The Argentine Army () is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. Command authority is exercised through the Minister of Defense.
The Army's official foundation date is May 29, 1810 (celebrated in Argentina as the Army Day), four days after the Spanish colonial administration in Buenos Aires was overthrown. The new national army was formed out of several pre-existing colonial militia units and locally manned regiments; most notably the Infantry Regiment "Patricios", which to this date is still an active unit.
History
Several armed expeditions were sent to the Upper Peru (now Bolivia), Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile to fight Spanish forces and secure Argentina's newly gained independence. The most famous of these expeditions was the one led by General José de San Martín, who led a 5000-man army across the Andes Mountains to expel the Spaniards from Chile and later from Perú. While the other expeditions failed in their goal of bringing all the dependencies of the former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata under the new government in Buenos Aires, they prevented the Spaniards from crushing the rebellion.
During the civil wars of the first half of the nineteenth century, the Argentine Army became fractionalized under the leadership of the so-called caudillos ("leaders" or "warlords"), provincial leaders who waged a war against the centralist Buenos Aires administration. However, the Army was briefly re-unified during the war with the Brazilian Empire (1824–1827).
It was only with the establishment of a constitution (which explicitly forbade the provinces from maintaining military forces of their own) and a national government recognized by all the provinces that the Army became a single force, absorbing the older provincial militias. The Army went on to fight the War of the Triple Alliance in the 1860s together with Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay. After that war, the Army became involved in Argentina's Conquista del Desierto ("Conquest of the Desert"): the campaign to occupy Patagonia and root out the natives, who conducted looting raids throughout the country.
1880–1960s Between 1880 and 1930, the Army sought to become a professional force without active involvement in politics, even though many a political figure -President Julio Argentino Roca, for example- benefitted from a past military career. The Army prevented the fall of the government in a number of Radical-led uprisings. Meanwhile, the military in general and the Army, in particular, contributed to develop Argentina's unsettled southern frontier and its nascent industrial complex.
The main foreign influence during this period was, by and large, the Prussian (and then German) doctrine. Partly because of that, during both World Wars most of the officers supported the Germans, more or less openly, while the Argentine Navy favored the British instead.
When workers at the Vasena metal works went on strike in Buenos Aires in early January 1919 there was soon a full-scale bolshevik-led uprising in the Argentine capital. The city erupted in street battles, with two policemen (Corporal Teófilo Ramírez and Agent Ángel Giusti) killed fighting off thousands of strikers attempting to overrun 8 police stations in order to seize their weapons.Los días 10 y 11 las comisarias 2a., 4a., 6a., 9a., 21a., 24a. y 29a. repelieron intentos de asaltos. En la Sección 24a. fue muerto el cabo Teófilo Ramírez y el agente Angel Giusti. Historia de la Policía Federal Argentina: 1916-1944, Adolfo Enrique Rodríguez, p.38, Biblioteca Policial, 1978 General Luis Dellepiane and his 2nd Division along with reinforcements in the form of 500 Marines restored order. These events became known in Argentina, because of the violence and bloodshed, as 'Tragic Week'.
Between 1920 and 1922, there were another violent uprising this time in the form of rural workers in Santa Cruz Province led again by anarchists and bolsheviks in Southern Argentina, that was followed by a violent suppression on the part of the Argentine Army 10th Cavalry Regiment (under Colonel Héctor Benigno Varela) that resulted in the execution of some 300-1,500 workers that had earlier on killed 5 policemen and taken hostage some 1,000 ranch-owners along with their families (many of them British, Scottish, and Spanish) along with their employees.
In 1930, a small group of Army forces (not more than 600 troops) deposed President Hipólito Yrigoyen without much response from the rest of the Army and the Navy. This was the beginning of a long history of political intervention by the military. Another coup, in 1943, was responsible for bringing an obscure colonel into the political limelight: Juan Perón.
Even though Perón had the support of the military during his two consecutive terms of office (1946–1952 and 1952–1955), his increasingly repressive government alienated many officers, which finally led to a military uprising which overthrew him in September 1955. Between 1955 and 1973 the Army and the rest of the military became vigilant over the possible re-emergence of Peronism in the political arena, which led to two new coups against elected Presidents in 1962 (deposing Arturo Frondizi) and 1966 (ousting Arturo Illia). Political infighting eroded discipline and cohesion within the army, to the extent that there was armed fighting between contending military units during the early 1960s.
1960s and the military junta
The military government ruled Argentina between 1966 and 1973. During that decade the saw the rise of several terrorist groups including Montoneros and the ERP. During Héctor Cámpora's first months of government, a rather moderate and left-wing Peronist, approximatively 600 social conflicts, strikes and factory occupations took place.Hugo Moreno, Le désastre argentin. Péronisme, politique et violence sociale (1930–2001), Editions Syllepses, Paris, 2005, p.109 Following the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre, left and right-wing Peronism broke apart, and the Triple A a far-right terrorist group founded by José López Rega, the right-hand man of Juan Perón and, later, Isabel Perón, started a campaign of terror and death against any perceived political rivals. Isabel Perón herself was ousted during the March 1976 coup by a military junta.
