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.