ARGENTINE REVOLUTION: ANTECEDENTS, CAUSES AND GOVERNMENTS - HISTORY - 2025

Argentine Revolution was the denomination used by the Argentine military to describe the period in which they ruled the country after the 1966 coup. This historical stage lasted until 1973, when the existing opposition forced the then president, Alejandro Agustín Lanusse, to convene democratic elections.

The situation prior to the military coup was quite convulsed. At the head of the government was Arturo Illia, candidate of the Radical Civic Union. The elections that had brought him to office had been controlled by the military and Peronism had not been able to participate as it was outlawed.

Juan Carlos Onganía, first president of the Argentine Revolution - Source: Image by © Bettmann / CORBIS

www.elortiba.org/conintes.html

In addition, some government decisions, such as the Drug Law, contributed to increasing the weakness of the president. The internal causes must be joined by the international context; In the midst of the Cold War, the United States supported ending any danger of leftist organizations coming to power.

During the dictatorship, which was governed by the principles of the so-called authoritarian bureaucratic state (EBA), it had three military presidents. The most durable was the first, Juan Carlos Onganía, while the second, Roberto Marcelo Levingston, barely lasted a few months. Lanusse, the last of them, should have put an end to the dictatorship.

Background

The 1963 elections had taken place in a rather turbulent environment. The military had controlled the process, the Peronists were outlawed and Perón in exile and, inside, the labor and student movements were increasingly gaining strength.

The winner of the voting, without an absolute majority, had been Arturo Illia, from the Unión Cívica Radical.

On the other hand, the world was then in the middle of the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union competed indirectly by supporting political organizations and the military that were closest to their interests. After the Cuban Revolution, the Americans were not going to allow another leftist government in Latin America.

Government military control

Between 1958 and 1966, the army became increasingly involved in the political life of the country. It is estimated that, during the Frondizi government, there were about 26 military uprisings, as well as 6 coup attempts.

The victory of the Peronists in the legislative elections of 1962, after a series of strikes and protests led by workers and students, only made the army increase its interventionism. The military directly asked that the results be annulled.

Tension continued to rise until the armed forces forced President Frondizi to leave office. On that occasion, a military government was not formed, but one made up of civilians but controlled by the army leadership.

However, there were also differences among the members of the Armed Forces. The confrontation between two of the existing sectors led to elections being called again. The justicialistas, again, were excluded from the voting. justicialist movement.

Peronism

The Peronists, faced with the illegalization, tried to find an indirect way to go to the elections. Thus, Raúl Matera, one of the party's leaders, managed to be elected as a candidate for Christian democracy. However, the government did not admit his candidacy. Given this, the reaction of the Peronists was to call the vote blank.

1963 elections

Ultimately, the Radical Civic Union won the 1963 elections, with Arturo Illia topping its list. The result, however, was not too strong: while the winner won 21.15% of the votes, the blank vote, requested by the Peronists, reached 19.72%.

In this way, the new government began its journey with a problem of democratic legitimacy. The Peronists and their unions denounced that he had only won because of the prohibition of justicialism. In addition, the results caused the winners to be far from having a strong majority in the Chamber of Deputies.

On the other hand, the military did not stop trying to influence politics. Its main objective was to prevent the Peronists from being legalized.

Illia had to face numerous strikes called by the unions, which contributed to weakening his government.

The businessmen did not give him respite either. Decisions such as the Medicines Law, which eliminated the monopoly in that sector, as well as some economic measures contrary to liberalism caused them to position themselves against Illia.

Causes

In addition to the opposition suffered by the Illia government from the Peronists and left-wing groups, which led to an increase in instability in the country, the Argentine business sectors did not accept his policies either.

Economic policy

Shortly after starting his government, Illia took a measure that displeased the country's business classes. It was about the cancellation of the contracts that Frondizi had signed related to oil. For radicalism, these agreements undermine national sovereignty.

Other economic measures also caused voices to grow calling for the intervention of the military to overthrow Illia. These include the Medicines Law, the decision not to sign the agreement that the IMF demanded and the refusal to reform the financial sector, something the banks were asking for.

Guerrilla movements

Another of the reasons given by the military to carry out the coup was the appearance of various guerrillas, especially present in northern Argentina.

The media reacted with articles fiercely anti-communist and against the left wing of Peronism.

Among the voices that stood out in this regard was Juan Carlos Onganía, the commander-in-chief of the army. This general adhered to a doctrine that was beginning to spread throughout Latin America promoted by the United States: the ideological frontier. This consisted of the formation of military organizations dedicated to confronting the communists.

It was not only General Onganía who declared himself a supporter of these military associations. In general, the Armed Forces of the country positioned themselves with the so-called national security doctrine, with which they proclaimed their duty to fight communism. If necessary, they did not rule out overthrowing governments or repressing any suspicious organization.

Cold War

All of the above cannot be separated from the international context of the time. With the Cold War, the United States supported military coups that were against leftist governments or, simply, that acted at the risk of such a party coming to power.

Plan of struggle of the labor movement

As did the unions close to Peronism, the rest of the workers' organizations opposed the Illia government from the beginning of its mandate.

