History UsefulNotes / NationalReorganizationProcess

The National Reorganisation Process, known in Spanish as ''Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'' or ''El Proceso'' (The Process), was the name given to a series of military juntas who controlled Argentina from March 24, 1976 until December 10, 1983. Generally regarded as the darkest era in Argentine history, The Process saw the suppression of civil rights, the intrusion of the military into every facet of Argentine life, and the "disappearance" of thousands of Argentines as the military tried to violently cleanse the country of all political dissidents, real and imagined.

Argentina had a long history of military coup d'états prior to the Process, starting in 1930. It was a 1955 military coup that had briefly deposed the populist titan UsefulNotes/JuanDomingoPeron. Upon Perón's death in 1974, and the failure of his wife and designated successor UsefulNotes/IsabelPeron to maintain domestic stability, the military stepped in to restore order, as it had done many times before. The main justification was that the country was on the brink of civil war between the Left and Right Peronists, beginning with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezeiza_massacre Ezeiza massacre]] that happened just as Perón's plane was landing in Argentina.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/videla_massera_agosti_4113.jpg https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/junta_militar_argentina_1976.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:From left to right: Admiral Emilio Massera[[note]] The true leader of the junta[[/note]], Lieutenant-General Jorge Videla, and Brigadier-General Orlando Agosti, leaders of the first junta]]

But it was not to be, as the Process clearly showed its intent to stay. Over the next seven years, three more juntas would dance in Videla, Massera, and Agosti’s shoes. It's widely believed in Argentina that Videla, the official head of the junta, was in fact a figurehead who did the talking for the military, and the real decision-making and power lay with the already-notorious Massera, who was a seasoned political veteran that had also masterminded the coup in the first place, and would go on to be the key architect of the Dirty War itself. But ultimately, all would play a role in ensuring that the Process would go down as the worst perpetrator of state terror in South American history.

Argentina had a long history of military coup d'états prior to the Process, starting in 1930. It was a 1955 military coup that had briefly deposed the populist titan UsefulNotes/JuanDomingoPeron. Upon Perón's death in 1974, and the failure of his wife and designated successor Isabel Perón to maintain domestic stability, the military stepped in to restore order, as it had done many times before. The main justification was that the country was on the brink of civil war between the Left and Right Peronists, beginning with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezeiza_massacre Ezeiza massacre]] that happened just as Perón's plane was landing in Argentina.

Despite all of this, and even with a considerable drop in popularity during the later years, the Process might well have remained in power, had the third junta not declared war on Britain. Having lost [[UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar the Malvinas War]], the junta was swept away in a wave of popular discontent and the Process collapsed. The new government under Raúl Alfonsin (a human rights attorney) prosecuted the leaders of the first three juntas before military tribunals, and turned numerous other perpetrators over to civilian courts, before the threat of another revolt forced him to back down. The 1990s saw all of those involved pardoned by President Carlos Menem, and an attempt was made to forget the entire affair, only for Captain Adolfo Scilingo’s public admission of guilt for his part in the death flights to start a whole new round of confessions, exhumations, arrests, and trials, as perpetrators and victims alike began speaking out in the 2000s. The Argentine Supreme Court struck down Menem's pardon as unconstitutional, and many of those involved were rearrested; Massera and Videla would both spend the rest of their lives in custody. The resulting media frenzy effectively re-traumatized Argentine society, and ensured that the legacy of the Process will never fully go away.

Although the popular view over the Process has always been completely negative (notwithstanding the occasional crackpots), it has still been the source of many controversies over the years. When Alfonsín took power in 1983 people deplored ''both'' the guerrillas and the military government. This soon led to the "Theory of the Two Demons": the crimes of the guerrillas and the military could not be considered on equal standing, the crimes of the military were far greater. This doctrine was widely accepted at first but became distorted over the years: firstly, it was changed to imply that the guerrillas commited no crimes, and later to imply that the guerrillas were actually heroes, and that to say otherwise would equal supporting the junta. Carlos Menem, a victim of the military himself, pardoned the military leaders in a bid to cease the political rivalries, but it backfired and people felt that they were receiving impunity instead. The Kirchners resumed the trials against the military and increased the public awareness over the events of the Process; but there was much controversy over their frequent habit of linking their political opposition to the Process. This includes both those who were actually against the Process back in the day but happened to be against the Kirchners, and those who were simply too young or not even born yet. And the occasional keyboard warrior that claims not to agree with them but follow the collaborators of the former regime.

With backing from right-wing Argentines and later the CIA, the first junta, made up of Army Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant-General Jorge Rafael Videla, Navy Chief Admiral Emilio Massera, and Air Force Chief Brigadier-General Orlando Agosti, removed Isabel Perón from power and installed themselves as Argentina’s new rulers. The military coup had high popular support from the ordinary Argentine, who was exhausted by the instability, Isabel's incompetence, and the ''Rodrigazo'' economic disaster following Perón's death. Many believed that like all past military governments, the Process would be temporary, and civilian rule would be quickly restored.

