Mario Firmenich

Mario Eduardo Firmenich (Buenos Aires, January 24, 1948) is one of the founders and main leaders of the Montoneros guerrilla organization in Argentina in the 1970s. In 2023 he was hired by the government of Daniel Ortega. He lives in Nicaragua.

Biography

Youth

His father was an engineer (he came from a family of Germanic origin and his original surname was spelled Fírmenij), and his mother, Zarina Sagreras (daughter and granddaughter of two well-known guitarists), worked as a teacher He was born in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Floresta. During her childhood and youth, she lived with her parents and his four siblings in Ramos Mejía, in the west of Buenos Aires, where she attended elementary school. He graduated as a bachelor from the National College of Buenos Aires, one of the most recognized in Argentina. He joined the Catholic Student Youth (JEC; whose meeting center was very close to the school) and became president by Monsignor Antonio Caggiano. There he met the priest Carlos Mugica, whose work as a benefactor of the inhabitants of Villa Miseria & # 34; Y.P.F. & # 34; (in the port area of Retiro) would have a notable importance in his formation and in the turn of his ideas to the left.

In the summer of 1966, invited by Father Mugica, he participated with other young Catholics in a camp in Tartagal (Santa Fe), where the British company La Forestal had been, and they were very shocked by the miserable life that the people. Firmenich would maintain a close relationship with Mugica (until his murder on May 11, 1974, which is attributed to the Montoneros).

During his time at the school, from which he graduated in 1966 (the year of the military coup led by General Onganía against the democratic government of President Arturo Illia), he participated in creating a Catholic student current together with his friend Carlos Gustavo Ramus: he was a minority expression in a politicized student environment, in which the Communist Youth Federation predominated. After finishing his secondary studies, he began his career as an agronomist at the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Buenos Aires. Through the meetings organized by Juan García Elorrio in the magazine Cristianismo y Revolución he met other future Montonero leaders, such as Fernando Abal Medina, and joined the Camilo Torres Command.

Beginnings

Firmenich was a member of the founding group of the Montoneros guerrilla organization, together with Fernando Abal Medina and others, such as Carlos Gustavo Ramus and Norma Arrostito; the ideology of the organization interpreted Peronism as the only revolutionary political form adapted to the Argentine situation and fused with elements that gained greater intensity due to the ideology of its founders; a mixture between elements of Catholic nationalism and the Cuban socialist revolution.

On May 29, 1970, he participated in Operation Pindapoy, consisting of the kidnapping and murder of former dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, whom Montoneros subjected to a "popular trial" for being "The most responsible for the executions of Peronist soldiers and civilians in 1956". With this fact of great public repercussion and which caused the fall of General Onganía, the organization achieved strong recognition in the Peronist media and began to unite other guerrilla groups (such as sectors of the Peronist Armed Forces, the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the group shirtless). Already in democracy (on the occasion of the return to the country of the corpse of Eva Perón), the Montoneros "kidnapped" the remains of General Aramburu ―they violated his tomb in the Recoleta cemetery― and published a detailed account in the magazine La Causa Peronista of September 3, 1974, whose cover title was: "Mario Firmenich and Norma Arrostito tell how Aramburu died."

Montoneros Direction

After the deaths of Abal Medina and Ramus in a confrontation with the police in a bar in William Morris, and of José Sabino Navarro (alias Negro), in the Cordoba mountains, which occurred during the so-called Argentine Revolution, Firmenich reached the national leadership of Montoneros, a position he held until the dissolution.

Between 1971 and the 1980s, he led the organization as general secretary, inspired its political line and most of its documents through the various alternatives of the political struggle of the time. Firmenich was considered a representative of the more militaristic wing.

Montoneros and Perón

The relationship of the Montoneros with Perón suffered strong ups and downs; During his forced exile in Spain, the former president was complacent with the actions of the organization, and when the dictatorship of Alejandro Agustín Lanusse called for elections, in which Héctor J. Cámpora was elected, figures related to her held government posts. Esteban Righi (a young lawyer partner of Cámpora's son) was appointed Minister of the Interior.

Other Peronists (with less influence in the party) lined up with the youth to obtain some internal support, such as the governor of Buenos Aires, Oscar Bidegain, the governor of Salta, Miguel Ragone, and the governor of Mendoza, Alberto Martínez Baca, the one from Santa Cruz, Jorge Cepernic and Ricardo Obregón Cano from Cordoba. However, none of them responded to the organization's directives.