Only one year later, in 1964, these organizations planned a plan of struggle to try to achieve social improvements. Among those mobilizations, the occupation of some eleven thousand industries by the workers stood out.

The government chose to give a moderate response to these mobilizations. Instead of mobilizing the police, he preferred to denounce the labor leaders to justice. The military considered this way of acting too soft.

Parliamentary election

The legislative elections of 1965 had an important novelty: the government allowed the Peronists to participate. These were divided into two sectors and Illia thought it was a good chance to defeat them.

However, the votes gave the Peronist candidate as the winner, with half a million more votes than the Radical Civic Union. This result increased the tension within the army, which had not been in agreement with the legalization of the party.

Discontent of social sectors

Before the coup, Illia was in a very uncomfortable situation. The conservative press attacked him for his management and businessmen considered that many of his measures went against their interests.

In the political sphere, the government had hardly any allies. Only socialists and communists used to support the UCR in parliament. Finally, the pressure from the labor and union movements was increasing.

Given the weakness shown by the government, a part of Argentine society began to consider that the army was the only solution to guarantee order.

Justification of the military

All the previous reasons were collected by the military in the documents with which they justified their coup. For them, their action was necessary in the face of the crisis that plagued the country and due to the inefficiency of liberal democracy.

Thus, the military pointed out that “the abysmal conduct of public business by the current government, as a culmination of many other errors that preceded it in recent decades, of structural failures and of the application of systems and techniques inadequate to the realities contemporaries, have caused the rupture of the spiritual unity of the Argentine people (…) ”.

In the same way, they referred to the emergence of communism in Argentina: “All this has created favorable conditions for a subtle and aggressive Marxist penetration in all fields of national life, and created a climate that is favorable to extremist excesses and that puts the Nation in danger of falling before the advance of collectivist totalitarianism ”.

Objectives of the coup

In the Act of the Argentine Revolution, the military detailed the objectives that the government that emerged from the coup should pursue:

“(…) Consolidate spiritual values, raise the cultural, educational and technical level; eliminate the root causes of the current economic stagnation, achieve adequate labor relations, ensure social well-being and strengthen our spiritual tradition based on the ideals of freedom and dignity of the human person, which are the patrimony of Western and Christian civilization; as means to re-establish an authentic representative democracy in which order prevails within the law, justice and the interest of the common good, all this to redirect the country on the path of its greatness and project it abroad ”.

Governments

Rumors about the preparation of a coup d'état appeared a year before it took place. The secretary of war had to leave office after confronting Juan Carlos Onganía, which was a sign of the power he accumulated.

In what has been described by some historians as a maneuver to safeguard his prestige, Onganía requested to retire from service in late 1965.

At the beginning of the new year, the social protests intensified. During the first months of 1966, strikes and demonstrations followed. In May, the students also launched a mobilization campaign to demand an increase in the budget for education.

That same month, on the 29th, General Pistarini, Onganía's substitute as commander-in-chief, warned Illia that his actions were strengthening Peronism, which was considered a veiled threat.

The media, for their part, began to publish articles about the coup that was being prepared. There were even speculations about who would lead it.

The government coup

The coup began on June 28, around three in the morning. The military seized power without encountering resistance.

One of the leaders of the riot, General Alsogaray, was in charge of informing President Illia of what was happening. According to the chronicles, the military simply asked him to leave office.

At first, Illia refused to leave the post. However, around seven in the afternoon she had no choice but to accept, when her office was occupied by the police and the Casa Rosada was surrounded by military personnel. Onganía, on the 29th, became president.

Structure of the military government

Once they came to power, the military began the period that they called the Argentine Revolution. Its governmental structure was based on a Board composed of the Commanders in Chief of the three branches of the Armed Forces.

This Board was the one that had to appoint a President, who would enjoy all the powers that Congress had before. The first of the presidents of the revolution was Juan Carlos Onganía. For this soldier, and for the rest of those who participated in the coup, Argentina was not prepared for democracy to exist.

During the years that the revolution lasted, until 1973, three different boards followed, as well as three presidents.

Authoritarian bureaucratic state

The military junta did not repeal the country's Constitution. Instead, she promulgated the so-called Statute of the Argentine Revolution, which they placed at the same legal level as the Magna Carta. Argentina became, according to the most widespread definition, an authoritarian bureaucratic state.

With this Statute the division of powers was eliminated. The executive and the legislature were left in the hands of the President. This, in addition, was in charge of appointing the different governors.

Likewise, they forced the judges to take office, promising to comply with the decisions of the board against the provisions of the Constitution.

Contrary to what happened in other countries, the military government had the intention from the first moment to remain in power for a long time. One of his most repeated slogans read that "the Argentine Revolution has objectives, but no deadlines."

Among the measures they took was the outlawing of all political parties, as well as the prohibition of citizens from organizing themselves to carry out political activities. During the years in which they ruled, the state of siege was almost continuous and social and civil rights were limited to the maximum.

The three times of the revolution

The military junta established that Argentina had to go through what they called three times. The ultimate goal was to end the threat of communism and achieve a stable country.

