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| Argentine Anticommunist Alliance Alianza Anticomunista Argentina | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the General Command of the AAA | |
| Leader | José López Rega Rodolfo Almirón Aníbal Gordon Alberto Villar Luis Margaride Isabel Perón[1] |
| Dates of operation | 1973–1976 |
| Motives | Persecution and extermination of people linked to groups considered Marxist (criteria that was applied in a very broad spectrum that included organizations such asERP orMontoneros to social democratic groups, such as theRadical Civic Union) |
| Active regions | Argentina |
| Ideology | Neo-fascism[1][2] Anti-communism Orthodox Peronism[3][4] |
| Political position | Far-right[4][5] |
| Status | Dissolved |
| Operation Condor |
|---|
Archives and reports |
TheArgentine Anticommunist Alliance (Spanish:Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, usually known asTriple A orAAA) was an Argentinefascist political paramilitary group operated by a sector of theFederal Police and theArgentine Armed Forces, linked with the anticommunist lodgePropaganda Due, that killed artists, priests, intellectuals, leftist politicians, students, historians and union members, as well as issuing threats and carrying out extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances during the presidencies ofJuan Perón andIsabel Perón between 1973 and 1976.[6][7][8][9] The group was responsible for the disappearance and death of between 700 and 1100 people.[10][11][12]
The Triple A was secretly led byJosé López Rega, Minister of Social Welfare and personal secretary ofJuan Perón.Rodolfo Almirón, arrested in Spain in 2006, was alleged to be his chief operating officer of the group, and was officially head of López Rega's and Isabel Perón's personal security. He was extradited from Spain in 2006 and prosecuted; he died in jail in June 2009.SIDE agentAnibal Gordon was another important member of the Triple A, although he always denied it. He was tried in Argentina in 1985 after the restoration of democracy and convicted in October 1986. Gordon died in prison oflung cancer the next year.[13]
In 2006, Argentine JudgeNorberto Oyarbide ruled the Triple A had committed "crimes against humanity," which meant their crimes were exempt from statutes of limitations. Suspects can be prosecuted for actions committed in the 1970s and early 1980s.
TheTriple A was believed to have been organized in 1973 by José López Rega andAlberto Villar, deputy chief of theArgentine federal police, during the brief interim presidency ofRaúl Lastiri in 1973. Reportedly, the movement was conceived at a high-levelPeronist meeting on 1 October 1973, attended by PresidentRaúl Lastiri, Interior MinisterBenito Llambí, Social Welfare MinisterJosé López Rega, general secretary of the PresidencyJosé Humberto Martiarena and various provincial governors.[14] The group operated under the governments of Lastiri, Perón and Isabel Perón through López Rega resignation and exile in July 1975. Villar and his wife were murdered in 1974 with a bomb that was planted on hiscabin cruiser inTigre by members of theMontoneros, a militant, leftist group.
López Rega, a devotee ofoccultism and self-styleddivinator, became a powerful force in the Peronist movement. He exerted great influence overPerón, who was elected to the presidency and took office in 1973, and his wife Isabel Perón, elected as vice-president, who succeeded to the presidency upon Perón's sudden death on 1 July 1974. To support the paramilitary group, López Rega drew on funds from the Ministry of Social Welfare, which he controlled.[15] Some of the members of the Triple A had earlier taken part in the Peronist1973 Ezeiza massacre. On the day Perón returned from exile, snipers shot and killed numerous (13 at least killed) left-wing Peronists at the mass gathering to welcome his return, leading to the definitive separation between left and right-wing Peronists.
The Spanish JudgeBaltazar Garzón's investigations, directed at human rights abuses internationally, revealed thatItalianneofascistStefano Delle Chiaie had also worked with the Triple A, and was present at Ezeiza. Delle Chiaie also worked with theChileanDINA in Chile, and forHugo Banzer, aBoliviandictator.[16]
According to a 1983 article inThe New York Times, the group was founded when there were an increasing number of guerrilla attacks byleft-wing militant groups,[17] which were met by harshrepression ofpolitical dissidents on the part of themilitary,paramilitary andpolice forces. This environment of social unrest was the justification used by the subsequent military junta for itsDirty War against political opponents. But testimony at the 1985Juicio a las Juntas trial established that by 1976, both theERP and theMontoneros had been dismantled, and the political dissidents had never posed a real threat to the government.[citation needed]
The group first came to national attention on 21 November 1973 in its attempt to murder ArgentineSenatorHipólito Solari Yrigoyen by acar bomb. The AAA went on to kill 1,122 people, according to an appendix to the 1983CONADEP report,[18] including suspected Montoneros andERP leftistterrorists and their sympathizers, but the group expanded its targets to other political opponents, includingjudges, police chiefs, andsocial activists. In total, it is suspected of having killed more than 1500 people.[19]
The group is strongly suspected in the 1974 assassination ofJesuit priestCarlos Mugica, a friend ofMario Firmenich, the founder of Montoneros.[18] Other people murdered by the organisation includeSilvio Frondizi, brother of former presidentArturo Frondizi;Julio Troxler, former-vice director of the police;Alfredo Curutchet, a defense attorney forpolitical prisoners; andHipólito Atilio López, a key union leader ofCórdoba. The CONADEP commission onhuman rights violations documented the Triple A's execution of 19 homicides in 1973, 50 in 1974 and 359 in 1975, while its involvement in several hundred others is also suspected.
The 1986 study by Ignacio Jansen González is often cited; he estimates the group committed 220terrorist attacks from July to September 1974, which killed 60 and severely wounded 44; as well as 20kidnappings.[20] Federal judgeNorberto Oyarbide, who signed theextradition order against former leader of the AAARodolfo Almirón, ruled in December 2006 that Triple A's crimes qualified ashuman rights violations and the "beginning of the systematic process directed by the state apparatus" during thedictatorship.[19][21]
Death threats caused many of the opposition to leave Argentina. Amongst many well-known and respected people who left are mathematicianManuel Sadosky; artistsHéctor Alterio,Luis Brandoni andNacha Guevara; politician and entrepreneurJosé Ber Gelbard; lawyer and politicianHéctor Sandler; and actorNorman Briski.[22]
Main assassinations claimed by the AAA:
After the fall of López Rega in 1975 andJorge Rafael Videla'scoup in March 1976, many Triple A members fled to Spain, where they became involved in assassinations of Spanish leftists during the first years of theSpanish transition. Fifteen former AAA members (includingRodolfo Almirón) were involved in the1976 shooting of two left-wingCarlist members at a large annual gathering inMontejurra, Spain. Others implicated in the event were Italian neofascistStefano Delle Chiaie andJean-Pierre Cherid, former member of the FrenchOAS and at the time part of theGAL death squad in Spain.[22][23]
Former Triple A memberJosé María Boccardo took part with Cherid and others in the 1978 assassination ofArgala, anETA member involved in the1973 assassination of Franco's prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco.[24]
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