Book cover of Horacio Verbitsky's book on the massacre.

The Ezeiza massacre took place on June 20, 1973 near the Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Peronist masses, including many young people, had gathered there to acclaim Juan Perón's definitive return from an 18-year exile in Spain. The police counted three and a half million people. In his plane, Perón was accompanied by El Tio ("Uncle") president Héctor Cámpora, representantive of the Peronists' left wing, who had come to power on May 25, 1973, amid popular euphoria and a period of political turmoil. Héctor Cámpora was opposed to the Peronist right wing, declaring during his first speech that "the spilled blood will not be negotiated" ^[1]. However, from Juan Perón's tribune, camouflaged snipers, members of the Triple A terrorist group, opened fire on the crowd. The left-wing Peronist Youth and the Montoneros had been trapped. At least 13 dead people have been identified, and 365 injured during the massacre ^[2]. According to Clarín newspaper, the real number must have been a lot higher ^[3]. However, no official investigation has been performed to confirm or prove these higher estimations. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 388 × 598 pixelsFull resolution (400 × 617 pixel, file size: 40 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Book cover of Horacio Verbitskys book on the 1973 Ezeiza massacre. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 388 × 598 pixelsFull resolution (400 × 617 pixel, file size: 40 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Book cover of Horacio Verbitskys book on the 1973 Ezeiza massacre. ... Horacio Verbitksy is a prominent Argentine investigative journalist and author. ... is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... Ministro Pistarini International Airport (IATA: EZE, ICAO: SAEZ) serves the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is the countrys largest international airport. ... For other uses, see Buenos Aires (disambiguation). ... Peronism is an Argentine political ideology based on the ideas and programs associated with former president Juan Perón. ... Juan Domingo Perón (October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974) was an Argentine soldier and politician, elected three times as President of Argentina and serving from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974. ... Héctor José Cámpora Demaestre (1909-1980) was a former president of Argentina from May 25 until July 13, 1973. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year (146th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... The Alianza Anticomunista Argentina (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, usually known as Triple A or AAA) was a far-right death squad active in Argentina during the mid-1970s, linked to the military junta led by Jorge Rafael Videla. ... Official logo of Montoneros The Movimiento Peronista Montonero was an Argentinian radical leftist nationalist-catholic guerrilla group, active during the 1970s. ... Clarín is a major newspaper in Argentina, founded by Roberto Noble on August 28, 1945. ...

Figures involved

The June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre thus marked the end of the alliance of left and right-wing Peronists which Perón had managed to form. Héctor Cámpora represented the main figure of the left-wing and José López Rega, Perón's personal secretary who had accompanied Perón during his exile in Francoist Spain, was the right-wing's representative. López Rega was also the founder of the infamous "Triple A" right-wing terrorist group (aka the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina), to which the snipers belonged. A populist and a nationalist, Perón was popular from the left to the far-right, but this conjunction of forces ended that day. During his exile, Perón himself had supported both left-wing Peronists, "young idealists" whose icons included Che Guevara (Montoneros, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias — FAR, Fuerzas Armadas Peronistas — FAP, Peronist Youth — JP — and others) and right-wing Peronists composing "Special Formations", gathering radicals such as the Guardia de Hierro (Iron Guard) or the Movimiento Nacionalista Tacuara. José López Rega in the mid-1970s. ... The Spanish Civil War officially ended on 1 April 1939, the day Francisco Franco announced the end of hostilities. ... The Alianza Anticomunista Argentina (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, usually known as Triple A or AAA) was a far-right death squad active in Argentina during the mid-1970s, linked to the military junta led by Jorge Rafael Videla. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medical doctor, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ... The Movimiento Nacionalista Tacuara (MNT, Tacuara Nationalist Movement) was an Argentine far right group in the 1960s, which, after having violently opposed Peronism, later integrated Juan Perón’s right-wing “Special Formations”. Linked to the more conservative sectors of the Peronist movement, and directly inspired by Julio Meinvielle’s...

The tribune had been set up by lieutenant-colonel Jorge Manuel Osinde and far-right figures of Peronism, such as Alberto Brito Lima or Norma Kennedy. Lorenzo Miguel, Juan Manuel Abal Medina and José Ignacio Rucci, general secretary of the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo) — controlled by the Peronist right-wing —, had the responsibility of organizing the Peronists' mobilization to Ezeiza. Members of the Unión Obrera Metalúrgica trade union, the Juventud sindical peronista and other right-wing sectors were also on Perón's tribune, facing the left-wing groups in the crowds (FAR, Montoneros, JP and others — the FAP had disarmed on May 25, 1973). This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie, who worked in the frame of Operation Gladio but also maintained links with the Chilean DINA and Turkish Grey Wolves member Abdullah Çatlı, was also present at Ezeiza, according to investigations by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón.^[4] Stefano Delle Chiaie (born 1934) was a figure on the far right of Italian politics who went on to become a wanted man worldwide. ... Emblem of Gladio, Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind paramilitary organizations. ... DINAs emblem Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (Spanish: National Intelligence Directorate) or DINA was the Chilean secret police in the government of Augusto Pinochet. ... Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar in Turkish) is the youth organization of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), an ultra-nationalist[1] movement founded by Alparslan TürkeÅŸ in 1969. ... Abdullah Çatlı (1956—November 3, 1996) was a Turkish ultra-nationalist activist, who became in 1978 the second responsible, after colonel Alparslan TürkeÅŸ, of the Grey Wolves, a movement of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party(Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi-MHP).[1] Member of Gladio stay-behind NATO clandestine network... Baltasar Garzón (Photo credit: Presidency of Argentina. ...

