La Larga y Oscura Noche

[maverick]

Chapter XX

I left my heart in Rio de Janeiro


Assassination attempt against Argentine opposition leader in exile fails

The bombing was the second attack against Arturo Frondizi’s life in the last 16 months

In what the authorities have described as a brutal and senseless offensive against peace, today a car bomb was detonated in the neighbourhood of Ciudad Vieja, the oldest part of Montevideo, in the latest assassination attempt against the Exiled Argentine Politician Arturo Frondizi, a man seen by many as the de facto head of the opposition against the Peronist Government in Argentina since the end of the vicious civil war that ravaged said country in 1955.

The metropolitan police have assured that…

[Taken from…El Dia, October of 1958]


**************************************************************


Vice President Nixon greeted at Caracas with protests and riots

As part of a goodwill trip to South America, Vice President Richard Nixon was today greeted at the Venezuelan capital of Caracas by President Wolfgang Larrazabal and several representatives of the Latin American nation. After exchanging compliments and greetings, the motorcade began its journey to the capital from the airport in order to continue with the meetings when the Vice President’s car was welcomed by a mob in the midst of an anti-American riot.

In a repetition of events seen in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, anti-American protestors in Caracas surrounded the motorcade, trying to assault the Vice President and the American visitors, even managing to hit and kick the car in which they were being driven several times. The highlight of the attack came when rocks and other blunt objects were allegedly thrown at the motorcade, breaking the cars windows, while the driver was pull from the car by the protesters and beaten repeatedly.

There were no casualties and the Vice President was not injured during the attack; the trip is expected to continue as planned. [1]

[Taken from…The New York Times, May of 1958]


***************************************************************


“If Venezuela had not proven enough proof of the futility of Richard Nixon’s ill-fated 1958 South America tour, Brazil was thankfully willing to up the ante, as both daring and less rational protesters proceeded to outright try to kill the American vice President with improvised Molotov cocktails that resulted in minimal damage to the plain and two long jail sentences to be served in military prisons…

“This was, however, given the political considerations, even more evidence in favour of more American involvement in the region to the eyes of some, and thus in the end, the 1958 goodwill tour and its ‘failure’ resulted not in the end of Eisenhower’s and Dulles’ new Latin American Policy, but in its more immediate implementation through the Alliance for Democracy, a continental alliance aimed at the maintenance and expansion of American influence in the region, the elimination of communist and socialist influence in the region and the furthering of economic, political and military cooperation between the United States and its regional allies…[2]


[Taken from…Latin America and the Cold war: a geopolitical study]


***************************************************************
Strictly Confidential

Memorandum on the policy direction towards Cuba

The attached detailed the concerns about the nature, policies and orientation of the Ramon Barquin regime in Cuba and its effects on the region and on our own policies and attitude towards both Cuba and the region.

Recommendations from the Department after careful analysis suggest a moderate policy aimed at disestablishing and isolating the regime and reducing its influence, while searching for more viable alternatives in the region’s leadership as a counter to any negative effect that the nature of Cuba’s government might have in the balance of the region.

In addition, studies have concluded in the need of searching for alternatives in leadership within Cuba herself, given the right political and social climate to be manufactured by this Department and the Central Intelligence Agency in accordance to the parameters used elsewhere in the region with positive results…

[US Department of State Memorandum to the White House]

*****************************************************************

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May of 1958
“Is there anything else, Mr. Vice President?”


“No, that is all”


It had been a very tiresome and long trip. While Mexico and Managua had been mildly annoying and tiring, Caracas had been an absolute hell, from the minute he got off the plane to the rushed take off towards Rio de Janeiro, nearly a complete disaster. His hair was thinning and becoming greyer by the minute, he could barely keep his eyes open and the alcohol could rarely make his headaches and backaches disappear. The man needed some time off and he knew it.


The Vice-presidency could be barely described as a stressful and demanding job, and in many occasions, men ranging from John Adams to Thomas R. Marshall making quips and jokes about the insignificance of their office, the later even remarking: "Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again."


Richard Nixon was nevertheless determined not to be that man; he would not be forgotten, and the whole world would have to hear him one day.


He hadn’t fought his entire life to end as a nobody, and thus the last six years were spent in making the Vice President of the United States an office that commanded respect and attracted public attention as it had never been before.

