Background
Jorge Rafael Videla was born on 2 August 1924 in Buenos Aires Province.
Jorge Rafael Videla was born on 2 August 1924 in Buenos Aires Province.
Graduated from the Colegio Militar in 1944, and thereafter received regular promotions.
He became commander-in-chief of the army in 1975.
By early 1976 inflation was running at 400 percent a year, and the country was undergoing a tremendous surge of violence by leftist guerillas, including the Peronist Montoneros and the Trotskyite Popular Revolutionary Army (ERP). The Peronists were rocked by internecine violence between contending trade union sectors. In addition, there was a growing rightist vigilantism, spearheaded by the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (AAA), which was kidnapping and killing suspected leftists. The government was riddled by corruption and scandal. Furthermore, many in the military disliked having a female president.
The coup of March 1976 came as no surprise, but the harshness of the Videla government was unexpected.
When Videla stepped down, he was succeeded in office by General Roberto Viola. Civilian government was not restored until December 1983, with the election and inauguration of President Raúl Ricardo Alfonsin Foulkes, following Argentina’s defeat by Great Britain in the war over the Malvinas Islands.
The Alfonsin government set up an investigation of the many disappearances and human rights violations that occurred under the military governments. As a result of that investigation, Videla and all members of the military juntas that governed from 1976 to 1983 were put on trial. Videla was convicted and sentenced to a long prison term.
The Videla government banned all civilian political activity and set out to destroy the guerrillas. Clandestine nightime arrests, imprisonment without charge, torture, and executions were used to eradicate the guerrillas and their sympathizers.
The government and its AAA allies ran secret prisons and torture centers. Wholesale violation of human rights claimed as many as 30,000 lives in three years. Governmental critics and the press were censored. Lawyers who attempted to protect or gain information about those arrested put their own lives in danger.
By 1979 the “dirty war” campaign was successful, and guerrilla activities had virtually ceased, but at great cost to the Argentine population and political system.
Although the Videla government was successful in eliminating guerillas, it was unable to straighten out the economic situation. Inflation averaged over 200 percent per year, the government was unable to lure private and foreign investment and there were numerous bank failures and bankruptcies. The government also ran up a very large foreign debt.
