Aramburu, Pedro Eugenio (1905–1970)

An Argentine politician and military man, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu was de facto president of the nation from 1955 to 1958 and was assassinated by the Montoneros guerrilla organization in 1970. He studied at the Colegio Militar de la Nación, was director of the School of War and headed the Revolución Libertadora (Freedom Revolution) that toppled President Juan Domingo Perón on 21 September 1955. A representative of the liberal segment of the army, that same year he replaced General Eduardo Lonardi (who had a policy of conciliation towards the Peronists) and assumed the Argentine presidency.

The proscription of Peronism began during his administration, and labor unions were taken over. It was even prohibited to mention the name of Perón, who came to be called the "fugitive tyrant." In economic affairs Aramburu implemented the Prebisch Plan, an attempt to modernize the economy by stimulating investment and freezing workers' wages, and under his tenure Argentina joined the International Monetary Fund. As president, Aramburu authorized the execution of legalist military members who rose against the de facto government in June 1956.

In 1958, with Peronism proscribed, Aramburu called for elections and retired from military activity. In the presidential elections of 1963 he stood as a candidate for the Union of the Argentine People Party, but was defeated by the Radical Civic Union Party's ticket of Arturo Umberto Illia and Carlos H. Perette (1915–1992). In 1970 he made some moves aimed at reconciliation with Peronism and national pacification, but he was kidnapped on May 29 of that year in the first armed action of the Peronist guerrilla movement, the Montoneros. His captors gave him a "revolutionary trial" and executed him on June 1. The act was a heavy blow to the military dictatorship and divided public opinion. Four years later, his killers gave a detailed account of the assassination in La Causa Peronista magazine.

See alsoMontoneros; Perón, Juan Domingo; Prebisch, Raúl.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fraga, Rosendo. Aramburu: la biografía. Buenos Aires: Javier Vergara, 2005.

Gillespie, Richard. Montoneros: Soldados de Perón. Buenos Aires: Grijalbo, 1987.

Potash, Robert. El ejército y la política en Argentina. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1971.

Romero, Luis Alberto. Breve historia contemporánea de la Argentina, 2nd edition. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2001.

                                        Vicente Palermo