Juan Carlos Ongania
Juan Carlos Onganía (Marcos Paz, Buenos Aires, March 17, 1914 - Buenos Aires, June 8, 1995) was an Argentine soldier, de facto president and dictator who served as President of the Argentine Nation de facto between 1966 and 1970, during the first stage of the civic-military dictatorship calling itself the "Argentine Revolution".
Onganía was the leader of the blue side, one of the two sides into which the Argentine Armed Forces were divided after the 1955 coup that overthrew, banned and persecuted Peronism. The Onganía government was characterized for being the only one in Argentine history that dissolved political parties and for being the first to have a permanent character in the form of a bureaucratic-authoritarian State.
Private life
The son of Carlos Luis Onganía and Sara Rosa Carballo, Onganía entered the National Military College in 1931, from which he graduated in 1934 as a second lieutenant of the cavalry weapon. In 1937 he married María Emilia Green Urien (1915-1990), daughter of Enrique Zacarías Green and Emilia Micaela Urien. He had an inconclusive but efficient career until 1959, when he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
From 1962 to 1966
During the de facto government of José María Guido, the Argentine Armed Forces clashed in two factions over the position to be taken with respect to Peronism within the framework of the new policies adopted. "—self-styled "legalists" and supported by developmentalism—proposed a Peronism without Perón, and called their opponents "colorados". These —made up of liberals and former officials of the "Revolución Libertadora"— considered Peronism a classist movement sympathetic to communism and that it had to be eradicated. Lieutenant General Onganía was one of the leaders of the "blue" faction.
The triumph of the Blues led to the appointment of Onganía as Commander-in-Chief of the Army on September 22, 1962, although the original principles of each of the factions were already diluted. When Arturo Umberto Illia assumed the Presidency, Onganía decided to go into the background.
In August 1964, Onganía attended the Fifth Conference of Chiefs of Staff of the American Armies held at the West Point Military Academy, USA. There, he announced that Argentina was adopting the doctrine of national security.
Following the dissatisfaction of foreign sectors, the press, and large companies with his nationalist and social democratic policies, and Illia's decision to revoke the ban on Peronism, he was overthrown by a coup d'état that he called himself Revolución Argentina, headed by the heads of the three Armed Forces —Lieutenant General Pascual Ángel Pistarini (Army), Brigadier General Adolfo Álvarez (Air Force) and Admiral Benigno Varela (Navy)— and appointed to Onganía as president.
Dictatorship
After the coup, recently assumed as dictator with the title of president, he communicated to the population:
Argentinos, I have assumed the position of President of the Nation that the Armed Forces have agreed to confer on me, with the brevity of the national circumstance that imposes us inexcusable obligations. I accept this exceptionally persuasive responsibility that a fundamental change must be produced in the Republic, a true revolution that returns to our Argentines their faith, trust and pride.
Economic policy
Onganía initially appointed the Christian Democrat Jorge Néstor Salimei as its minister of economy, although other political currents (nationalists and liberals) coexisted within the government, but on January 3, 1967, he was replaced by the liberal economist Adalbert Krieger Vasena, who revoked the nationalization and capital control measures, and contained inflation by freezing wages and devaluing the national currency by 40%. He moved away, however, from liberal orthodoxy facing public works, with which he kept pace with industrial activity. The share of wages in national income was close to 43% during the period 1967-1969. Exports remained high, but the industrial sector was affected by the devaluation and by the increase in export withholding percentages, as well as by the removal of protection measures. During his presidency, Decree-Law 18,188 / 1969 was sanctioned, which created a new currency for the country. In labor matters, a compulsory arbitration law was sanctioned, which conditioned the possibility of going on strike.
During his government he developed the theory of the need to attend first to 'economic time' about 'social time' and 'political time'. Onganía tried to maintain the participation of the different sectors of the country in his government through the formation of consultative committees in specific areas of agrarian, industrial and economic policy. This measure received strong criticism from the most conservative sectors of the army; Added to the dissent among the generals, the assassination of Lieutenant General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu in 1970 ended the days of Onganía against the Executive Power.
The Night of the Long Canes
One month after the coup, Argentine public universities were then organized according to the principles of the University Reform, which established university autonomy from political power and tripartite co-government of students, teachers and graduates.
The outbreak occurred on July 29, 1966 when students and teachers demonstrated at the University, against an attempt by the new de facto government to revoke the university reform. The repression was particularly violent in the faculties of Exact and Natural Sciences and of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires.
The police had orders to crack down hard. The name comes from the long batons used by the police to severely beat university authorities, students, professors and graduates, when they made them go through a double file when leaving the buildings, after being arrested.
400 people were arrested and laboratories and university libraries were destroyed. As a result of this repressive policy, hundreds of scientists and researchers went into exile, constituting a significant "brain drain."
Artistic censorship
The Onganía government banned performances of the ballet The Wonderful Mandarin by Béla Bartók, The Rite of Spring by Ígor Stravinsky and later the Argentine premiere at the Teatro Colón from the opera Bomarzo by Alberto Ginastera and Manuel Mujica Lainez, which had just premiered in Washington. Censorship extended to the cinema with the ban on Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni and theatrical shows at the Di Tella Institute among others.
The Cordobazo
On May 29, 1969, one of the largest popular mass uprisings in all of Argentine history, known as the Cordobazo, occurred in the industrial city of Córdoba.
