Montoneros
Montoneros was an Argentine far-left Peronist, Camilist and Roman Catholic revolutionary guerrilla organization, which emerged in the 1970s during the "Argentine Revolution" dictatorship. Its name was a reference to the 19th-century cavalry militias called Montoneras, which fought for the Federalist Party in the Argentine civil wars. Radicalized by the political repression of anti-Peronist regimes, the influence of the Cuban Revolution and liberation theology worker-priests, the Montoneros emerged from the 1960s Catholic revolutionary guerrilla Comando Camilo Torres as a "national liberation movement", and became a convergence of revolutionary Peronism, Guevarism, and the revolutionary Catholicism of Juan García Elorrio shaped by Camilism. They fought for the return of Juan Perón to Argentina and the establishment of "Christian national socialism", based on 'indigenous' Argentine and Catholic socialism, seen as the ultimate conclusion of Peronist doctrine.
Its first public action took place on 29 May 1970, with the kidnapping, subsequent revolutionary trial and assassination of the anti-Peronist ex-dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, one of the leaders of the 1955 coup that had overthrown the constitutional government led by President Juan Domingo Perón. Montoneros kidnapped the ex-dictator to put him on "revolutionary trial" for being a traitor to the homeland, for having shot 27 people to suppress the 1956 Valle uprising, and to recover the body of Eva Perón that Aramburu had kidnapped and made disappear. Montoneros was the armed nucleus of a set of non-military social organizations known as the Tendencia Revolucionaria del Peronismo, or simply "La Tendencia", which included the Juventud Peronista Regionales, the Juventud Universitaria Peronista, the Juventud Trabajadora Peronista, the Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios, the Agrupación Evita and the Movimiento Villero Peronista.
In 1972 it merged with Descamisados and in 1973 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces, with which it had been acting together. Its actions contributed to the military dictatorship calling free elections in 1973, in which the multi-party electoral front of which it was a member won, with the presidential candidacy of Peronist Héctor José Cámpora, a man close to Montoneros, as well as several governors, parliamentarians, ministers and high-ranking government officials. Cámpora's government and its relationship with the Montoneros came under heavy pressure from the outset, from right-wing sectors and the Italian anti-communist lodge Propaganda Due and the CIA, and just 49 days later he had to resign after the Ezeiza massacre.
After Cámpora's resignation as president on 12 July 1973, the Montoneros began to lose power and became progressively isolated, a situation that worsened after the assassination of trade union leader José Ignacio Rucci on 25 September 1973 – attributed to the organization – and above all after Perón's death, on 1 July 1974, when a policy of state terrorism was unleashed by the right-wing para-police organisation known as the Triple A led by José López Rega, who became the right-hand man of President Isabel Perón. Two months later, Montoneros decided to go underground again and restart the armed struggle. On 8 September 1975, Isabel Perón issued Decree 2452/75 banning its activity and classifying it as a "subversive group".
On 24 March 1976, the constitutional government was overthrown and an anti-Peronist civilian-military dictatorship was established, which imposed a totalitarian regime focused on eliminating its opponents. Montoneros established its leadership in Mexico and fought the dictatorship, inflicting serious casualties on the civil-military government and suffering heavy losses, including a large number of militants and fighters who disappeared. In 1979 and 1980 it attempted two counter-offensives that failed militarily and politically. When democracy was restored in December 1983, the Montoneros organization no longer existed as a political-military structure and sought to insert itself into democratic political life, within Peronism, under the name of Juventud Peronista, under the leadership of Patricia Bullrich and Pablo Unamuno, without ever forming an autonomous political organization. In the following years, several Montoneros adherents occupied important political posts in democratic governments.
Ideology
The main political currents that shaped the Montoneros was the far-left liberation theology of Camilo Torres Restrepo, "Christian national socialism" of Juan Perón, Marxist-Leninist Guevarism of Che Guevara, the option for the poor and anti-imperialism propagated by Catholic priest Juan García Elorrio in his journal Cristianismo y Revolución, as well as the Peronist left-wing nationalism promoted by John William Cooke. The initial mentor of the group was also Carlos Mugica who saw Peronism as Argentinian version of Catholic socialism, but rejected armed struggle and revolution, stating: "I am prepared to be killed but I am not prepared to kill". This led radicalized youth that would then form the Montoneros to embrace more radical beliefs of Camilo Torres and García Elorrio instead, with Torres arguing that "The duty of every Catholic is to be a revolutionary" and that "The Catholic who is not a revolutionary is living in mortal sin". The movement also glorified Eva Perón, naming her as one of the inspirations behind the Montoneros and used the slogan Si Evita viviera, sería Montonera, which became one of the best-known mottos of the group. In January 1975, the official organ of the Montoneros even took the name Evita Montonera. Montoneros are considered the ideological staple of Revolutionary Peronism, which combined "radical Catholic principles of justice, Peronist populism, and leftist nationalism." Montoneros remained committed to liberation theology throughout their entire existence, and the notion of Catholic martyrdom was a strong element in the Montonero imaginary and political practice. They were described as "a combination of socialist ideas and violent catholic struggle in the fashion of Camillo Torres".Other figures that the Montoneros were influenced by included Juan José Hernández Arregui who considered Peronism "the vehicle of the nation doing battle with imperialism", historian José María Rosa who defined Peronism as revolutionary anti-imperialism, dissident communist Rodolfo Puiggrós who promoted 'Peronist Marxism', and Arturo Jauretche who founded left-wing nationalist FORJA in 1935 and became a Peronist in 1940s. In the late 1960s, Jauretche and Arregui held regular discussions with the Montonero leadership, refining their ideology and rhetoric. Montoneros were also influenced by the polemic between their political mentors and inspirations – in 1969 Perón expressed his interest in Elorrio's Cristianismo y Revolución and wrote a letter to Elorrio that was later published in the journal, stating: "The revolution that is beginning will call into question not only capitalist society but also industrial society. The consumer society must die a violent death. The alienated society must disappear from history. We are trying a new and original world. The imagination has taken power." Amongst the list of the political mentors of the Montoneros, Richard Gillespie names Camilo Torres as the most important inspiration, as evidenced by the name of the Camilo Torres Commando, which was created in 1967 and was a precursor of the Montoneros, defining their ideology as "Peronism, socialism, Catholic liberationism, and armed struggle", and having "Latin American and Third World liberation" for its goal.