Although the popular view over the Process has always been completely negative (notwithstanding the occasional crackpots), it has still been the source of many controversies over the years. When Alfonsín took power in 1983 people deplored ''both'' the guerrillas and the military government. This soon led to the "Theory of the Two Demons": the crimes of the guerrillas and the military could not be considered on equal standing, the crimes of the military were far greater. This doctrine was widely accepted at first but became distorted over the years: first it was changed to imply that the guerrillas commited no crimes, and later to imply that the guerrillas were actually heroes, and that to say otherwise would equal supporting the junta. Carlos Menem, a victim of the military himself, pardoned the military leaders in a bid to cease the political rivalries, but it backfired and people felt that they were receiving impunity instead. The Kirchners resumed the trials against the military and increased the public awareness over the events of the Process; but there was much controversy over their frequent habit of linking their political opposition to the Process. This includes both those who were actually against the Process back in the day but happened to be against the Kirchners, and those who were simply too young or not even born yet by then. And the occasional keyboard warrior that claims not to agree with thet but follow the collaborators of the former regime.

Young people would in fact develop a new view over the whole thing: that while the Process was the worst regime to ever govern Argentina and deserved eternal condemnation for its crimes, it was all dated history and the government should be focused on current crises rather than over things that took place several decades in the past, but considering the arise of far-right groups that avoid condemned it show the problem hasn't stopped. But they believed the "Theory of the Two Demons" to be nonsense, as the guerrillas were arguably destroyed by 1976 and were no serious threat to the nation at all, making the crimes of the Process terror for the sake of terror and thus completely unjustifiable on moral and lawful grounds.

The Kirchners were also criticized for the historical revisionism over the conflict, not about the actions of the Process itself (which are not disputed) but about the role of Peronism: their version glosses over the similar crimes already being committed by Perón and his cronies, and that Peronism announced that they would have supported the military self-amnesty had they won in 1983. Again, the process was more complicated. The majority of high-ranking peronist politians were either dead, exiled or in prison so anyone who disagreed was powerless to say anything.

The number of disappeared people is also a source of controversy: most investigations number them somewhere around the 10,000 people (the CONADEP reported 8,961 victims wich were taken inmediatley after the end of the regime so fear and doubt was a factor of the lower numner) But 30000 is the estimated number, taking in count both exterminations camps (like ESMA) and the amount present (over 700) as the military didn't bother to count the death. Even denial the number is often a dog-whistle for far right groups, like the doubt of the Holocaust number.

The Argentine Left and some Peronists tend to claim that the true purpose of the Process was to impose by force an economic system that would destroy the Argentine economy and turn the country into a US colony, but economic data shows that the economy was already in a disastrous state as a result of the ''Rodrigazo''. Again, this is not without a point as the opening of importations, the foreign take over of national companies, and the fiscal de-regulation gives support to this point. And de-classified CIA documents confirms that "protect American interest" was one of the factors.

While they overthrew Isabel Perón and killed hundreds of suspected Montoneros, the Process was notably not anti-Peronist. Peronism was not banned like in 1955, and the communists had already been fought by both Peróns, with Isabel signing 'annihilation decrees' in 1975 to wipe out the Montoneros and ERP.Again the vast majorities of the death were composed by workers, union-leaders, politians,hight-school students .writers and other civilians with peronist or leftis back-ground. While other groups like radicals, remain mostly untouched. And the Kircher goverment re-opened the trials while previously this was untouched by both right-wing peronist groups as radicals, leaving both sides as not caring for the victims until 2003.

* ''Film/TheOfficialStory'' is about an upper middle class couple who discover that their adopted daughter is the kidnapped child of one of the disappeared. It won several awards.

Videla, the junta's official spokesperson, had once said that “As many people as necessary must die in Argentina so that the country will again be secure." Ordinary Argentines will tell you that the only thing the Process was good at was killing people, and it's obvious who won the Dirty War. From 1976 to 1983, somewhere between 9,000 and 30,000 Argentines were arrested without trial on charges of being subversives, confined in secret prisons, gruesomely tortured and/or raped, and eventually executed and buried in unmarked graves. [[DeathFlight Others were hurled, drugged and insensate, into the Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean from low flying airplanes and helicopters, their bodies never to be discovered.]] Thousands more still were subjected to lengthy prison terms and torture before being released into the world broken by the experience. To add a macabre twist, the juntas also kidnapped the children of dissidents and sold them to rich Argentine families, enriching themselves in the process.[[note]]Which was only one of the ways of making profit. Typically, a raided household would be stripped of everything of value (the house itself included, which was sometimes burnt down after the looting).[[/note]] Unwilling to limit their actions to their own country, the juntas made their intelligence service an integral part of the Pan-South American ''Operation: Condor'', collaborating with UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet’s Chile, Alfredo Stroessner’s Paraguay, and the military juntas of Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil to terrorize, repress, and assassinate any and all political opposition to their rule across the continent. The eventual death toll reached somewhere around 60,000, making ''Operation: Condor'' the worst politicide in the history of modern South America.