Ezeiza

In this context, after 18 years of exile, Perón returned on June 20, 1973, with an immense mobilization of masses that went to receive him at the Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Ezeiza. The right-wing faction, led and organized by López Rega and by Colonel Jorge Osinde, in charge of the custody of the act by order of Perón, fired at the column of the Peronist Youth and Montoneros that was approaching the box trying to occupy the closest places, which answered with other shots from small arms, causing a great disturbance that went down in history as the Ezeiza massacre. In the shooting, at least 13 people died (3 from the left, 1 from the custody of the box and 9 with no identified affiliation) and hundreds were injured. The popular disappointment was very great, not only because of the events themselves but also because the plane that brought Perón had to be diverted to the Morón aerodrome.

Regarding this episode, researchers disagree about its motivations and origin. The historian Samuel Amaral denies that the confrontation was premeditated, and attributes it to a provocation from the left, which was added to other previous provocations, such as the seizures of public buildings in the first weeks of the Cámpora government. The journalist Horacio Verbitsky, author of the first book on the subject, considers that the massacre was a premeditated attempt to displace Cámpora and seize power organized by right-wing Peronist groups.

Cámpora's resignation

Perón expressed his dissatisfaction with the events at Ezeiza, which prevented him from giving his speech there and forced his plane to land in Morón. The bidding between Peronist sectors continued with attacks and deaths. After 49 days in office, Cámpora resigned and was succeeded by Raúl Lastiri, son-in-law of José López Rega ―called El Brujo by his adversaries and Lopecito by Perón―; Minister of Social Welfare of Cámpora at the suggestion of Perón that he had gained a presence in politics as an expression of the right of Peronism. López Rega, with related elements of the police, organized the Triple A, to persecute and threaten (if necessary: assassinate) the referents and militants of the left.

Rucci's Murder

On September 25, 1973, José Ignacio Rucci, general secretary of the CGT, Perón's main ally, was assassinated. This action - which was not recognized by any organization - was carried out, apparently, with the intention of putting pressure on Perón (who had won the presidential election two days before); but it backfired.

Rucci already received death threats, and even the huge crowds at public events shouted "Rucci traitor, the same thing will happen to you as to Vandor". Rodolfo Walsh, Francisco Urondo, Horacio Verbitsky, Horacio Mendizábal, Roberto Perdía, Norberto Habberger, Juan Roqué, Julio Urien and Lidia Mazzaferro. The final shot that put an end to Rucci's life is usually attributed to Walsh, who had the help of Urondo, as head of the capital column of Montoneros, after interfering with police communications. And as confirmed by the former national deputy and former SIDE secretary, Miguel Ángel Toma: "when Rucci was killed, Verbitsky was handling the Montoneros communications".

Rucci was staying in different places because of death threats. When he left his house in the care of a dozen guards, heading to Channel 13 to do a report on him, the guerrillas came out to shoot him while Rucci was in his car. Roqué shot him, perforating his neck and jugular. Said shot was seconded by a shooting at Rucci's apparently dead body. The custodians reacted, but they could not know at the time who perpetuated the act: "They took away the tremendous joy (of the people) of experiencing Perón as president two days after having been elected president!... A tremendous mistake of the montonera bureaucracy, the new bureaucracy". Said indignantly by Father Mujica.

According to the journalist Ricardo Roa, during the judicial investigation for this crime, Firmenich told them "It was us", accepting the authorship of Montoneros. The then leader and founder of Montoneros José Amorín and other testimonies also attribute it to the organization.

Some doubts about the authors, however, remain. Perhaps Firmenich refers to this fact in his self-criticism : & # 34; of having "celebrated", naively, some attacks against adversaries, even without knowing exactly the origin of it & # 3. 4;.

Firmenich, at a private dinner he had in September 1974, accepted that Rucci's assassination was a mistake: "We thought that by throwing a cold cut to the old man on the table we would be able to negotiate in better conditions, and history showed us that this was not the case. It was a wrong political decision. In 2004, in Noticias magazine, he ratified his sayings: "Yes, from our side (killing Rucci) was a political mistake, like all the civil war that Argentina has experienced".

A study by Martin Edwin Andersen supports the thesis that the Montoneros boasted of Rucci's murder at the urging of Mario Firmenich, who was, in fact, an agent of the Army Intelligence Service and had the mission of discrediting the Montoneros for by taking responsibility for the execution of political assassinations that they had not committed and that discredited them. Andersen attributes the authorship of the crime to a group connected to the Ministry of Social Welfare under the direction of López Rega. His source was "a retired American diplomat"; whose name Andersen does not give away.

