Emilio Eduardo Massera
| Emilio Eduardo Massera | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 19, 1925 Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina |
| Died | November 8, 2010 (aged 85) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Allegiance |
 Argentina
|
| Service/branch |
 Argentine Navy
|
| Years of service | 1946–1978 |
| Rank |
 Admiral
|
| Spouse(s) | Delia Vieyra |
Emilio Eduardo Massera (October 19, 1925 – November 8, 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer, and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2 (also known as Propaganda Due, a clandestine Masonic lodge involved in Italy's strategy of tension). Many considered Massera to have masterminded the junta's Dirty War against political opponents, which resulted in nearly 13,000 deaths and disappearances, according to official records. Human rights groups put the toll closer to 30,000.
Coming from a Catholic family, Emilio Massera was born in Paraná, Entre Ríos, to Paula Padula and Emilio Massera, grandson of immigrants from Switzerland. Massera entered Argentina's Naval Military School in 1942, obtaining his commission as a midshipman in 1946. After the Revolución Libertadora in 1955, Massera entered the Naval Information Service. During his career he occupied different positions within the Navy, including command of the sail training ship ARA Libertad and command of the Sea Fleet in 1973. In 1974 Massera was promoted to the rank of full Admiral and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy, after the government sent a number of senior admirals into forced retirement.
Between 1976 and 1978 Admiral Massera was part, together with Jorge Rafael Videla and Orlando Ramón Agosti, of the military junta that deposed President Isabel Martínez de Perón and ruled Argentina de facto during the National Reorganization Process. On September 1978 Massera stepped down from both the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and from his seat in the Military Junta. In 1981 he traveled to Bucharest, Romania.
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