But after 6 years, the pressure was finally getting to him. It hadn’t actually been the last 6 years, but the last three and now this trip. The place was killing him, or at least trying. It had happened in Caracas and now again in Brazil just a few hours ago.


The man’s right arm reached for the glass of scotch lying in front of him and as he took another sip, he continued to ponder. Just two more years, two more years and all it’s going to worth it.

The headache wasn’t going away, and now the sharp pain in his back was accompanied by an even sharper pain in his chest.


He tried to stand up, but as he did, the glass he was holding slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground, shattering as the pain expanded to the vice President’s left arm and jaw, and suddenly, the realization that he couldn’t breathe.


“Oh, Damnit”


As the man plummeted silently into the ground, outside everything remained as usual, and Nixon wouldn’t be found until the next morning.




Notes:

1. Main difference is that the trip is a little more dramatic and dangerous.

2. Basically, a less welfare/leftie, more military/Republican version of Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress; motivated by all the shit happening between 1955 and 1958

 

[Dan1988]

Hmm, that's pretty scary. Molotov cocktails thrown at Nixon?

Please continue.

 

[maverick]

Chapter XXI


It Never Rains in Southern California


Vice President Nixon buried at Yorba Linda

The ceremonies, presided by reverend Billy Graham, a close friend of the late Vice President, Richard Nixon, were attended by President Eisenhower, the late Vice President’s family and friends, several figures of the Republican Party and California politics, such as Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, Governor Goodwin Knight, and even a few democratic figures, such as Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy.

Richard Milhous Nixon, the 36th Vice-President of the United States, war born in Yorba Linda, California on…[1]

[Taken from the Washington Post, June 1958]

*********************************************************

Anastasia Slain in a Hotel Here. Led Murder, Inc

"Death took The Executioner yesterday. Umberto (called Albert) Anastasia, master killer for Murder, Inc., a homicidal gangster troop that plagued the city from 1931 to 1940, was murdered by two gunmen." [2]


[Taken from... The New York Times June 1958]

********************************************************

“The political atmosphere in Brazil, already plagued by incertitude and a certain degree of instability saw a continued push towards a precipice following the death of American vice-president Richard Nixon in late May of 1958, in a series of events that many saw as an omen and a sign of the precarious state of Brazilian politics at the time…

“With anti-communist and anti-socialist paranoia well installed in the upper classes, the conservative parties and the echelons of the Armed Forces, and anticonservative fear and distrust began to spread through the lower classes, the workers and the Unions and of course, the parties representing them.

“The fears of a growing military presence and influence within the government, and their attempts to isolate and reduce what they saw as a negative socialist or communist influence of the PTB and vice President Joao Goulart, grew exponentially between 1956 and 1958, the years between the Para rebellion, the coup of 1955 and other such events. Many saw their fears confirmed in November of 1957, when the Brazilian Communist Party and other such organizations deemed as dangerous, radical and/or extremists were investigated and accused by the government of seditious activities on charges that were allegedly fake and even fabricated by conservative elements within the armed forces.

“The arrest of Communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes, and his mysterious death in a military prison on July of 1958 came to fuel the claims and fears of the left, as was the allegedly engineered absence of Vice President Goulart from the ceremonies in which Nixon was received the previous month…

…on the other hand, the attacks on the American vice President at the airport on behalf of socialist extremists, as well as the growing underground activities of several workers’ unions and the birth of a new Maoist Communist Party of Brazil as an splinter and unofficial replacement of the moderate former Brazilian Communist Party [3]…it all contributed to energize the right and its backers in the armed forces, at the expense of Marshall Lott’s ability to influence and moderate the tendencies of some of the factions under his command”


[Taken from…Into the Maelstrom: Brazilian Politics 1930-1976]

*********************************************************


From day one, 1958 seemed like a bleak year for the Republican Party and the Eisenhower administration, a trend allegedly started when Sputnik made it to orbit in late 1957, even if others claim it to have started with a series of international crisis in 1955-1956…

In any given case, the economy was weak, unemployment on the rise, and on June, Vice President Richard Nixon died of a heart attack in the midst of a goodwill tour to South America, perhaps the best representation of an ill-fated policy towards unwilling allies.