The outbreak was preceded by other large student mobilizations, in some cases accompanied by workers, in Corrientes, Tucumán and Rosario. All of them were repressed with great violence by the military dictatorship, in which two students had already died. By May 30, the members of the combative CGT of Córdoba, headed by Agustín Tosco, had called a general strike throughout the nation. The military government established a curfew in Rosario and Córdoba. The points of the call were:
- I repudiate the murders of the dictatorship and in homage to the victims.
- General increase in wages of 40%.
- Functioning of the parity commissions to renew the collective agreements.
- Defense of the sources of work.
- Establishment of democratic and trade union freedoms.
Since May 28, the climate of effervescence had motivated an immense police deployment throughout the Cordovan capital. But on the 29th, at the initiative of Tosco, general secretary of the Luz y Fuerza union, an active strike was resolved: the workers left their jobs and marched to the center of the city. Those of Luz y Fuerza were joined by thousands of workers who came from large metallurgical factories, such as Renault, FIAT, Perkins and others. Also numerous columns from college students. These columns of workers and students pushed back the police detachments and took control of the center of the city, some neighborhoods and the main radio stations and neighborhood police stations. At five in the afternoon, the army took charge of the situation and violently repressed the citizens. Army tanks, planes and various Gendarmerie battalions are deployed throughout the city, firing firearms at the demonstrators, against roofs and houses. In response, and despite the curfew and the military deployment, the popular resistance burned down the non-commissioned officers' casino of the Aeronautics and police stations and police posts were attacked. Snipers appear on the roofs of the tallest buildings: their bullets also take an unknown number of members of the police and military forces. Finally, during the night the army manages to control the capital of Córdoba.
Demonstrations and rallies had also taken place in the capitals of all the Argentine provinces. The succession of popular, worker and student revolts are considered by some historians as the true cause of the subsequent fall of the government of Juan Carlos Onganía.
Last years of government
In June 1969, the full cabinet resigned. The new economy minister called joint meetings to decompress the labor pressure, but the waters continued to be troubled. Union conflicts, active strikes, and towns similar to the Cordobazo manifested throughout the country. Urban guerrillas were also beginning to emerge, such as the ERP and Montoneros.In a meeting with the military high command he was consulted about the estimated deadlines for the completion of his mandate and the general replied:
It's a very long process. Society cannot be restructured in 10 or 20 years.
Many made quick calculations and thought about 1990, but Onganía went further saying:
If the constitution needs to be amended, one should think of a period between the May Revolution and the sanction of the Argentine constitution, which is equivalent to 43 years by 2013.
The kidnapping and assassination of Lieutenant General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu by the Montoneros guerrilla, which took place on May 29, 1970, ended up weakening his government and on June 8 the 3 commanders deposed the general.
Ministers
 Juan Carlos Onganía | ||
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | Owner | Period |
| Ministry of the Interior | Enrique Martínez Paz Guillermo A. Borda Francisco A. Imaz | 28 June 1966–29 December 1966 2 January 1967–8 June 1969 10 June 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of External Relations and Worship | Nicanor Costa Méndez Juan B. Martin | 28 June 1966–8 June 1969 10 June 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of Economy and Labour | Jorge Salimei Adalbert Krieger Vasena José Dagnino Pastore | 28 June 1966–29 December 1966 2 January 1967–8 June 1969 10 June 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of Culture and Education | Carlos María Gelly and Obes José Mariano Astigueta Dardo Pérez Guilhou | 28 June 1966–4 June 1967 4 June 1967-23 October 1969 23 October 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of Social Welfare | Roberto J. Petracca Julio E. Álvarez Conrado Bauer Carlos Consigli | 28 June 1966-1 January 1967 1 January 1967–20 March 1967 20 March 1967–8 June 1969 10 June 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of National Defence | Antonio R. Lannuse Emilio Federico van Peborgh José R. Cáceres Monié | 28 June 1966–11 March 1967 24 March 1967–8 June 1969 28 June 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of Labour | Jorge Salimei | 28 June 1966-12 October 1966 |
| Ministry of Justice | Conrado Etchebarne | 23 October 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of Public Works and Services | Luis María Gotelli | 23 October 1969–8 June 1970 |
| Administration of National Parks | Theodosius César Brea | |
| Secretariat of Government | Mario Fernando Díaz Colodrero | 28 June 1966-8 June 1970 |
| Ministry of Labour | Rubens San Sebastián | 13 October 1966–8 June 1970 |
Latest political appearances
After Lanusse replaced Levingston, a month later Onganía expressed his disagreement with that general in a document by declaring:
From their own ranks they did not stop fighting the Argentine Revolution. Lanusse has the pretense of retransforming the armed forces in his armed arm of a partisan, facicious and personal adventure. I also deny him to use the term "Revolution Argentina", depriving him of other projects that he alone embodies.
The de facto president and the board downplayed his remarks. The general decided to retire permanently to live in a Buenos Aires ranch. In 1989 the Constitutional Nationalist Party proposed him to be a candidate, but did not reach an agreement. For the 1995 elections he was a candidate for president for the Front for the Patriotic Coincidence. Before the election, Onganía resigned from the formula for health reasons, although his name continued to appear on the ballot.
He died at the age of 81 on June 8, 1995, the same day as the 25th anniversary of his cessation of functions as de facto president.
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