The country was wracked at the time with far-left terrorism, mostly perpetrated by two underground insurgencies; the socialist Montoneros and the communist People's Revolutionary Army, better known as the ERP. The Montoneros were a special case - supporters of the deceased Perón prior to falling out with him and being declared criminals, the Montoneros had made a name for themselves by assassinating anti-Peronist businessmen, rival trade unionists, and government officials and military officers they didn't like. The ERP was already clashing with the army, but the Montoneros were at war with the Right Peronists' main paramilitary organization, the fascistic Triple A. Now the military had decided it was time to put an end to their chaos once and for all. The Montoneros were hunted down by the police in the cities, and the ERP were subjected to a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Independence full military operation]] that destroyed them after two years of fighting. Both operations were successes but at the cost of many innocent civilians tortured and killed because they were thought to be subversives, who were later added to the death toll of the Dirty War. As for Triple A, they disbanded themselves after their boss, José Lopez Rega, resigned; although it's widely believed that ex-Triple A militants were quickly reintegrated into the military's ranks as torturers and assassins.

* ''Film/ElClan'' is about the Puccio family, whose patriarch Arquimedes "disappeared" people for the regime, got huge amounts of money for their rescue, and then killed them.

* ''Film/ElClan'' is about the Puccio family, whose patriarch took part in the "disappearing" and killing of the regime's victims.

* ''Film/ElClan''

While they overthrew Isabel Perón and killed hundreds of suspected Montoneros, the Process was notably not anti-Peronist. Peronism was not banned like in 1955, and the communists had already been fought by both Peróns, with Isabel signing 'annihilation decrees' in 1975 to wipe out the Montoneros and ERP.Again the vast majorities of the death were composed by workers, union-leaders, politians, writers and other civilians with peronist or leftis back-ground. While other groups like radicals, remain mostly untouched. And the Kircher goverment re-opened the trials

Although the popular view over the Process has always been completely negative (notwithstanding the occasional crackpots), it has still been the source of many controversies over the years. When Alfonsín took power in 1983 people deplored ''both'' the guerrillas and the military government. This soon led to the "Theory of the Two Demons": the crimes of the guerrillas and the military could not be considered on equal standing, the crimes of the military were far greater. This doctrine was widely accepted at first but became distorted over the years: first it was changed to imply that the guerrillas commited no crimes, and later to imply that the guerrillas were actually heroes, and that to say otherwise would equal supporting the junta. Carlos Menem, a victim of the military himself, pardoned the military leaders in a bid to cease the political rivalries, but it backfired and people felt that they were receiving impunity instead. The Kirchners resumed the trials against the military and increased the public awareness over the events of the Process; but there was much controversy over their frequent habit of linking their political opposition to the Process. This includes both those who were actually against the Process back in the day but happened to be against the Kirchners, and those who were simply too young or not even born yet by then.

Young people would in fact develop a new view over the whole thing: that while the Process was the worst regime to ever govern Argentina and deserved eternal condemnation for its crimes, it was all dated history and the government should be focused on current crises rather than over things that took place several decades in the past (as of 2021, the Process ended 38 years in the past). But they believed the "Theory of the Two Demons" to be nonsense, as the guerrillas were arguably destroyed by 1976 and were no serious threat to the nation at all, making the crimes of the Process terror for the sake of terror and thus completely unjustifiable on moral and lawful grounds.

The Kirchners were also criticized for the historical revisionism over the conflict, not about the actions of the Process itself (which are not disputed) but about the role of Peronism: their version glosses over the similar crimes already being committed by Perón and his cronies, and that Peronism announced that they would have supported the military self-amnesty had they won in 1983.

The number of disappeared people is also a source of controversy: most investigations number them somewhere around the 10,000 people (the CONADEP reported 8,961 victims), but many take issue when the exact number of 30,000 disappeared people is held in doubt.

The Argentine Left and some Peronists tend to claim that the true purpose of the Process was to impose by force an economic system that would destroy the Argentine economy and turn the country into a US colony, but economic data shows that the economy was already in a disastrous state as a result of the ''Rodrigazo'' that took place under the Peróns, and the military were simply unable to solve that hyperinflation crisis either.[[note]]For example, it is usually pointed that the military took huge amounts of external debt. This is correct, but an incomplete view: the money was largely used to pay debts and financial deficits caused by the ''Rodrigazo''.[[/note]] Disappointed at the ongoing hyperinflation, most foreign investors eventually left Argentina, ruining the Process's grandiose claims that they would bring prosperity to the nation.

