Tacuara Nationalist Movement
The Tacuara Nationalist Movement was an Argentine far-right fascist movement. While officially established in 1957, its activities started in 1955, and continued through the 1960s, being integrated into Juan Perón's "Special Formations". Directly inspired by Julio Meinvielle's Catholic pronouncements, Tacuara defended nationalist, Catholic, anti-liberal, anti-communist, antisemitic, and anti-democratic ideas, and had as its first model José Antonio Primo de Rivera's fascist Falange Española.
Its main leaders were Alberto Ezcurra Uriburu, José Luis "Joe" Baxter, Óscar Denovi, and Eduardo Rosa. Various ideologically contradictory movements emerged from this group. After three important splits in the early 1960s, the police cracked down on most factions in March 1964. A year later, the entire MNT was outlawed by then president Arturo Illia of the Radical Civic Union. The movement gradually disintegrated as many members became fascinated with left-wing Peronism and communism, while others incorporated neo-Nazi elements. In 1965, the Argentine National Congress classified Tacuara as a communist rather than a fascist organisation.
Composed of young people from right-wing backgrounds, it has been called the "first urban guerrilla group in Argentina". A tacuara was a rudimentary lance used by gaucho militias during the Argentine war of independence. It consisted of a knife blade tied to a stalk of taquara cane. It has been rumored that the organization was secretly run by the son of Adolf Eichmann.
1957 creation and antecedents
The MNT was officially established at the end of 1957. First under the name of Grupo Tacuara de la Juventud Nacionalista. It was mostly formed by young offspring of Buenos Aires’ high and middle bourgeoisie, who were active in the Unión de Estudiantes Nacionalistas Secundarios students’ union and the Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista. Although strongest in Buenos Aires, during its peak the group spread all over the country, especially in Rosario, Santa Fe and Tandil. They propagandized through both their own publications and various nationalist periodicals, one of which in fact bore the name Tacuara; but it had been founded back in 1945, during the military government headed by Edelmiro Farrell, by a group of students affiliated to the UNES. Argentina, an important economic power at the beginning of the 20th century, had been hit hard by the 1929 Great Depression. Furthermore—as in other parts of the world—it was affected by a wave of authoritarianism. Argentine nationalism was influenced by Fascism and Nazism. This influence was reinforced by the arrival of Nazi fugitives fleeing from Germany after 1945.Ideology
The MNT inherited from the UNES’ aesthetics, inspired by Nazi parades and rituals. They called each other “comrades”, instead of using their first names. They wore gray armbands with the insignia of the Knights of Malta. Consisting of youths educated in military high-schools and religious schools, the MNT took advantage of the conflict arising from the enactment of the law on secularization of schools a few years earlier. They advocated reestablishment of Catholic teaching, suppressed by Perón's government before his overthrow in 1955, and struggled against “Judaism” and the left-wing. They opposed what they named “liberal democracy” and admired Hitler and Mussolini. Inspired by Primo de Rivera, founder of the Spanish Falange, "Tacuara rejected elections and the parliamentary system, were strongly anti-Marxist, revindicated social justice, proclaimed the Fatherland's and the Catholic religion's superiority over any other and exalted violence as a form of permanent mobilization."Inspired by neo-fascist figures such as the French fascist Jacques de Mahieu, Tacuara propagated a neo-fascist ideology based on appeals for a "national-syndicalist revolution". They formulated a "basic revolutionary program" that was explicitly linked to the Twenty-Six Points of the Spanish Falange. Tacuara was seen as a part of the larger trend within Latin American conservatism to introduce both national-syndicalist elements as well as embrace cult of violence. The revolutionary program of Tacuara included economic measures such as the abolition of large estates and the nationalisation of banking and foreign trade. The ideology of Tacuara also had roots in Catholic nationalism, promoting a strong revolutionary corporatist state while rejecting liberalism, capitalism and liberal democracy as enemies. Initially anti-socialist and anti-communist, the group would gradually fall victim to numerous splits as many members, including the Tacuara leader José Joe Baxter, became fascinated with Marxism and the Cuban Revolution.
Political scientist Esteban Campos wrote: "The ideology of the MNT was rooted in the cultural universe of the Argentine and European right between the wars: the Falangism of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the national-syndicalism of Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, the revisionist historiography and Catholic anti-Semitism of Father Julio Meinvielle, to which was added the communitarian doctrine of Jaime María de Mahieu. In their own cultural categories, the Tacuara supporters were neither left-wing nor right-wing, as they saw themselves as a synthesis that transcended both currents." One of the main leaders of Tacuara, Alberto Ezcurra Uriburu, wrote:
Given this syncretism, Tacuara was internally heterogenous and grew unstable given the conflicts and confrontation between its right-wing and left-wing factions. In October 1960, a faction close to Father Julio Meinvielle broke away from the MNT to found the Nationalist Restoration Guard, accusing the main Uriburu's faction of having been taking over by "Fidelism, Trotskyism and atheism". Another group led by Cardo Cabo split in May 1961 and created the New Argentina Movement, procliaming itself Peronist and joinng the Peronist trade unions. In December 1962, Tacuara suffered the most devastating split, as the faction of Tacuara co-leaders Joe Baxter, José Luis Nell and Alfredo Ossorio formed the Revolutionary Nationalist Tacuara Movement, which aligned itself close to Marxism and left-wing Peronism, defining itself as 'Peronist and revolutionary', proclaiming a 'national and social revolution', and identifying with socialist movements of the Third World.
