In Argentina, there were seven coups d'état during the 20th century: in 1930, 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966, 1976, and 1981. The first four established interim dictatorships, while the fifth and sixth established dictatorships of permanent type on the model of a bureaucratic-authoritarian state. The latter two conducted a Dirty War in the line of state terrorism, in which human rights were systematically violated and there were tens of thousands of forced disappearances.

In the 53 years since the first military coup in 1930, until the last dictatorship fell in 1983, the military ruled the country for 25 years, imposing 14 dictators under the title of "president", one every 1.7 years on average. In that period, the democratically elected governments (radicals, Peronists and radical-developmentalists) were interrupted by coups.

Coup of 6 September 1930

The military coup of September 6, 1930 was led by General José Félix Uriburu and overthrew president Hipólito Yrigoyen of the Radical Civic Union, who had been democratically elected to exercise his second term in 1928. In an unprecedented move, Uriburu also dissolved Parliament. Paradoxically, General Uriburu had been one of the organizers of the Revolution of the Park, a civic-military uprising that gave rise to the Radical Civic Union.

On September 10, Uriburu was recognized as the "interim" president of the nation by the Supreme Court by the agreement that led to the doctrine of de facto governments and that would be used to legitimize all other military coups.Historia Integral Argentina, vol. 7, pp. 88-89

Following a trend which was repeated in future coups, Uriburu appointed a civilian as head of the Ministry of Economy, José S. Pérez, who had links with the large landowners and the more conservative factions.

The military leadership established a corporatist government and, for drafting the first proclamation, appointed the writer Leopoldo Lugones. Lugones had joined the fascist cause in 1924 by giving a speech called "The Hour of the Sword", where he declared the deterioration of democracy, its instability and its evolution towards demagoguery. One of Uriburu's first initiatives was to establish an illegal repressive state structure, creating a "special section" of the police which could be used to systematically torture his opponents and which was the first such police division to use the picana, originally for cattle, against its victims.

When Uriburu was unable to shore up the necessary political support to fully establish his fascist political regime, he called elections, but decided to prohibit the participation of the Radical Civic Union. The reinstituation of democracy was false, restricted and controlled by the Armed Forces. This electoral fraud gave rise to a period of conservative, corrupt governments which was dubbed the "Infamous Decade". On February 20, 1932, General Uriburu handed over power to General Agustín P. Justo, the true force behind the coup who, although involved in the coup, wanted a democratic and limited government.

Coup of 4 June 1943

The Revolution of '43 which started with a coup d'état by the military on June 4, 1943, was distinct from the other Argentine coups in the following ways:

Ramón Castillo, the toppled president, was part of the conservative regime which ruled during the "Infamous Decade" and which originated in the coup of 1930 and was supported by fraudulent general elections, repression and corruption. It was the only military coup that unfolded in the midst of a world war. It did not establish a relationship with the important landowners and businessmen. Its outbreak was influenced by the pressure that the US was putting on Argentina to drop its position of neutrality with respect to World War II, with the goal of hurting British economic interests in the country and ultimately replacing the United Kingdom as the dominant economic power in Argentina. It was the only coup in Argentina which was executed purely by the military and with popular support. "If Argentina can be effectively dominated, the State Department's control over the Western Hemisphere will be total. This will simultaneously help to mitigate the possible risk of Russian and European influence in Latin America and also separate Argentina from what is supposed to be our sphere of influence." (translated) David Kelly, quoted in Escudé, Carlos; Cisneros, Andrés (2000)

It was a true revolution in the sense that it toppled the conservative government with its fraudulent elections, established in 1930, and had the intention of being permanent. Just like all the other institutional breakdowns in Argentina, it was very damaging to democracy. Although eliminating the "patriotic election rigging" (fraude patriótico) of the previous decade, it continued with the line of harmful leaders in government.

The Revolution of '43 was a confusing political process during which various groups, many of whom had never played a role in Argentina's history, vied for power. The coup itself was not executed to permanently establish control, so it was a transitory dictatorship that followed.

All of the military groups fighting for power during the Revolution of '43 were markedly anti-communist and maintained strong ties to the Catholic Church which reestablished its presence (absent since the 19th century), especially in the area of education. Internal fighting unleashed two more coups, meaning there were three dictators succeeding each other in power and carrying the title of "president": Arturo Rawson, Pedro Pablo Ramírez and Edelmiro Farrell.