Now, Nixon’s death had, despite serving an emotional and psychological effect, sent massive shockwaves through the Republican Party establishment, as Richard Nixon had spent the better part of the last 6 years, and arguably his whole political career, building power and momentum for a Presidential run, and without him, the Republican National Convention saw the gates to a Presidential race opened for anyone capable and important enough…

But perhaps the most interesting side effect was the one seen in California Republican Politics, in which a good part of the decade had seen a three way fight for domination between the Vice President, moderate Governor Goodwin Knight and the Senate Minority leader William Knowland, each with presidential ambitions and Machiavellian interests in controlling the California delegation.

Having announced his intention of challenging the incumbent Knight in the primaries, Knowland counted with the support of the growing conservative faction in the primaries, but was largely an outsider and the majority of the party was resentful and uneasy as His candidacy threatened to upend the party’s shaky power structure, and it was largely taken as an act of cannibalism upon Knight.

The dying days of May and the early days of June saw a political storm shaking the Republican Party and the California establishment in particular, with a surprising movement finally revealed in time for the Primaries: Knowland would support Knight in his bid for Re-election on November. In one of the most surprising and perhaps bizarre strategies seen in politics, and in what was believed to be one of the most important back-room deals of the decade, the Senator would abandon his ambitions for the governorship and support Knight against Brown along with the State conservatives, while Knight would support Knowland for the Presidency come the National Convention of 1960.

The plan was not perfect, and the relation between the two giants of California politics was a sour one at best, but Knowland knew the risks and without Nixon, it is speculated that he was able to see the situation on a more realistic way: he had more chances as an incumbent senator than in a run for the governorship. It had taken some convincing, but William F. Knowland finally ran and won another term at the Senate that year.

The governorship, on the other hand, was a different story, with a margin so unbelievably thin than many contested it for years, but that gave the Democratic candidate Ed Brown the Governorship of California by less than 12,000 votes…and that gave Knowland control over the California delegation come 1960.

Now, on the matter of gubernatorial elections, to the other side of the country, another future Presidential contester was in the process of making a surprising victory at New York…

[Taken from…Making History: US Politics, 1945-1989]



Notes:

1. Nixon’s death was caused by a more stressful visit to South America in 1958, more stressful due to the continued crisis and more widespread violence, as well as butterflies…

2. Butterflies…mainly from Cuba and its alternate Government, Anastasia was IOTL murdered in October of 1957

3. The Communist Party of Brazil, as IOTL, is a Maoist splinter cell from the Brazilian Communist Party, which followed the Soviet revisionist and anti-Stalinist line

 

[Dan1988]

Again, very interesting.

 

[Gonzaga]

Nice as always Maverick!

The death of Prestes might mean more radical Communist activism in the future. He already considered as "too soft" by many in the 50's, but was the leader of the party anyway.

A question: will that stupid crazy Jânio Quadros still appear on the national political scene?

 

[Archangel]

Chapter XXI

...
Notes:

1. Nixon’s death was caused by a more stressful visit to South America in 1958, more stressful due to the continued crisis and more widespread violence, as well as butterflies…

...

Nice update, maverick!
Nixon's death means no Southern Strategy and a different Republican Party.

 

[maverick]

1.Thanks...

2.Indeed...

3. You don't think I'd waste such a wonderful opportunity and such an...err..."interesting" character, do you?

4. Indeed, more on that later...later later, next update must shown Argie politics and introduce La resistance

 

[Gonzaga]

3. You don't think I'd waste such a wonderful opportunity and such an...err..."interesting" character, do you?

From a writer point of view: no, you can't waste such opportunity. Jânio Quadros was one of those men created by drunk ASBs during a brainstorm while watching a session of Mel Brooks movies. You need to use him.

From the point of view of someone worried with Brazil's future:
p)

 

[Dan1988]

From a writer point of view: no, you can't waste such opportunity. Jânio Quadros was one of those men created by drunk ASBs during a brainstorm while watching a session of Mel Brooks movies. You need to use him.

He certainly looks the part, if Wiki is to be believed.

 

[Guilherme Loureiro]

He certainly looks the part, if Wiki is to be believed.