While they overthrew Isabel Perón and killed hundreds of suspected Montoneros, the Process was notably not anti-Peronist. Peronism was not banned like in 1955, and the communists had already been fought by both Peróns, with Isabel signing 'annihilation decrees' in 1975 to wipe out the Montoneros and ERP. Peronists opposed the trial of the juntas and the CONADEP, and even gave junta leaders presidential pardons. However, they changed their view about the dictatorship in 2003.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Brennan and Booth go to Buenos Aires for their honeymoon where Brennan helps another scientist, who is cataloguing a mass grave filled with the bodies of "disappeared" victims. They then stumble onto a body of recently deceased man, [[ArgentinaIsNaziland who is revealed to be Nazi war criminal in the lam]]. At the end, they figure out that [[spoiler: the Argentinian scientist was the Nazi's granddaughter, and after she disavowed him for being a Nazi and he mocked her, she killed him in a fit of rage.]]

The Argentine Left and some Peronists tend to claim that the true purpose of the Process was to impose by force an economic system that would destroy the Argentine economy and turn the country into a US colony, but economic data shows that the economy was already in a disastrous state as a result of the ''Rodrigazo'' that took place under the Peróns, and the military were simply unable to solve that hyperinflation crisis either.[[note]]For example, it is usually pointed that the military took huge amounts of external debt. This is correct, but an incomplete view: the money was largely used to pay debts and financial deficits caused by the ''Rodrigazo''.[[/note]] Disappointed at the ongoing hyperinflation, most foreign investors eventually left Argentina.

The Argentine Left and some Peronists tend to claim that the true purpose of the Process was to impose by force an economic system that would destroy the Argentine economy and turn the country into a US colony, but economic data shows that the economy was already in a disastrous state as a result of the ''Rodrigazo'' that took place under the Peróns, and the military were simply unable to solve that hyperinflation crisis either.[[note]]For example, it is usually pointed that the military took huge amounts of external debt. This is correct, but an incomplete view: the money was largely used to pay debts and financial deficits caused by the ''Rodrigazo''.[[/note]]

Videla, the junta's official spokesperson, had once said that “As many people as necessary must die in Argentina so that the country will again be secure." Ordinary Argentines will tell you that the only thing the Process was good at was killing people, and it's obvious who won the Dirty War. From 1976 to 1983, somewhere between 9,000 and 30,000 Argentines were arrested without trial on charges of being subversives, confined in secret prisons, gruesomely tortured and/or raped, and eventually executed and buried in unmarked graves. Others were hurled, drugged and insensate, into the Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean from low flying airplanes and helicopters, their bodies never to be discovered. Thousands more still were subjected to lengthy prison terms and torture before being released into the world broken by the experience. To add a macabre twist, the juntas also kidnapped the children of dissidents and sold them to rich Argentine families, enriching themselves in the process.[[note]]Which was only one of the ways of making profit. Typically, a raided household would be stripped of everything of value (the house itself included, which was sometimes burnt down after the looting).[[/note]] Unwilling to limit their actions to their own country, the juntas made their intelligence service an integral part of the Pan-South American ''Operation: Condor'', collaborating with UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet’s Chile, Alfredo Stroessner’s Paraguay, and the military juntas of Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil to terrorize, repress, and assassinate any and all political opposition to their rule across the continent. The eventual death toll reached somewhere around 60,000, making ''Operation: Condor'' the worst politicide in the history of modern South America.

The Argentine Left and some Peronists tend to claim that the true purpose of the Process was to impose by force an economic system that would destroy the Argentine economy and turn the country into a US colony, but economic data shows that the economy was already in a disastrous state as a result of the ''Rodrigazo'' that took place under the Peróns, and the military were simply unable to solve that hyperinflation crisis either.[[note]]For example, it is usually pointed that the military took huge amounts of external debt. This is correct, but an incomplete view: the money was largely used to pay debts and financial deficits caused by the ''Rodrigazo''[[/note]].

The Kirchners were also criticized for the historical revisionism over the conflict, not about the actions of the Junta itself (which are not disputed) but about the role of Peronism: their version glosses over the similar crimes already being committed by Perón and his cronies, and that Peronism announced that they would have supported the military self-amnesty had they won in 1983.

The Argentine Left tend to claim that the true purpose of the Process was to impose by force an economic system that would destroy the Argentine economy and turn the country into a US colony, but economic data shows that the economy was already in a disastrous state as a result of the ''Rodrigazo'' that took place under the Peróns, and the military were simply unable to solve that hyperinflation crisis either.[[note]]For example, it is usually pointed that the military took huge amounts of external debt. This is correct, but an incomplete view: the money was largely used to pay debts and financial deficits caused by the ''Rodrigazo''[[/note]].