Word: peronist
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...many years before the coup, Isabel and Juan Peron ruled over a corrupt right-wing bureaucracy which maneuvered and stole with full support of the Peronist-dominated congress. Peron's policies had the tacit acceptance of the Argentine military as long as his (or Isabel's) regime would give the generals a free hand to attack the guerrilla and other left-wing movements. During the last few months of Mrs. Peron's regime, the military and right-wing paramilitary forces were waging an open war against the leftists while "Isabelita" was taking all the blame for economic paralysis and political...
RATHER MORE URGENT ISSUES than the Peron government's incompetence precipitated the March 24 coup. Argentine foreign debts of about $1 billion will be due at the end of May, and it is crucial that foreign creditors cooperate in extending repayment terms. Emilio Mondelli, the Peronist finance minister, had repeatedly pleaded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to borrow an additional $300 million to offset the country's trade imbalance. This request had repeatedly not been granted...
...order to gain the favor of foreign investors and bankers, the Peronist government found itself faced with the urgent tasks of curbing inflation, increasing productivity and guaranteeing stability. The two essential steps needed to bring about these changes were a drastic austerity plan and abolition of the right to strike, steps which were antithetical to the basic populism of the Peronists. Only a military regime could bring about the "guarantees and stability" needed to pacify foreign creditors...
There were political as well as economic reasons for the March 24 coup. The two left-wing guerrilla groups (People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) and Montoneros) had in the last few months of Isabel Peron's government made some advances in the labor unions. These had traditionally been Peronist strongholds, but recent guerrilla actions had given the Marxist left renewed prestige and influence for the first time in 30 years. A number of industrialists had been kidnapped and ransomed for salary raises and other benefits for the workers. Since July 1974, the ERP had maintained a very active rural guerrilla...
...this context of economic chaos (475-per-cent inflation in 1975), foreign investors' pressure, a May 31 deadline on foreign debt, corruption in the Peronist government and slow gains in popularity by the Marxist left, that the officer corps decided that the time had come for a takeover. They could thereby continue the already existing repression, and through the abolition of civil liberties expand the repressive measures in nature and quantity to include a wide variety of previously unaffected people...