If Jânio Quadros wasn't born, someone would have to create him. But yes, as Brazilian president, he screwed up. A lot.

 

[maverick]

Chapter XXII


La Comedia de los Errores…


Buenos Aires, Argentina
Noviembre de 1957
A School

Just a few seconds till the bell rang…

Three, two, one…there it is…

The bell rings, and order returns to the classrooms as the students take their seats and in an orderly and quiet way as the teacher enters the room. The students, wearing white Guarda polvos, the traditional uniform for the public schools since the Presidency of Yrigoyen, sit in their seats with a straight and firm, a perfect example of modern discipline as their new teacher enters through the door.

‘What happened to misses Jimenez?” whispered a voice in the back of the room

‘She had to go…they say she was associated with the Socialists’ responded a voice just as quietly [1]

The new teacher put the books she was carrying on her desk and stood near the chalkboard for a few seconds, taking a look at the class. Nothing out of the ordinary; a map of Argentina on one wall, another one of South America next to it and a Mapamundi on the opposite wall, between two great windows. Some pictures hanging on the walls; General Peron, Evita, San Martin, Belgrano, Sarmiento. A national flag, the lyrics of the national anthem and the Marcha peronista, a bookshelf with history, biology and math books; and between the walls, 60 students sitting in their desks dressed in white and with their eyes staring directly at the front of the class.

‘Children, I am Miss Cabral, your new teacher, and I will be replacing misses Jimenez’

After making sure that most of the students were there, only four were missing, either for the flu or personal reasons, the class continued.

Cultura Ciudadana [2] started as usual, discussing the latest and most important events.

The teacher did some exposition on the Economic and social policies of the government, the successes of the Five Year Plan and the such, the students at the front paying close attention or at least pretending to pay attention, while the kids in the back talked to each other in whispers or rolled their eyes.

‘Miss Cabral, what about the elections, the last one?’ asked a voice from the back

‘Well, what about them?’


********************************************************


The first reconciliatory attempts of the Peronist Government can be said to have ended in October of 1957, following the fiasco of the 1957 General elections, a gamble that Peron would not repeat for quite a while.

The very decision to try to maintain an image of a stable and open democracy was rutted in the very nature of the Peronist government, a government by the people for the people, and thus it was necessary from an ideological and pragmatic point of view to keep the appearance of a truly representative and free democracy in which the Government was a manifestation of the will of the people.

The war had nevertheless destroyed any pretences of democracy with the eventual disintegration of the opposition, the introduction of martial law and military rule, and thus Peron, while trying to reconstruct the country socially and economically, was now forced to build a new political system to avoid being branded as a dictator, as his domestic and foreign opposition often did.

Therefore, while holding midterm elections between 1955 and 1957 was nearly impossible due to the effects of the war and the political climate that reigned in Argentina, and thus special preparations had to be done for the 1957 elections, in which the Presidency, Congress and several governorships were at stake.

The first attempts to compromise were done in late 1956, when informal and secret negotiations took place between representatives of the Peronist Regime and Arturo Frondizi, who at the time represented the Argentine opposition in exile from Montevideo. Subsequent negotiations reached to Alvaro Alsogaray, Vicente Solano Lima and there was even an attempt to talk with Americo Ghioldi and other representatives from the Socialist bloc to include them in the trilateral negotiations between the ex-Radicals, Christian-Democrats and Conservatives.

Peron’s attempts to reach out to the exiled opposition and bring some political stability were not only limited to these negotiations, but also by a few secondary measures, such as the liberation of several imprisoned opposition figures, such as the conservative writer, Victoria Ocampo, who was freed in June of 1957.

The talks nevertheless amounted to nothing at the end. The “Bloc of the Six”, as the opposition bloc was called, in representation of the Union Civica Radical, the Socialists, the Christian Democrats, the National Democrats, the Progressive Democrats and the Conservative Union Federal, called for an abstentionist policy towards the upcoming election, calling the people not to vote and not to participate in Peron’s sham election.