Perón attended Rucci's wake, who said anguished: "Those bullets were for me: they cut off my legs."

Assault on the Garrison of Azul by the ERP

In January 1974, the ERP attempt to take over a regiment in the city of Azul, motivated Perón to isolate that guerrilla group, for which reason he submitted to Congress a project to modify the Penal Code and toughen the penalties. Perón met with the deputies of the Peronist Youth and presented his strategy to them.

The refusal of the deputies linked to Montoneros to vote for the Anti-subversive Law determined that Perón required them that if they did not agree with the government's policy, they should withdraw from him, for which reason they ―except for one― resigned their benches. The situation led Firmenich (together with other members of the national leadership such as Roberto Quieto, former leader of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) recently merged with the Montoneros) to withdraw from the government while the number of guerrilla attacks increased for a side and Triple A on the other. When in the celebration of Labor Day - May 1, 1974 - Perón from the balconies of the Casa Rosada defined them as "beardless" and "stupid", Montoneros led to his return to the armed struggle.

First arrest and release

In mid-February 1974, Firmenich was arrested by the Argentine Federal Police when he was carrying a false identity card, a 38-caliber revolver, a 9 mm-caliber pistol with the inscription "Buenos Aires Province Police" and a chest plate stolen in an assault on an agent of that institution. On February 13, he was released from the 32nd Police Station by order of the Chief of Police, General Miguel Ángel Iñíguez, the latter being sentenced at first instance to 2 (two) years in prison and absolute disqualification for double time in prison. sentence, for having facilitated that evasion (article 281 of the Argentine Penal Code). On March 28, 1985, Chamber II of the Federal Criminal and Federal Correctional Appeals Chamber of the Capital, by the votes of judges Ledesma, Valerga Aráoz and D'Alessio, revoked that sentence and dismissed Iñíguez., for considering the criminal action against him prescribed.

Go underground

On the death of Juan Perón, his vice president and wife María Estela Martínez took over, malleable to the influence of López Rega. On July 15, 1974, Montoneros, under the direction of Firmenich, assassinated former minister Arturo Mor Roig, a politician from the Radical Civic Union who had been a minister of General Lanusse, and who was in custody in a restaurant in San Justo.

The Montoneros leadership led by Firmenich opted on September 6, 1974 for the "go underground" of the organization and the mass fronts that it had built and that constituted the main current of the Peronist revolutionary tendency (the Peronist Youth, the Peronist University Youth, the Peronist Working Youth, the Villero Peronist Movement, the Peronist Tenant Movement, the Evita Group, etc.). Since then, it has been named in the media as "the self-proscribed organization".

Firmenich was in charge of the organization's armed operations, including Operation Twins (September 19, 1974), which consisted of the kidnapping of industrial millionaires Juan and Jorge Born, thanks to which Montoneros was made with a record ransom. According to testimonies of the time, such as the magazine Gente, related to the military government, the amount collected would be 20 million dollars. According to other testimonies, 60 million were requested, equivalent to 303 million, at the interest of 2017. The final destination is not clear, although a substantial part was used during the internal campaign of Peronism in 1983, with support for the " Intransigence and mobilization", which had Vicente Saadi as its candidate for president.

Although at the beginning of 1975 President María Estela Martínez de Perón seemed to give the Montoneros a chance to integrate into the political system (they participated as the Authentic Peronist Party in the elections in Misiones), the attempt was short-lived and towards the end of that year the organization was declared illegal by the government.

Regarding the military coup already in the making, Firmenich has stated:

“At the end of October 1975, when the government of Isabel Perón was still in place, we already knew that the coup would take place within a year. We did nothing to prevent it because, in short, the coup was also part of the internal struggle in the Peronist movement. Instead, we made our calculations, calculations of war, and we prepared to support, in the first year, a number of human losses of no less than fifteen hundred casualties”. (Mario Firmenich, L'Epresso, July 9, 1977).

Exile

After the military coup that gave rise to the National Reorganization Process on March 24, 1976, the higher levels of the organization -Firmenich among them- discussed the advisability of the Montoneros national leadership going into exile. Firmenich was about to be captured at the end of September, at a meeting of the Montonera leadership at 105 Corro Street in Buenos Aires. Thanks to the resistance of his companions, he was able to escape. The subsequent capture and disappearance of Carlos Hobert, number two in the Montonero hierarchy, convinced him to flee. He lived in Rome and Mexico until arriving in Cuba, as a guest of Fidel Castro.

