Buenos Aires (Argentina), 1918 – 1996

By María Seoane

Alejandro Agustín Lanusse was born on August 28, 1918, in Buenos Aires. He studied at the National Military School, where he graduated as a second lieutenant of Cavalry in 1938. In 1951, already a captain, he participated in the failed coup against Juan Domingo Perón, led by General Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, and was imprisoned until 1955, when Perón was overthrown by the “Revolución Libertadora.”

He was the head of the Granaderos Regiment, ambassador to the Holy See (1956), deputy director of the Higher War School (1960), commander of the First Armored Cavalry Division (1962), and Chief of the Army (1968). He was part of the self-proclaimed “Argentine Revolution,” which designated Juan Carlos Onganía as president. In 1970, he led the internal struggle that ended Onganía’s presidency, replacing him with General Roberto Marcelo Levingston. In 1971, amid the crisis between Levingston and the Junta of Commanders, he gained the support of the latter to depose Levingston.

He assumed the presidency on March 27, 1971, when he ended the political persecution imposed since the early days of the Argentine Revolution, restoring public and private freedoms and lifting the proscription. He promoted the Great National Agreement (GAN), aimed at fostering the consensus of all political forces in the country, including Peronism, and seeking an electoral solution that involved the Armed Forces. This alliance failed in 1972, at the same time the country’s political and social situation began to worsen.

This failure was compounded by the Trelew massacre, the clandestine execution of nineteen political prisoners in the custody of the Navy, who attempted to escape from the Rawson prison in Patagonia. The popular reaction to this crime marked the beginning of the end of Lanusse’s regime, with accusations that he had commanded the killings.

Lanusse modified the electoral system and set the election date for March 11, 1973, in which the formula composed of Héctor J. Cámpora and Vicente Solano Lima triumphed. He handed over power on May 25, 1973.