The results, which gave Peron 60% of the vote for the Presidency, also resulted in nearly a 36% of the vote as “Voto en Blanco” [3]…

The message was clear, Peron’s conciliatory policies had failed and the opposition had stood firm as a united front. Yet it was also clear that Peron wouldn’t be leaving power for the foreseeable future, and that leads us to…



[Taken from…El Régimen Peronista: ideología y Política ]

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Foquismo [4], or Focalism, an unusual theory for the time, and one of the basis for revolutionary warfare in the 1950s, was first developed in South America, and despite the common perception that it was developed by French Marxist Journalist Regis Debray, its origins can actually be traced to two failed revolutionary attempts in the late 1950s against Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua and Juan Peron in Argentina.

The Mexico group, also called the Granma Group, was composed of Cuban, Nicaraguan, Mexican and Argentine Marxists and socialist types in search of a revolution, first involved in plotting against the Batista Government before it was toppled by Colonel Barquin in 1956, or so said one of the main members of the group, the Cuban born Camilo Cienfuegos.

The following 7 month experience in Nicaragua against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza was the first actual guerrilla fighting, in which the group was involved, ending in a failure that led to the death of half the members of the Granma expedition and the exile of the rest.

Undeterred from the bloody fiasco at Nicaragua, the new de facto leader of the group, an Argentine doctor known as Ernesto Guevara, took the Granma Party to northern Argentina, where the real ideological aspects of Focalism would be developed…

As theorized by Debray:

Its central principle is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus (in Spanish, foco) for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection. Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements by the late 1960s.

The experience in Argentina, was nevertheless, not as fortunate as future examples of the use of Focalism in Africa, yet many of the mistakes in the actions of the Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo and its splinter cell, the Ejercito Popular de Liberacion, would serve to the learning process that led to the true theory of Focalism in the late 1960s…


[Taken from…Libertad! A study of asymmetrical warfare, revolutionary tactics and guerrilla strategy in the cold war scenario]


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Buenos Aires, Argentina
Noviembre de 1957
A School

The bell rings once more at the end of the school day and the students sigh in relief.

The large groups of students leave the building as every day; they stand in formation, sing the national anthem and the Peronist March again, just as every morning as the national flag is being carried away, and they finally leave.

It’s just another day, and its over.

‘What a boring day’

‘Could have been worse…we’ve still got the exams tomorrow’

‘Can’t we get some rest? Damn teachers…’

‘Don’t worry, maybe they’ll find a new one by tomorrow’

‘We can only hope…hey, Santi, can I borrow your book?’

‘Math or history?’

‘Math…oh, and the Evita book’ [5]

‘Hey, I’ve got to read that again too!’

‘Really, I thought you already memorized it’

‘Oh, shut up…here, have the math book…but I still gotta read this stupid piece of crap, ask Susana’

‘Fine’

‘Can’t believe you lost it…next thing you’re gonna forget the Marcha Peronista and they’ll send you to La Perla for being a gorilla’ [6]

‘Dude, not funny’

‘Come on, you two! Walk faster, we’re missing lunch!’



Notes:

1. IOTL, before the 1955 coup, teachers were “encouraged” to be members of the Justicialist Party

2. Citizen Culture: a subject introduced by the Peronist Government on secondary school, as a way of promoting the figures, achievements and propaganda of the regime.

3. None of the above…in 1951 Peron had won a 62% of the vote, the UCR having taken the 31%...

4. Focalism

5. La Razon de mi Vida, Eva Peron’s book, a mandatory reading in primary and secondary school…

6. Gorila, the term used to described anti-peronists…

 

[Dan1988]

Great to see this back. And, as always, very interesting.

However, I have one question:

6. Gorila, the term used to described anti-peronists…

Weren't the gorillas also very staunchly nationalist as well, about as much as the Blues (even if the gorillas despised Peronism)?

 

[maverick]

Great to see this back. And, as always, very interesting.

However, I have one question:



Weren't the gorillas also very staunchly nationalist as well, about as much as the Blues (even if the gorillas despised Peronism)?

Thanks! and yes they were indeed...the use is seemingly anachronistic, since Polishpedia says the term was first used after the success of the Revolucion Libertadora IOTL...but I like the term, so buh!

 

[Dan1988]

Thanks! and yes they were indeed...the use is seemingly anachronistic, since Polishpedia says the term was first used after the success of the Revolucion Libertadora IOTL...but I like the term, so buh!

I see.