Liberation theology
Despite its far-left ideology, Montoneros originated from middle-class and upper-middle-class Catholic and nationalist backgrounds. The core of Montonero ideology was Argentinian nationalism and Political Catholicism, which were later extended into Peronism and socialism. This connection was made possible by the influence of post-Vatican II Catholicism, as third-worldist and liberation theology Argentinian priests, also known as the worker-priests, would radicalize Catholic students into embracing these political currents. Priest Carlos Mugica, known for his work in shantytowns at the time, became a spiritual advisor of the Catholic students' organization at the National University of Central Buenos Aires, coming in contact with students that would become leading members of the Montoneros. Mugica promoted Peronism, arguing that he was "absolutely convinced that the liberation of my people will be through the Peronist movement. I know from the Gospel, from Christ's attitude, that I must see human history through the poor. And in Argentina the majority of the poor are Peronists." Catholicism was so central to Montoneros that the group started correspondence with Pope John Paul II, and also had its own chaplain, Catholic priest Jorge Adur, who became the Montoneros' emissary to the Vatican.Around 1964 Mugica contacted former members of a 1950s Peronist resistance organization known as the Tacuaristas, and introduced them to his pupils. Mugica praised Peronism as effective realization of Catholicism, arguing that Peronism and Catholicism were united in their goals of "love for the poor, for those persecuted for defending justice and for fighting against injustice". Further radicalization came from the death of Camilo Torres, a revolutionary Catholic priest who joined the Marxist-Leninist National Liberation Army and was killed during one of the organization's operations. Six months after his death, first issue of Catholic socialist journal Cristianismo y Revolución, directed by García Elorrio, was published. The journal promoted post-conciliar reforms in the Catholic Church as a turn towards Marxism, encouraged armed struggle as a truly Catholic way of seizing power, idealized Camilo Torres and Che Guevara as examples of anti-imperialist martyrs, and vindicated Peronism as the "revolutionary key of national construction of socialism". Most influential in regards to Montoneros was Elorrio's article from March 1967, which connected Camilo Torres' struggle to Peronism:
Richard Gillespie identifies Cristianismo y Revolución as the decisive factor behind the radicalization of Catholic students and the creation of Montoneros, along with the Movement of Priests for the Third World. The journal made emotional appeals for sympathy for the oppressed and made radical Catholics identify themselves with the 'national liberation' struggles of the Third World, with Perón and Guevara named as main examples. It also glorified militians, paid homages to them and portrayed their deaths as ultimate sacrifice in the name of love for the downtrodden. Cristianismo y Revolución also defused dislike towards Peronism amongst Catholic and mainstream socialist circles - Elorrio regarded Catholic and socialist opposition to Peronism as mistake, which resonated with the hitherto anti-Peronist middle class who was now disillusioned with authoritarianism and corruption of post-Perón Argentinian governments. Because of this, former anti-Peronists "now embraced Peronism with the zeal of reformed sinners". Elorrio also pushed his readers towards action and revolution, writing: "I had to fight with the slaves, the people, as they fought, not as an elitist teacher who tells them what is good and what is evil and then goes back to his study to read Saint Augustine, but as a genuine participant, with them not for them, in their misery, their failings, their violence... Either I fought or I was a phony." Catholic influence remained strong for the entirety of Montoneros existence – Martha Crenshaw remarked that its members "were regular church attenders right up to the moment of going underground", and the organization established its own Catholic "chaplaincy" after resuming its clandestine resistance in September 1974. Montoneros' liberation theology also included a Cuban-inspired cult of martyrdom of its fallen members – guerrillero heroico.
The arrival of Onganía to power in Argentina through the 1966 coup d'état resulted in the group openly embracing the concepts of revolutionary struggle, not only because of the new government's neoliberal economic policies, but also because of suppression of the spheres of political and cultural participation, such as universities and political parties. Michael Goebel argues that government's actions made academics friendly to Perón, which was a side effect of the mass exodus of intellectuals caused by university purges. The academic staff was replaced by professors and priests from Catholic universities, who were now friendly towards Perón. In 1967, Camilo Torres Commando was formed, which became the armed precursor of the Montoneros. Donald C. Hodges notes that the ideology of Camilo Torres Commando was identical to that of Montoneros, representing "a fusion of Camilist, Guevarist, and Cookist themes combined with the cult of Evita Peron". In 1970, the Commando officially became the Montoneros, named after "montoneras", irregular popular troops that followed the federal caudillos of the Argentine interior in the 19th century. The ideology behind armed struggle was influenced by Foquismo of Che Guevara, together with the theory of urban guerrilla warfare written by Peronist Abraham Guillén and Marxist-Leninist Tupamaros.