Carlos "El Indio" Castillo, member of the Concentración Nacionalista Universitaria (CNU), also took part in the massacre.^[5] The following night, Buenos Aires' walls were covered by graffiti "Osinde assassin of the Peronist people".

Political context

The massacre had been premeditated to remove president Héctor Cámpora, rather moderate and left-wing, from power. During Cámpora's first month of governing, approximatively 600 social conflicts, strikes and factory occupations had taken place.^[6] Workers managed to obtain wage increases and better working conditions, and social tensions were increasing. The workers' movement had gathered the sympathy of large sectors, sometimes anti-Peronist, of the middle classes. On June 2, 1973, José Ignacio Rucci, general secretary of the CGT, had responded to a Cuban delegate to the CGT congress asking for a toast in honour of Che Guevara, that they were against left-wing imperialism. The Peronist right-wing gradually took control of the whole of the trade union organization, placing people close to the leader José Ignacio Rucci. Héctor José Cámpora Demaestre (1909-1980) was a former president of Argentina from May 25 until July 13, 1973. ... A recovered factory (fábrica recuperada) is a company in which its workers have taken over control, commonly after mass redundancy or intentional bankruptcy by the managment. ... June 2 is the 153rd day of the year (154th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medical doctor, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ...

Impact

Perón’s definitive return to Argentina, after 18 years of exile, put an end to the contradictions of Peronism, which gathered political opponents in the same party. The battle near the Ezeiza airport marked the end of the transition period of Cámpora, who had succeeded the authoritarian regime of general Alejandro Lanusse and preceded the old Perón’s return. According to Hugo Moreno, "if October 17, 1945 may be considered as the founding act of Peronism, by the general strike and the presence of the masses imposing their will of support to Perón, the June 20, 1973 massacre marks the entrance on the scene of the late right-wing Peronism." ^[7] Alejandro Agustín Lanusse Gelly (August 28, 1918, Buenos Aires Argentina _ August 26, 1996, Buenos Aires) was the military president of Argentina between 22 March 1971 and 25 May 1973. ... October 17 is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945and died 2007 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ...

References

1. ^ La sangre derramada no sera negociada, quoted by Hugo Moreno, in Le désastre argentin. Péronisme, politique et violence sociale (1930-2001), Ed. Syllepses, Paris, 2005, p.107
2. ^ (Spanish) Horacio Verbitsky, Ezeiza, Contrapunto, Buenos Aires, 1985. Available here
3. ^ (Spanish) "Ezeiza, una masacre que causó el estallido del peronismo", Clarín, August 28, 2005. 
4. ^ (Spanish) "Las Relaciones secretas entre Pinochet, Franco y la P2 - Conspiración para matar", Equipo Nizkor, February 4, 1999. 
5. ^ (Spanish) "Detuvieron al Indio Castillo, acusado de un atentado contra un intendente correntino - El buen amigo de Rico necesita un buen abogado", Página/12, March 20, 2000.  / (English) See also Carlos Castillo's biography in English on desaparecidos.org
6. ^ Hugo Moreno, op.cit., p.109
7. ^ Hugo Moreno, op.cit., p.110

Horacio Verbitksy is a prominent Argentine investigative journalist and author. ... Clarín is a major newspaper in Argentina, founded by Roberto Noble on August 28, 1945. ... Equipo Nizkor is a human rights NGO concerned mostly about events in South America and Central America, but also Europe [1]. It is affiliated with Derechos Human Rights, Serpaj Europe and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC). ... Página/12 is a left-wing newspaper based in Buenos Aires, Argentina founded in May 25, 1987 by journalist Jorge Lanata. ... Desaparecidos means literally the disappeared in Spanish, and is a reference to people who were arrested, often illegally, by various South American military governments and then vanished. ...

See also

• 1976 Montejurra massacre, in Spain (similar mode of operation)
• 1977 Taksim square massacre, in Turkey (similar mode of operation)
• Propaganda Due (P2), the outlawed masonic lodge of which José López Rega, the founder of the "Triple A", was a member
• Stefano Delle Chiaie, Italian terrorist present at Ezeiza

Montejurra in Spanish and Jurramendi in Basque are the names of a mountain in Navarre (Spain) region. ... The Taksim Square Incidents better known as the Taksim Square Massacre relates to the incidents on 1 May 1977, the international Labour Day on Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. ... P2 is the common name for the Italian Freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due (Italian: Propaganda Two). ... José López Rega in the mid-1970s. ... Stefano Delle Chiaie (born 1934) was a figure on the far right of Italian politics who went on to become a wanted man worldwide. ...

External links

• (Spanish) Ezeiza, Contrapunto, Buenos Aires, 1985 by Horacio Verbitsky