The first of those foreseen times was the economic one. The plan established to promote and modernize the national industry. The intention was to increase their efficiency by reducing costs. This should result in a reduction in inflation and in that economic crises did not occur again.

The social time, second indicated by the new government, was intended to reduce inequalities and, in this way, end social conflict.

Finally, the Argentine revolution marked political time as the last of its pillars. Once the previous purposes had been achieved, the time had to come to give way to democracy. The military did not clarify what type of democratic government should exist, but they did make it clear that it should be a different system from the one that existed previously.

The government of Onganía

As has been pointed out, the first president of the revolution was Juan Carlos Onganía, who had already been one of the leaders of the coup. His stage in the government lasted until mid-1970, when in June he had to resign after the Cordobazo broke out. This stage was popularly known as the Onganiato.

At the beginning of his term, Onganía managed to stabilize the country. In the economic sphere, Argentina grew by 5% annually and greatly reduced inflation. These achievements, largely attributable to Adalbert Vasena, were based on the passage of laws that liberalized markets and attracted foreign investors.

These measures, on the other hand, led to the suppression of workers' rights. Any attempt to protest was harshly repressed.

In foreign policy, Onganía followed the directives from the United States focused on the elimination of any socialist or communist organization.

Likewise, the military junta accused the university of being a focus of communism and subversive activities.

Among the events related to this matter, the so-called Night of the Long Canes stood out, in July 1966: the police entered the universities with violence, expelling both students and teachers. The result was the exile of many professors and intellectuals.

The Levingston government (1970-1971)

It was the governing Junta itself, made up of the three Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who decided to replace Onganía after the Cordobazo. Also, the economy was going through bad times and the military decided it was better to appoint a new President.

The chosen one was Roberto Marcelo Levingston, also a general. The appointment was surprising, since it was a fairly unknown figure in the country. Until June 1970, when he took office, he was in the United States, with no reference to what position he held there.

Levingston belonged to a current within the army that advocated developmentalism and with a marked nationalist character.

Levingston's presidency was not long, since it only lasted until March of the following year, when he was deposed by an internal coup led by Alejandro Agustín Lanusse.

During his months of government he had to face the reappearance of political parties. Although still banned, these were beginning to organize again. This was one of the reasons why Lanusse decided to overthrow him.

The Lanusse government (1971-1973)

Considered the true ideologue of the revolution, Lanusse became president in March 1971. His term lasted two years, until May 1973.

On the positive side, Lanusse embarked on a plan to improve the country's infrastructure. Thus, it made a considerable investment in the construction of roads, dams or bridges.

However, the population showed more and more signs of discontent. In this context, the guerrilla groups redoubled their actions. For its part, the State responded by violently repressing any act considered subversive.

Perón, from his home in Madrid, began to pressure to end the military regime, as did his supporters in Argentina

Faced with this situation, Lanusse began to plan an exit that did not involve the return of Perón. To begin with, he appointed a radical as Minister of the Interior, something that won the support of the parties.

Despite Lanusse's plan to allow a Peronism without Perón, a large part of the population demanded the return of the politician and that he take charge of the situation. Even, given the growth of guerrilla actions, a sector of the army began to think the same.

End

Finally, Lanusse called elections for 1972. The parties were legalized, although Perón was not allowed to run as a candidate.

Elections

Political and social instability, in addition to economic problems, forced Lanusse to call elections. The military lifted the ban on political parties, including the Justicialista.

Despite allowing the Peronists to run candidates, Lanusse made a legal change to prevent Perón from participating in the elections. Having resided abroad, due to his exile, the politician did not meet the requirement of having resided in the country for a specified number of years, an amount that Lanusse had increased.

In addition to the measure to prevent Perón from running, the military also changed the electoral system to harm the justicialistas. In the Armed Forces they thought that Peronism would be defeated in the second round.

However, the final winner, with almost 50% of the votes, was Héctor José Cámpora of the Justicialista Front, a coalition made up of the Peronists and other smaller formations. The campaign slogan already made it clear who was behind the candidacy: "Campaign for the government, Perón for power."

References

1. First edition. The twilight of the onganiato and beginning of the end for the “Argentine Revolution”. Obtained from primeraedicion.com.ar
2. Pigna, Felipe. Politics in the 70s. Obtained from elhistoriador.com.ar
3. Otero, Pablo S. The media and the Revolution against Illia. Obtained from laprensa.com.ar
4. Global Security. The Argentine Revolution, 1966-72. Retrieved from globalsecurity.org
5. Tulio Halperin Donghi, Peter AR Calvert and Others. Argentina. Retrieved from britannica.com
6. Navarro, Marysa. The Sixties in Argentina. Retrieved from revista.drclas.harvard.edu
7. Stephen Cousins, Cyrus. General Onganía and the argentine (military) revolution of the right: anti-communism and morality (1966 - 1973). Recovered from ¡dialnet.unirioja.es
8. O'Donnell, Guillermo A. Bureaucratic Authoritarianism: Argentina, 1966-1973, in Comparative Perspective. Obtained from books.google.es