Pedro Eugenio Aramburu

Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Silveti (May 21, 1903 – June 1, 1970) was an Argentine Army general and dictator who served from November 13, 1955 to May 1, 1958. He was a major figure behind the Revolución Libertadora, the military coup against Juan Perón in 1955. He was kidnapped by the radical organization Montoneros on May 29, 1970 and murdered, allegedly as retaliation. He had been involved in the June 1956 execution of Army General Juan José Valle—associated with the Peronist movement— and 26 Peronist militants, after a botched attempt to overthrow his regime.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Aramburu and the second or maternal family name is Silveti.
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu
President of Argentina
In office
November 13, 1955 – May 1, 1958
Appointed byMilitary junta
Vice PresidentIsaac Rojas (de facto)
Preceded byEduardo Lonardi (de facto)
Succeeded byArturo Frondizi
Personal details
Born
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Silveti

May 21, 1903
Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina
DiedJune 1, 1970(1970-06-01) (aged 67)
Carlos Tejedor, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Manner of deathAssassination
Resting placeLa Recoleta Cemetery
Political partyUnion of the Argentine People
SpouseSara Lucía Herrera
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Argentina
Branch/service Argentine Army
Years of service1922–1958
Rank Lieutenant general

Military career
  • He studied at the National Military College
  • 1922: Sub-lieutenant
  • 1939: Major
  • 1943: Teacher in the Escuela de Guerra
  • 1951: Brigadier
  • Director of the Escuela de Guerra
  • 1955: Commander in Chief of the Army
  • 1958: Lieutenant general.

President of Argentina

He served as de facto president of Argentina from November 13th 1955 to May 1st 1958.

The Revolución Libertadora which overthrew Juan Perón was triggered in part by his actions towards the press, as well as the imprisonment of opposition leaders and economic instability. For example, Perón incited his followers to wreck the offices and printing presses of newspapers who criticized him and he jailed the leader of the opposition, Ricardo Balbin, of the Radical Civic Union party.[1] The military Revolución Libertadora against Perón for these actions led to three years of military rule under Aramburu, who allowed elections to be held in 1958.

Aramburu's military government forced Perón into exile and barred the Peronist Party from further elections. Perón lived in exile in Spain until 1973.

He repealed the reelectionist and statist Constitution of 1949 and restored the validity of the historical text of 1853/60, a decision that was later validated by a constituent convention. He promised to hand over power as soon as possible to a president elected by the people. He made a public commitment that none of the military who held positions in his government would accept candidacies when elections were called.[2]

Anti-Peronist political power

After the end of his presidential term in 1958, Aramburu retired from the military career and devoted himself entirely to politics.

He ran for president in 1963 as leader of the Union of the Argentine People (Union del Pueblo Argentino, UDELPA), with the slogan "Vote UDELPA and HE won't return" ("Vote UDELPA y no vuelve"), referring to Perón.

With the Peronists banned, the Presidential elections resulted in Arturo Umberto Illia becoming president, with Aramburu coming in third.

Yet the military retained much real power, censoring both Peronism and its leader. The fragility of Argentine democracy was shown when Illia was overthrown in 1966 by a military coup led by General Juan Carlos Onganía.

In 1970, Aramburu was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.

Death

On May 29, 1970 at noon, Aramburu was snatched from his apartment in Buenos Aires by two members of Montoneros posing as young army officers. Montoneros dubbed the kidnapping Operación Pindapoy, after a company that produced citrus in the 1960s. Aramburu's disappearance kept Argentinian society on tenterhooks for a month before it was discovered that Aramburu had been murdered three days after his abduction, following a mock trial and his corpse hidden inside a farmhouse near Timote, Carlos Tejedor, in Buenos Aires Province. He had been shot twice in the chest with two different pistols. Following his arrest, convicted terrorist Mario Firmenich took credit for the kidnapping and assassination.[3][4]

In the following weeks, statements from Montoneros flooded the media. Among other things, they claimed their actions were a response to the executions of twenty-seven Peronist militants who took part in an unsuccessful coup d'état in 1956.

In 1974, Aramburu's body was stolen by Montoneros.[5] The corpse was to be held until President Isabel Perón brought back Eva Perón's body from Italy. It was also an act of revenge for the previous removal of Evita's body. Once Evita's body arrived in Argentina, Montoneros gave up Aramburu's corpse and abandoned it in a street in Buenos Aires.[6][7]

Legacy

Following his abduction and murder, Aramburu became a martyr for the anti-Peronist movement in Argentina.[8] For Peronists, on the other hand, Aramburu's assassination was a dream come true, and was considered a valid act of retaliation for the executions of Juan José Valle and Raul Tanco after their failed uprising against the Revolución Libertadora.

See also

References
  1. On Perón's incitement of his followers to violence against the press and his treatment of opposition leaders see Leslie E. Anderson, Social Capital in Developing Democracies: Nicaragua and Argentina Compared, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010 esp Chap 3 and Susan and Peter Calvert, Argentina: Political Culture and Instability, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989. Perón also undermined opposition voices from within his own party and tried to eliminate anyone who disagreed with him and might be a competitor for power within Peronism. On Perón's treatment of the opposition inside Peronism see Raanan Rein, In the Shadow of Perón: Juan Atilio Bramuglia and the Second Line of Argentinas Populist Movement, Translated by Martha Grenzeback, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. Originally published as Juan Atilio Bramuglia: Bajo la sombra del Lider. La segunda linea del liderazgo peronista (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Lumiere, 2006).
  2. "Hoy, a 30 años del secuestro de Aramburu - LA NACION". La Nación.
  3. "Mario Firmenich Given Life In Prison". Associated Press. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  4. "Body of Argentina's Kidnapped Ex‐President Found". The New York Times. 1970-07-18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  5. "The Theft of the Coffin of the Traitor to the Nation Aramburu by Montoneros 1974". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  6. Negrete, Claudio R. (2010). "Canjeando muertos". Necromanía: Historia de una pasión argentina (in Spanish). Sudamericana. ISBN 9789500737692.
  7. "Body of Argentina's Kidnapped Ex‐President Found". The New York Times. 1970-07-18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  8. "Hoy, a 30 años del secuestro de Aramburu - LA NACION". La Nación.
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