The new military government, self-named Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, initially tried to end the guerrilla's campaigns, but the nation rapidly descended into a state of civil unrest. Terrorist organisations and guerrilla movements were often met with a mixture of state terror and general paranoia. The civilian population was now caught in a police state between a paranoid and brutal military dictatorship and violent dissident communist guerrillas. The PRN called this period the "Dirty War" — a term refused by jurists during the 1985 Trial of the Juntas. Batallón de Inteligencia 601 (the 601st Intelligence Battalion) became infamous during this period. It was a special military intelligence service set up in the late 1970s, active in the Dirty War and Operation Condor, and disbanded in 2000. Its personnel collected information on and infiltrated guerrilla groups and human rights organisations, and coordinated killings, kidnappings and other abuses. The unit also participated in the training of Nicaraguan Contras with US assistance, including from John Negroponte.
"Annihilation decrees"
Meanwhile, the Guevarist People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), led by Roberto Santucho and inspired by Che Guevara's foco theory, began a rural insurgency in the province of Tucumán, in the mountainous northwest of Argentina. It started the campaign with no more than 100 men and women of the Marxist ERP guerrilla force and ended with about 300 in the mountains (including reinforcements in the form of the elite Montoneros 65-strong "Compañía de Monte" (Jungle Company) and the ERP's "Decididos de Córdoba" Urban Company),Paul H. Lewis, Guerrillas & Generals: The "Dirty War" in Argentina, Praeger Paperback, 2001, p. 126. which the Argentine Army managed to defeat, but at a cost.
On 5 January 1975, an Army DHC-6 transport plane was downed near the Monteros mountains, apparently shot down by the guerrillas.John Keegan, World Armies, page 22, Macmillan, 1983 All thirteen on board were killed. The military believe a heavy machine gun or sabotage had brought down the aircraft.TUCUMAN 1975: Avión del Ejército Argentino es derribado con ametralladoras antiaéreas "Allí hubo gran acción en combates como el de Acheral, Pueblo Viejo y Famailla donde se volaron mas de 3 400 horas. Como consecuencia de los mismos, se produjo el derribo de un Twin Otter, un Piper L-21B y dos Bell UH-1H." Tecnología Militar, Tomo 24. Grupo Editorial Mönch. 2002. p. 26"El 5 de enero de 1975, una aeronave militar ( Twin Otter ) que transportaba altos mandos del III Cuerpo del Ejército, se desplomó muriendo los trece oficiales, entre ellos el Comandante del respectivo Cuerpo con base en Tucumán, General de División Eugenio Salgado y el comandante de la V Brigada de Infantería el General de Brigada Ricardo Agustín Muñoz. El hecho conmocionó al país, como puede vislumbrarse en cualquier periódico del 6 de enero de ese año, especialmente cuando la investigación arrojó que el avión fue derribado por el fuego de ametralladoras antiaéreas de origen ruso, que hicieron impacto sobre el timón del avión, haciendo que se precipitara contra el terreno, disparado por guerrilleros del Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP)." Ni Yanquis Ni Marxistas ¡Peronistas!, Diego Mazzieri, p. 257, Lulu Press, 2012Argentina maintained compulsory military service (the conscription draft). Left-wing organizations like the ERP and Montoneros successfully placed or radicalised young draftees inside the armed forces, using them as internal spies, weapon suppliers, or saboteurs.
In response, Ítalo Luder, President of the National Assembly who acted as interim President substituting himself to Isabel Perón who was ill for a short period, signed in February 1975 the secret presidential decree 261, which ordered the army to neutralize and/or annihilate the insurgency in Tucumán, the smallest province of Argentina. Operativo Independencia gave power to the Armed Forces to "execute all military operations necessary for the effects of neutralizing or annihilating the action of subversive elements acting in the Province of Tucumán.""[E]l commando general del Ejército procederá a ejecutar todas las operaciones militares que sean necesarias a efectos de neutralizar o aniquilar el accionar de los elementos subversivos que actúan en la provincia de Tucumán" Decree No. 261/75 . NuncaMas.org, Decretos de aniquilamiento. Santucho had declared a "liberated zone" in Tucumán and demanded Soviet-backed protection for its borders as well as proper treatment of captured guerrillas as POWs.Facts on File, p. 126 (1975)
The Argentine Army Fifth Brigade, then consisting of the 19th, 20th and 29th Mountain Infantry RegimentsEnglish, Adrian J. Armed Forces of Latin America: Their Histories, Development, Present Strength, and Military Potential, Janes Information Group, 1984, p. 33 and commanded by Brigadier-General Acdel Vilas received the order to move to Famaillá in the foothills of the Monteros mountains on 8 February 1975. While fighting the guerrillas in the jungle, Vilas concentrated on uprooting the ERP support network in the towns, using tactics later adopted nationwide, as well as a civic action campaign.
By July 1975, anti-guerrilla commandos were mounting search-and-destroy missions in the mountains. Army special forces discovered Santucho's base camp in August, then raided the ERP urban headquarters in September. Most of the Compañia de Monte's general staff was killed in October and was dispersed by the end of the year.