How is post-1955 Peronist Argentina going to deal with the balance-of-payments crisis that characterized 1950s-1970s OTL Argentina? Will they try solving it as they did pre-1955, or will they try something different?

 

[maverick]

Ah, I'm still thinking...probably a combination of what they did before 1955 with something new...

Since I've already established that the Peronist Government continues with a mostly similar economic policies through the Five Year Plans...

Unless someone has a better idea...

 

[Dan1988]

Ah, I'm still thinking...probably a combination of what they did before 1955 with something new...

That would be interesting to see. If you've read David Rock's history of Argentina (which deals a lot with the economic side of Argentine history), he mentions that successive post-1955 (but pre-"dirty war") governments tried to resolve the balance-of-payments crisis by extensively using devaluation, which had only minimal short-term effects. It would be interesting to see if the Peronist government engaged in some of the same tactics as the post-1955 governments in OTL did to give an illusion of prosperity (and we all know how Perón liked spectacle ), even at the expense of both agriculture and manufacturing.

Since I've already established that the Peronist Government continues with a mostly similar economic policies through the Five Year Plans...

Oh this will be interesting. Especially considering that a lot of them were mainly grandiose and were never accomplished anyway.

Is Perón going to remarry in TTL?

 

[juanml82]

Is Perón going to remarry in TTL?

Please, NO!!! Or at least, don't make her vicepresident

(yeah, I know, the butterfly effect means any new wife wouldn't be... her. But I had to say it)

 

[maverick]

Indeed...it is very unlikely that they meet, or that he remarries...

All of his wives seem to have been obscure characters that came out of nowhere...besides, with the trauma of the war, he needs the image of Evita more than ever...

 

[maverick]

Chapter XXIII


En las Montañas de la Locura


The countryside, province of Salta
October of 1958

“Faster, faster, the border is just a few kilometres to the north”

The small column was moving as fast as it could, given the circumstances.

Beaten, exhausted, hungry, wearing only rags and trying to carry their weapons and two wounded men, odds were not favouring the group. Tartagal was only a few kilometres behind, as were the government troops and the dozens of wounded men the column had lost in the previous hours.

Salta, in the north-western corner of Argentina, was not the most hospitable place in the world, at least the countryside wasn’t. The group had seen most of the province in the past few months, as well as Tucuman. They had lived outdoors most of the time, and thus had first hand experience with the inclement nights and days, the scolding hot and the painfully cold, the adverse weathers, an in many occasions adverse locals.

Not a place for those who want to fight it, and its beauty can escape you if you’re too busy running for your life or fighting for it.

“Sir, We need to rest”

“Please, Che, we’re tired and we can’t walk any further”

The group leader suddenly gave a silent sign with his right arm and the column stopped in the middle of the wilderness, ducking to the ground and taking several looks around to see if their persecutors were still behind them. Sitting and laying over the grass, there was a rather pitiful looking bunch. Tired, dirty, wounded, demoralized, the only thing that kept them going was not their cause, but fear of getting caught and sharing the same fate that thousands had already experienced in the Peronist prisons.

“You shouldn’t listen to them…we can’t stop now, they’re only a few hundred meters south of us, we must get going immediately”

“And leave our men behind? With all the comrades we’ve lost in the past few weeks? How could I come and say to fight for a just cause if I cannot even be just towards our men?”

“The fight is not lost yet, we still got the Tucuman cells, men are disposable, but our leadership is not”

“I would say otherwise”

“That’s not important now…did you hear that?”

The group suddenly fell silent and in the darkness of the night disappeared. There was nothing out there, probably just a bird. But the group had been walking non-stop for most of the day and the night, with little to no supplies or protection from the elements. Had it not been for the lack of a full moon, they would have already been caught.

“All right, time to go…men! Stand up!”


*************************************************************

“…Yes, the Operativo Soberania was indeed a part of the so-called Plan CONINTES, and it worked as a small scale version of the scheme, although CONINTES itself would later be implemented on full scale in late 1959 and early 1960, and even then, the plan had already seen results as it was partially used during and in the immediate aftermath of the war…CONINTES was in fact an instrumental part of the Peronist Security Doctrine during its post civil war life…”

[Interview with Historian Felipe Pigna, Lo Pasado Pensado: La Argentina de Peron, 2008]

**************************************************************

The Plan CONINTES (Conmocion Interna del Estado), although not properly put in effect until the infamous executive order of November 1959, had been in a process of development since 1955, in the months before the war, and was only been authorized in part for the duration of the war and the three months that followed.

