dr__dawggy said:
What were the circumstances that led to the military take over of the government and the "dirty war" that followed?
There was no dirty war. I insist.
The conflic began many years ago when the farmers overthrown Peron´s government. In those days the airforce bombed Plaza de Mayo when it was full of people supporting Peron. Several hundreds inocent civilians were killed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revoluci%C3%B3n_Libertadora
Since then, there were several militar and almost democracy governments. I say almost because the militars allowed to make alection but proscribing Peronismo, the most important party.
So, peronistas used civil disobedience to overthrown military and radicales´s governments through the unions.
There was a frustrated atempt to overthrow the military government and the police force fusilladed some people they arrested. So, the violence was started by the government. This is known as "los fusilamientos de Jose Leon Suarez". In those days to be peronista was illegal. Ridicoulous.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusilamientos_de_José_León_Suárez
And Peron was proscribed from 1955 to 1973.
Montoneros first action was to kidnap and judge the former dictator who overthrown Peron and a colaborator. They found him guilty and they shoot him.
They used to kidnap leaders and they used force as a way to make Peron eligeble as a President again. What kind of democracy can have elections where the candidate who is going to win is proscribed???????????????????
So, Peron was elected president againg in 1973 but he was too old then.
Inside the Peronismo there were left and right factions. Both of hem soon became illegals.
Montoneros was onether faction, mild left. We have a montonero government nowadays, there is private property for sure. Montoneros were against the power of the church and against those farmer who own 60% of the land, just a few families.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montoneros
There were some other guerrilla groups like ERP but they tried to copy the jungle tacticts and they fought in Tucuman.
The triple A was an extremist right death scuad who killed about 2000 people. Triple A were a farmer´s terrorist group.
However, by 1976 Montoneros and ERP were almost dismanteled. They were the excuse:
"However, according to the 1985
Juicio a las Juntas trial, by 1976 both the
ERP and the
Montoneros had been dismantled, and so there was no real
insurgency to legitimize the so-called "Dirty War".
You can read about extrem right´s death scuad (Triple A) here in English:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Anticommunist_Alliance
So, In my opinion, the left groups were the excuse they use for a "final solution" with an issue that was there for 20 years: peronistas. So, it is a lie that they killed, kidnaped, rape and torture terrorist, they were hunting people because of they political ideas. Peronismo was and is the most important party nowaday as well. So, they killed an entire generation of leaders. That explains the lack of proper leadership during the 80´s and 90´s.
dr__dawggy said:
Isn't it true that in the run up to the Military take over Leftist guerrillas had through a campaign of bombings, kidnappings, extortion, and executions created a climate of fear and near-anarchy?
Well, the last dictatorship government was called state terrorism because they used those techniques for fear you mentioned during the dictatorship and later during democracy.
dr__dawggy said:
You state that only a few military were killed by the guerrillas. Isn't it true that the killings were not limited to members of the military...that bombings killed women and children and that kidnappings and executions of non-military executives of corporations occurred prior to the military take over?
You are talking about Montoneros. Yes, their targets were the leadership and colaborators of the illegal government.
It is debatable, but did you know that according to the National Constitution is 100% legal (nowadays, not then) to use force against any dictator?
dr__dawggy said:
Isn't it also true that the Military take over was a reaction to this climate of fear and lawlessness?
No, it is no true.
dr__dawggy said:
Isn't it further true that the reason Argentina did not become like Nicaragua is because the Military effectively suppressed these leftist groups, who had in mind exactly the sort of wide spread guerrilla warfare that took place in other countries in Latin America?
No, here you show a huge missunderstanding.
Those left extremist groups who try to create a war in the jungle were alone and isolated. Poor people in this country are peronistas, they are not left. So, they had zero support of the population.
dr__dawggy said:
As I have stated earlier in this thread, none of this excuses the ruthlessness of the Military regime or their crimes against humanity.....but it does serve to place the events that led to Military rule in the context of the times..and goes a ways toward explaining why many ordinary citizens were willing to turn a blind eye to the actions of the government.....they were willing to exchange stability and order for a descent into anarchy and possible life under another Cuban style leftist dictatorship.
No, in fact the objective was another. In 1973 Argentina had the widest middle class in the world. The US were second. The objective of the military government was to finish this and they try to create a country with very poor people and just a few rich. They were sucesfull in many ways, that´s why nowadays there are so many poors.
Regards
