in Formosa Province
Formosa Province
Formosa Province is in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Its northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and borders the provinces of Chaco and Salta to its south and west, respectively...
on 5 October 1975.
Tucumán kept the 5th Mountain Infantry Brigade and 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade busy through 1976, and the mountain and parachute units remained essential as military support for the local police and gendarmerie security forces, and for the apprehension of several hundred ERP and Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
guerrillas who still remained operating in the jungles and mountains and sympathizers hidden among the civilian population. The Baltimore Sun reported at the time, "In the jungle-covered mountains of Tucuman, long known as "Argentina's garden," Argentines are fighting Argentines in a Vietnam-style civil war. So far, the outcome is in doubt. But there is no doubt about the seriousness of the combat, which involves 2,000 or so leftist guerrillas and perhaps as many as 10,000 soldiers."During February 1976, in an effort to rekindle the guerrilla campaign in Tucumán, the Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
had sent in reinforcements in the form of a company of their elite "Jungle Troops". The leader of this Montoneros force, was initially commanded by Juan Carlos Alsogaray (El Hippie), son of General Julio Alsogaray
Julio Alsogaray
Julio Alsogaray was an Argentine Army general.-Life and times:Julio Alsogaray was born in Esperanza, Santa Fe to Julia Elena Bosch and Álvaro Enrique Alsogaray, in 1918...
, who had served as head of the Argentine Army
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army is the land armed force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of the country.- History :...
from 1966 to 1968. The ERP sent their elite "Decididos de Córdoba" Company from Córdoba.General Bussi achieved a major success on 13 February 1976 when the 14th Airborne Infantry Regiment killed El Hippie and ambushed his elite Montoneros
Montoneros
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...
company. Corporal Héctor Roberto Lazarte and Private Pedro Burguener are killed in this action but the guerrillas suffered severe losses. On 10 April 1976 Private Mario Gutiérrez is killed in a guerrilla ambush in Tucuman. In mid-April 1976 the 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade in a major operation conducted against the ERP network in the province of Córdoba, took into custody and forcefully disappeared some 300 militants of that organization.In 5 May 1976, during an armed reconnaissance mission, an army UH-1H helicopter crashed on the banks of Río Caspichango killing Captain José Antonio Ramallo, Lieutenant César Gonzalo Ledesma, Sergeant Walter Hugo Gómez and Corporals Carlos Alberto Parra and Ricardo Zárate. On 7 May in a gunfight near the river, Corporal Ricardo Martín Zárate is killed in a guerrilla ambush. On 10 May, Private Carlos Alberto Fricker is accidentally shot dead by nervous sentries while stationed in Famaillá. On 17 May 1976 Sergeant Alberto Eduardo Lai and Private Juan Ángel Toledo are killed in a remote controlled bomb blast near the town of Caspinchango. In 1976 there were 24 patrol battles resulting in the deaths of 74 guerrillas and 18 soldiers and police in the province of Tucumán.
Veterans demand recognition
On 14 December 2007, some 200 soldiers who fought against the rural guerrillas in Tucumán province demanded an audience with the governor of Tucumán Province, José Jorge Alperovich, claiming they too were victims of the "Dirty War", and demanded a government sponsored military pension as veterans of the counter-insurgency campaign in northern Argentina.Indeed, data from the 2,300-strong Asociación Ex-Combatientes del Operativo Independencia indicate that as of 1976, 4 times more Tucumán veterans have died from suicide after operations in the province. Critics of the ex-servicemen association claim that no combat operations took place in the province and that the government forces deployed in Tucumán killed more than 2,000 innocent civilians.According to Professor Paul H. Lewis, a large percentage of the disappeared in Tucumán were in fact students, professors and recent graduates of the local university, all of which were caught providing supplies and information to the guerrillas.On 24 March 2008, some 2,000 Tucumán veterans of the 11,000-strong Movimiento Ex Soldados del Operativo Independencia y del Conflicto Limítrofe con Chile, who fought against ERP guerrillas and were later were redeployed along the Andes in the military standoff with Chile, took to the streets of Tucumán city to demand recognition as combat veterans. Some 180,000 Argentine conscripts saw service during the military dictatorship (1976-1983),130 died as a result of the Dirty War.See also
- Battle of AlgiersBattle of AlgiersBattle of Algiers or Algiers expedition may refer to:* The Siege of Algiers by Spain leading to the establishment of the Peñón of Algiers* The Capture of Algiers by Aruj Barbarossa* The Capture of Algiers by Hayreddin Barbarossa...
- Dirty WarDirty WarThe Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
- Isabel Perón
- Marie-Monique RobinMarie-Monique RobinMarie-Monique Robin is an award-winning French journalist. She received the Albert Londres Prize in 1995 for Voleurs d'yeux, an expose about organ theft...
's documentary (on the relationship between the French military and their Argentine counterparts) - People's Revolutionary ArmyPeople's Revolutionary Army (Argentina)The Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo was the military branch of the communist Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores in Argentina...
- Ítalo LúderÍtalo Argentino LúderÍtalo Argentino Lúder was an Argentinian politician who served as the acting President of Argentina from September 13, 1975 until October 16, 1975, for Isabel Perón....