The militarization of the country, its divisions into military districts in which a military commander would have more authority than the civilian government, the practice of making military operations, raids, arrests and other such tactics against citizens without court orders, as well as the growth of the discretionary power the executive had…these were all results of CONINTES, first during its partial implementation in 1958-1959, and then with its full use between 1959 and 1962.

[Taken from…Historia del Peronismo: la Obsequencia 1955-1961]


*************************************************************


Now, unlike the Comandos Civiles, or Comandos de Hierro, which operated mainly in Buenos Aires and Cordoba in the immediate aftermath of the war, the “Focos Guerrilleros”, at least the first ones, such as the Ejercito Guerrillero del Pueblo, El Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional, and the Movimiento Revolucionario Independiente, operated from a more conventional approach, as a guerrilla functioning in a determined geographical focus, as part of the so-called Focalist strategy, using the provinces of Salta and Tucuman as a base of operations in order to encourage a popular uprising and use the people in their plight against the government.

Another important factor to consider, is that while the Comandos de Hierro were residues of the civil war, and thus mostly followers of the old Catholic Nationalist groups or even former Communists, the guerrillas followed a more radical and left wing message, working within the larger frame that was the cold war, even if the groups themselves were isolated from the main struggle between east and west, they still represented the Marxist revolutionary thought, with a few hints of old anarchism…

The problem was that in Argentina in the 1950s, Peron was the people…the cabezitas negras, the descamisados, the poor, workers and farmers…they were Peron and Peron was them, they loved him, and that was something these first groups, the Guevaristas, could not understand. Their experience told them that a strongman was a man to be hated, like Batista in Cuba, Somoza in Nicaragua…not Peron, though, he was and had always been, a man of the people, and that was perhaps the most important factor in the defeat of the first wave of insurgent groups in the late 1950s…


[Taken from…The Cold war in Argentina: 1943-1989]


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The countryside, Province of Salta
October of 1958

“The Mountain, the Mountain! It’s descending upon us!”

“That’s enough, Joaquin…we haven’t been to the mountains in five days!”

“Leave him be, the fever’s got to him…once we get to Bolivia we can get him help”

“If we ever get to cross the fucking border…damn Peronist Dogs, leave us already!”

“Stop yelling”

“There’s nobody here, damnit”

“The horror, the horror, the fire all around us…the darkness falling upon us, the sun burning your skin, the night surrounding us, everywhere, nowhere, behind us, above us…all of them…its cold, so cold”

“He’s in shock, can’t you help him?”

“No without medical supplies! I am a doctor, not a magician!”

“Captain Vidal, Captain Vidal…coming to see you”

“For the love of God, what the hell did he saw up there?”

“He was just a prisoner, probably interrogated…but it’s just the fever talking”

“Come on, keep walking, just a few dozen kilometres ahead is security and freedom”

 

[maverick]

Finally, the next one should take us to the 60s

Chapter XXIV

Verano del ‘58


December of 1958
Penal de Ushuaia

Inside his office, small and a humid, the commanding officer of the Ushuahia military prison, General Jose Embrioni stood near the window, as a mountain of paperwork threatened to collapse and fall on the floor. With a cup of coffee on one hand, he stared at the horizon and he wondered about how he had gotten there.

‘Was this an opportunity or punishment?’ he thought as he took another sip.

He took a close look at his life as he continued to ponder. Thus far, he had been part of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Culture, a military attaché to the United States and Secretary to the Minister of war. Then he tried to retire, but between the war and the need to re-evaluate and restructure the organization of the armed forces into a more cohesive and loyal force, he was forced to stay first as Secretary to Minister Lucero, commander of the Military district of Cordoba and six months ago, he had been given this job when Colonel Rojas died of pneumonia.

When the army reopened the military prison on November of 1955, nearly 8 years after its closure, the first guests were political dissidents, just as before, members of the Socialist, Radical and Christian democratic parties, communists, intellectuals, etc. Now, with the new insurgency in the north and the resurgent resistance in Buenos Aires, the criteria for the prison’s clientele was widened, as the ESMA, Caminito and La Perla could not take them all and the usual political prisoners.