From Perón (1945) to Frondizi (1958)
When Juan Perón acceded to the presidency for the first time in 1945, nationalists in Argentina debated on whether to support him or not. At first, most decided to join him. However, two events pushed them apart from him. First was a bombing which occurred during turmoil over the hemispheric political initiative, the Acta de Chapultépec. This was a plan aimed at Latin America's integration under the leadership of the United States. Within Argentina, this initiative was supported by both Perón's personal delegate, John William Cooke, and one of Perón's main opposition leaders, Arturo Frondizi of the Radical Civic Union. Perón himself reportedly opposed to the Acta but was rumored to be considering acceding, under pressure from military and business interests. Nationalists organized a protest against it, which ended with 200 being jailed. Agitation continued. On April 15, 1953, two bombs exploded in Plaza de Mayo, killing five. The second event which pushed various nationalists to oppose Perón was his suppression of mandatory Catholic education in 1954. Thus, the nationalists acclaimed Eduardo Lonardi's arrival by plane to the chanting of Cristo Vence, in the aftermath of Perón's ouster in September 1955. However, as early as 1956, the nationalists returned to opposing the government, upset by the assumption of control of the junta by General Aramburu, who was allied with the old Conservative establishment.When democratically elected president Arturo Frondizi took office in 1958, he enforced a nonreligious education program, alongside his brother, Risieri Frondizi, rector of the University of Buenos Aires. This new attack against clericalism prompted a violent response from the Catholic nationalist sectors. Created the year before, the Tacuara movement took advantage of the weakening of the Peronism movement and became a major opposition force. It was at its strongest between 1960 and 1962, attracting many young people. These included José Luis "Joe" Baxter, a nationalist and anti-imperialist born to working class Irish immigrants, who became the future founder of the Guevarist guerrilla movement as well as Alberto Ignacio Ezcurra Uriburu, who had been expelled from the Jesuits and remained a staunch defender of the radical right ideology. Moisés Ikonicoff, a Jewish socialist who opposed Peronism in 1955, sometimes attended MNT meetings. Carlos Mugica, a young theology teacher, who broke with the group after coming to support Che Guevara, and finally turned toward Peronism. Three brothers surnamed Guevara Lynch, who were cousins of Che, also participated in the MNT.
1960s splits
The MNT split into along ideological lines between 1960 and 1963. Many of the new members were attracted by Peronism, while some of the old leaders were starting a slow and progressive process of ideological transformation towards Peronism and the left-wing. The 1959 Cuban Revolution was a major change and an axis of division between political forces. Joe Baxter was fascinated by the Cuban experience and its stand against the US — which only became complete in 1961, when Fidel Castro announced his choice in favor of socialism. At that time, Alberto Ezcurra and his followers became serious opponents of the Cuban revolution. Furthermore, many activists struggled alongside the trade unions and associated themselves with the Peronist Youth, which wasn't well viewed in all sectors of the MNT. Thus, in March 1960, the priest Meinvielle, opposed to the alliance with Peronism, accused the original core of Marxist deviations. Meinvielle then created the Guardia Restauradora Nacionalista which imposed the membership requirements of European ancestry and a family history of at least six generations of residence in Argentina.The next split, on June 9, 1961, was the Movimiento Nueva Argentina, headed by Dardo Cabo, which strove for Perón's return from exile. The MNA was one of the first right-wing Peronist organizations. MNA was launched in commemoration of General Juan José Valle's Peronist uprising in 1956. It became the ancestor of all modern Catholic nationalist groups in Argentina. During the visit of former United States President Dwight Eisenhower to Argentina in February 1962, the MNT headed nationalist demonstrations against him, leading to the imprisonment of several of their leaders, among them José Luis "Joe" Baxter. Baxter also established Arab ties that year.
During the 1962 elections, the MNT presented candidates in Buenos Aires and in Entre Ríos through the Unión Cívica Nacionalista. However, sectors headed by José Luis "Joe" Baxter and José Luis Nell decided to join the Peronist movement believing in its revolutionary capacities. With Perón in exile, the movement named after him attracted people of various ideologies from various backgrounds. This heterogeneity would end with his return, during the 1973 Ezeiza Massacre.
Tacuara was described by the Argentine representative to the UN as Nazis, in response to Ahmad Shukeiri having saluted them in November 1962 while calling for others to adopt its principles. At the time it was also described by ADL as "neo-Nazi storm troop gang" and by others as Neo-Nazis, especially after the notorious June 1962 attack on Graciela Sirota, tattooing on her breast a Nazi swastika, as revenge for bringing Adolf Eichmann to justice in Israel. Both the attack on Graciela Sirota and the Shukeiri salute months later were marked as "the dark days of 1962".