In Argentina, the attacks (already against the dictatorship) continued, with resounding events -which, due to their repercussions, could overcome the strong press censorship of the military- and extremely violent, which caused many deaths. The Military Junta carried out a policy of force branded as state terrorism, which included torture, the renaming of children born in captivity, and the forced disappearance of thousands of citizens.

The organization had been annihilated between 1975 and 1977, but some montoneros and military sectors refused to admit it. Other leaders boasted that with the money collected from the kidnappings, even if "four crazy cats" [sic, for "few members") were left alive, they could rebuild the organization.

At that time, the foundations had been laid for what would be a restructuring of the "political-military organization" (OPM) ―called by them "la Orga"― into a Montonero Party and a Montonero Army. In April 1977 a new independent structure was created, the Movimiento Peronista Montonero (MPM).

In 1978, coinciding with the soccer World Cup to be held in Argentina, Montoneros organized a far-reaching publicity campaign in order to make the international community aware of the abuses committed by the dictatorship. In this context, Fernando Vaca Narvaja met with many of the leaders of the Socialist International, such as Lionel Jospin and Willy Brandt. They also made a film, "Resist", with statements by Firmenich

In 1979, considering that the internal contradictions of the dictatorship were enough to "hit back", the majority of the leadership in exile approved the Montoneros counteroffensive; which ended in failure and meant the death in confrontations or the capture and imprisonment of the majority of the Montoneros cadres.

That year, Firmenich visited Nicaragua after the victory of the Sandinista Revolution, and collaborated with the new government. An investigation by Nicaragua Investiga recently revealed that the Argentine has a comfortable life in Nicaragua and is an official of the Daniel Ortega regime, earning a salary of more than three thousand dollars a month.

At the beginning of the Malvinas war, on April 28, 1982, Firmenich wrote a document in which he called to resist the British attack with volunteer popular militias. He also proposed populating the islands with Argentine civilians.

Return to democracy

In 1983, before the call for elections by military president Reynaldo Bignone, the Montoneros gave their support to the internal Peronist current "Intransigencia y Movilización", with a strong campaign of posters in the streets and the publication of the newspaper "La Voz", but they failed to impose their pre-candidate for president, Vicente Saadi, in the party election. This participation in a party internship (added to the subsequent pardon) made many Montoneros leaders reintegrate into Peronist militancy.

On February 13, 1984, Firmenich was arrested in Brazil for the extradition request made by the constitutional government of Raúl Alfonsín. Four months later he was extradited, tried, and sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder and kidnapping, along with with Vaca Narvaja and Roberto Perdía. From prison, he led Revolutionary Peronism, a minority internal current of the Peronist Movement, dedicated to vindicating the objectives of the Peronist left of the 1970s.

Excluded at first by President Carlos Menem from the pardon granted to the guerrilla and military leaders, Decree 2742 of December 29, 1990 granted Firmenich his freedom. After leaving prison, he left active politics to dedicate himself to study and research.

He received his degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires in February 1996, with the best average of his class, although the student union of the Faculty, led by the radical group Franja Morada, prevented him from being awarded the gold medal for such achievement. During these years, he lived at his home in Isidro Casanova.

He went to Barcelona, where in 1999 he received a PhD in Economics under the tutelage of Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Joseph Stiglitz.

During his stay in Europe, he has worked as an associate professor in the Department of Economic Theory of the University of Barcelona, and has published articles in specialized journals.

Referring to what happened in Argentina, Firmenich said in an interview with La Red radio station in Buenos Aires in 2001 that «in a country that has experienced a civil war, everyone has their hands stained with blood».

In the 21st century

In 2004 he published and presented his book Eutopia, developing an alternative economic proposal to the current neoliberalism. He lives in Villanueva i Geltrú, Barcelona, where he teaches, accompanied by his family, and is a professor in the Department of Economics at the Rovira i Virgili University (in Reus, Tarragona). His wife, María Martínez Agüero, was imprisoned for several years during the dictatorship and comes from a traditional family from Córdoba. She is a relative of former radical vice president Víctor H. Martínez.

In October 2015, he issued a political statement before the presidential elections in Argentina. His conclusions were, from the economic point of view: & # 34; Bad macroeconomic situation. Unfavorable international situation" and, socially, "Dangerous precarious social situation. Unstable conflicting political outlook".

In May 2020, he presented a document in the Argentine press called "How to get out of the pandemic in a sustainable way [sic]", with reflections on the economic and political situation of the country, affirming that "the organization of the political militants of Peronism has a basically electoral logic".