A truck suddenly appeared near the gates of the prison.

‘More prisoners’ Embrioni thought for a second, before turning back, sitting again and continuing with his work.

‘Guerrilleros, terrorists, subversives…’ he muttered to himself as he went through the files and documents.

The general stopped his work as he heard a door being opened and his aide entering into his office. Upon saluting he announced:

‘General, Captain Rios is beginning to interrogate some prisoners’

‘I’ll be there in a minute’ said General Embrioni

It wasn’t his duty to be present on the interrogations, but it was better if he was there himself, to prevent his men from going out of hand and taking things too far.

As the aide left, the General thought again ‘Ah, what am I doing in this frigid hell hole?’ …’well, at least its summer’


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“…Now, the winter of 1958 and 1959 and the spring of 1959 saw the beginning of the true campaign against President Ramon Barquín and his National Government in Cuba, as the elections of 1960 neared and the CIA began to grow more and more ambitious in their views regarding Cuba and the need to get rid of Barquín…

“Barquin himself was as much of a communist as any of the men the Americans had accused as such since the beginning of the decade, but a red or not, he was against American interests, or better put, against the interests of American companies, and if that had been enough to get Mossadegh and Arbenz out of the way, then it was more than enough to get a two -dime colonel turned Caudillo out of our way…

“There was of course another reason…Barquín had begun to make a fuss about the Casinos and other businesses on his precious little island, and the old men at New York, Chicago and New Orleans were not the type of men to be pushed around just like that, not the dagos, and thus the old colonel made himself another enemy in a matter of days…of course, the technical details….”

[Taken from…The Secret War: the Cold War in Perspective by E. Howard Hunt]

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Casa de Gobierno
Buenos Aires Argentina
March of 1959

The five tall figures standing straight and formally in their green uniforms seemed to grow a little tired of waiting, but the President was not a man to be hurried or told what to do, and thus he did everything in his own times, at his own pace.

“Gentlemen, so very nice of you to come”

The voice that came from a back door caught the attention of the five Generals, whose sights were suddenly upon the pale man in a white uniform, walking slowly towards them.

Every man within the inner circle of General Peron could notice that the President’s health was not what it had once been. In the past ten years, the physical state of the president had deteriorated, and the war had only accelerated said process, allying forces with the stress of age and power to take a toll on the General’s health.

“General Molina, General Lucero…I trust that you have some results to brag about”

“Ah, indeed General…operations in Salta and Tucuman in the past six months have resulted in a reduction of subversive activities in a great measure, and we’re confident in that we will be able to fully eradicate these groups this fall, if we’re given further authority and resources within the parameters established by the planning of CONINTES”

“So, you’re telling me you need more men?”

“Two or three more regiments, nothing serious”

“And you General Embrioni? You’ve dealt with these animals personally…isn’t that right?” The general stopped for a minute, his hands were shaking and he coughed a little, but his posture was suddenly as straight as always and he continued in a firm voice “We must not waver in our resolve to destroy this insurgency, nor to protect our country…General Embrioni, you are here because I have a new task for you…with General Molina in Salta, I’m putting you in charge of Buenos Aires”

“Yes, Sir”

“Keep me informed about the progress you make in the north, Generals” said the President standing up “Now, if you excuse me, I have other obligations…you’re dismissed”


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“Taking a closer look to the months going from the winter of 1959 to the summer of 1959 and 1960, we can see a progressive improvement in the state of health and mind of President Peron as had not been seen since before the war and the crisis of 1955 that led to such war…even with the disappointments and setbacks of the Plan Quinquenal and the failed elections of 1957, Peron’s spirit and mood were definitively on the upper side as the memories of the war vanished and the country seemed to be on the right track once more…

“The period also coincides with the more optimistic period of the post war, that goes from the summer of 1959-1960 to the winter of 1961, as Peron’s conciliatory and generous mood combined with a surprising season of economic good luck brought about a new Era of Good Feelings to the Peronist Government…”

[Taken From ...Historia del Peronismo: la Obsequencia 1955-1961]