Ezeiza massacre

Coordinates: 34°43′21″S 58°30′48″W / 34.722438°S 58.513419°W / -34.722438; -58.513419
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Ezeiza Massacre
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Ezeiza massacre
A person being pulled up on the platform where Perón would have talked.
LocationPuente 12, 10 km on the access road from Ezeiza International Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Coordinates34°43′21″S 58°30′48″W / 34.722438°S 58.513419°W / -34.722438; -58.513419
DateJune 20, 1973; 50 years ago (1973-06-20)
TargetLeft-wing Peronist masses
Attack type
Sniper massacre
WeaponsSniper rifles
Deaths13 (at least)
Injured365 (at least)
PerpetratorsOrthodox Peronism

The Ezeiza massacre (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈsejsa]) took place on June 20, 1973, at Puente 12,[1] the intersection of General Ricchieri freeway (the Ezeiza Airport access) and Camino de Cintura (provincial route 4), some 10 km from Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

right wing, declaring during his first speech that "the spilled blood will not be negotiated".[2]

From Perón's platform, camouflaged snipers from the right-wing of Peronism opened fire on the crowd. The left-wing

Peronist Youth and the Montoneros were targeted and trapped. At least 13 bodies were subsequently identified, and 365 were injured during the massacre.[3]

According to Clarín newspaper, the real number is thought to be much higher.[4] No official investigation was ever performed to confirm these higher estimates.

People involved

The Ezeiza massacre 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

Alianza Anticomunista Argentina
right-wing death squad.

A populist and a nationalist, Perón was popular from the far-left to the far-right, but this conjunction of forces ended that day. During his exile, Perón himself had supported both young left-wing Peronists, whose icons included

Movimiento Nacionalista Tacuara
.

The tribune had been set up at Puente 12 by Lieutenant-Colonel

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).

Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie, who worked in 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 judge Baltasar Garzón.[5] Carlos "El Indio" Castillo, member of the Concentración Nacionalista Universitaria (CNU), also took part in the massacre.[6]

Political context

The massacre had been planned to effect the removal of president Héctor Cámpora, a moderate of the left-wing, from power. During Cámpora's first month of governing, approximately 600 social conflicts,

factory occupations had taken place.[7]
Workers managed to obtain wage increases and better working conditions. 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.[citation needed] The Peronist right-wing gradually took control of the whole of the trade union organization, placing people close to the leader José Ignacio Rucci.

Effects

The Ezeiza massacre marked the end of the transition period of Cámpora, who had succeeded the military dictatorship of general

Alejandro Lanusse. 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."[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Hace 25 años, la masacre de Ezeiza enlutaba a la Argentina". La Nacion. 22 June 1998. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  2. . (in French)
  3. ^ (in Spanish) Horacio Verbitsky, Ezeiza, Contrapunto, Buenos Aires, 1985. Available here Archived 2006-06-19 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Ezeiza, una masacre que causó el estallido del peronismo" (in Spanish). Clarín. 2005-08-28. Archived from the original on 2005-10-01. Retrieved 2006-03-21.
  5. ^ "Las Relaciones secretas entre Pinochet, Franco y la P2 - Conspiración para matar" (in Spanish). Equipo Nizkor. 1999-02-04.
  6. desaparecidos.org
  7. ^ Hugo Moreno, op.cit., p. 109
  8. ^ Hugo Moreno, p. 110

External links