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La Noche de los Bastones Largos ("The Night of the Long Batons") was the violent dislodging of students and teachers from five academicfaculties of theUniversity of Buenos Aires (UBA), by theFederal Argentine Police, on July 29, 1966. The academic faculties had been occupied by the students, professors, and graduates (the autonomous government of the university) who opposed the political intervention by the military government of General Juan Carlos Onganía to unilaterally revoke theacademic freedom established in the1918 university reform.
On June 28, 1966, a coup led by GeneralJuan Carlos Onganía had overthrown electedpresidentArturo Illia and started the military government known as theRevolución Argentina.
The Argentine public universities were by then organised as dictated by theuniversity reform, which established the autonomy of the university, and a political power divided in a tripartite government of students, professors and graduates.
The repression was particularly violent in the faculties ofExact and Natural Sciences andPhilosophy and Literature of the UBA.
TheArgentine Federal Police, which was under military control since June 28, 1966, had orders to repress victims harshly. The name given to the events refers to the long batons used by the police to hit students, professors and graduates while removing them from the buildings. 400 people were detained, with laboratories and libraries completely destroyed.
In the following months hundreds of professors were fired, resigned their positions or abandoned the country.
In total, 301 university professors emigrated, of whom 215 were scientists, and 166 found their place in otherLatin American universities, mainly inChile andVenezuela. 94 moved to universities in theUnited States,Canada andPuerto Rico, and 41 fled toEurope.[1]
In some cases, complete research teams were dismantled, such as theInstituto de Cálculo de Ciencias Exactas, where "Clementina", the first computer in Latin America, was functioning. All of its 70 members resigned and left the country. Similar cases were those of theInstituto de Psicología Evolutiva and theInstituto de Radiación Cósmica.
Some of the better known affected professors were:
With the intervention of the military government to the universities, a strict censorship was applied to the contents of the programs, and the scientific project of tight relationship between education and investigation in the universities.
The act of the military government is considered a central reference of the cultural and academic decadence, and thebrain drain in Argentina.
In 2004 film directorTristán Bauer presented his documentary filmLa noche de los bastones largos: el futuro intervenido, based in the events of July 29, 1966.
In July 2005 theFederación Universitaria Argentina delivered recognition diplomas to the 70 professors who resigned in 1966 to their positions at theFaculty of Agronomy of theUniversity of Buenos Aires
