Against a background of strikes and
civil unrest, factions within the
military rebelled in 1955, with the
tacit support of a broad coalition
of those interests that Perón had
alienated, including the Church and
the oligarchy. In the
Revolución
Libertadora , or Revolution of
Liberation, he was ousted from power
and went into exile, to the delight
of his enemies. The initial backlash
against Peronism was swift and
stinging: General Aramburu banned it
as a political movement, Peronist
iconography and statues were
stripped from public places, and
even mention of his name was
forbidden. There followed eighteen
years of alternate military and
short-lived civilian regimes like
those of the Radicals Arturo
Frondizi and Arturo Illia that
lurched from one crisis to another
with little in the way of effectual
long-term policies. Civilian
administrations were dependent on
the backing of the military, which
itself was unsure of how to align
itself with the Peronist legacy and
the trade unions. Much of the 1960s
was characterized by economic
stagnation, strikes, wage freezes
and a growing disillusionment of the
populace with the institutions of
government. Throughout this time,
Perón hovered in the background, in
exile in Spain, cultivating
dissidence amongst the trade unions,
and providing a focus for opposition
to the military.
In 1966, a military coup
led by General Juan Carlos Onganía
saw the imposition of austere
measures to stabilize the economy,
and repression to keep a tight reign
on political dissent. This was not
without consequences, and, in the
city of radical politics, Córdoba,
tension eventually exploded into
violence in May 1969. In what has
become known as the Cordobazo
, left-wing student protesters and
car-worker trade unionists sparked
off a spree of general rioting that
lasted for two days, left many
people dead, and the authorities
profoundly shaken. Onganía's
position was becoming less and less
tenable and, with unrest spreading
throughout the country and an
economic crisis that provoked
devaluation, he was deposed by the
army.
It was about this time that
society saw the emergence of
guerrilla organizations, which
crystallized, over the course of the
early 1970s, into two main groups:
the People's Revolutionary Army (Ejército
Revolucionario del Pueblo or ERP
), which was a movement committed to
radical international revolution in
the style of Trotsky or Che Guevara;
and the Montoneros , which
was a more urban movement that
espoused revolution on a more
distinctly national model,
extrapolated from left-wing traits
within Peronism. Multinationals,
landed oligarchies and the security
forces were favoured Montonero
targets.