During this period, the Argentinian unions, mainly the socialists and the syndicalists as well as a few communists, formed an alliance with a group of young army officials led by the Colonel Juan Perón. This alliance constituted the successful nationalist labor movement which prevailed by winning popular support from the working class and which was given the name "Peronism". This period was characterized by extreme polarization of the social classes and led to the formation of a large social block that was strongly anti-Peronist and made up mostly of the middle class and upper class.

Economically, the Revolution of '43 saw the continuation of the policy of Import Substitution Industrialization.

The dictatorship ended with a call for democratic elections on February 24, 1946, which all the sections of society accepted as perfect. Juan Domingo Perón won the elections and assumed the presidency on June 4, 1946. Perón would later be overthrown by the military in 1955, before he finished his second term.

Coup of 16–23 September 1955

The so-called Revolución Libertadora was a transitional military dictatorship, brought about by an uprising which overthrew the president Juan Domingo Perón and lasted between 16 and 23 September 1955. On 23 September the leader of the insurrection, Eduardo Lonardi, was sworn in as president and congress was dissolved. On the following day, he designated Admiral Isaac Rojas as vice president.

During the Revolución Libertadora, the military government created a Civilian Advisory Board composed in large part of the political parties of the Radical Civic Union, the Socialist Party, the National Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic Party, and the Democratic Progressive Party.

The group behind the coup was divided in two parts: a Catholic-nationalist part led by General Eduardo Lonardi, who took charge of the government initially, and a liberal-conservative part led by General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu and Admiral Isaac Rojas. The latter group ended up gaining power and executing another coup, replacing Lonardi with Aramburu as president.

The dictatorship in power imposed a ban on Peron's Justicialist Party and began the persecution of its sympathizers, policies that would be maintained by successive governments over the following 18 years. The government also took over the unions. In actions that were unprecedented in the modern history of Argentina, it executed its opponents by firing squad, sometimes in public and sometimes clandestinely.

The government appointed civilians to run the Ministry of Economy, which was run successively by Eugenio Folcini, Eugenio A. Blanco, Roberto Verrier and Adalberto Krieger Vasena, who pursued policies favorable to the most well-off and economically powerful sectors of society.

One of the most significant institutional measures taken by the military dictatorship was to send out a proclamation abolishing ipso facto, the then national constitution, known as the Constitution of 1949, and replacing it with the text from Argentina's Constitution of 1853. This measure would later be endorsed by the Constitutional Convention which was elected in 1957 without following the constitucional procedure and prohibiting the participation of the Justicialist Party. After convening under the leadership and influence of the military regime, "article 14bis" was added to the constitution.

In 1958, the government of the Revolución Libertadora held a limited form of elections, overseen by the Armed Forces, in which the Peronist party was banned. The elections were won by the Intransigent Radical Civic Union (UCRI), a group from the fractured Radical Civic Union, led by Arturo Frondizi, who had established a pact with Perón in order to attract the decisive Peronist vote. President Frondizi was, in turn, overthrown by the military four years later.

Coup of 29 March 1962

The military coup of March 29, 1962 was unique in that, after overthrowing Arturo Frondizi (of the Intransigent Radical Civic Union - UCRI), it was not a member of the military who took power, but rather a politician from the UCR, José María Guido, until then Provisional President of the Senate.Carlos Floria and César García Belsunce: Historia Política de la Argentina Contemporánea (1880-1983). Alianza Universidad, Buenos Aires 1989 p. 184

Frondizi endured repeated protests and military insurrections during his rule, during which even the Minister of the Economy (Álvaro Alsogaray) opposed him. These events ended in the coup of March 29, 1962, led by General Raúl Poggi.

The event that led to the coup was the sweeping victory of Peronism in the elections held eleven days before and in which ten of the fourteen then-existent provinces, including the strategic Province of Buenos Aires where the textile union leader Andrés Framini won. Peronism had been banned by the government of the Revolución Libertadora but Frondizi had allowed it in the elections, although he continued to prohibit Juan Perón from returning to the country and from running as a candidate. Frondizi immediately moved to establish his power in the provinces in which Peronist parties had won, but the coup proved to be unstoppable.

After the military uprising of March 29, 1962, President Frondizi, who had been arrested by the military and was being held at Isla Martín García, refused to resign saying "I will not commit suicide, I will not resign and I will not leave the country".This sentence was said by Arturo Frondizi on March 27, 1962, two days before the coup. It has become one the famous quotes of Argentinian history.