Argentine Republic | ||||||||||
República Argentina | ||||||||||
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Anthem Himno Nacional Argentino |
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Capital | Buenos Aires | |||||||||
Languages | Spanish | |||||||||
Government | Military dictatorship | |||||||||
President of Argentina | ||||||||||
• | 1976–81 | Jorge Rafael Videla | ||||||||
• | 1981 | Roberto Eduardo Viola | ||||||||
• | 1981 | Carlos Lacoste | ||||||||
• | 1981–82 | Leopoldo Galtieri | ||||||||
• | 1982 | Alfredo Oscar Saint Jean | ||||||||
• | 1982–83 | Reynaldo Bignone | ||||||||
Historical era | Cold War | |||||||||
• | 1976 Argentine coup d'état | March 24, 1976 | ||||||||
• | Argentine general election, 1983 | October 30, 1983 | ||||||||
Currency | Argentine peso (1975–90) | |||||||||
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The National Reorganization Process (Spanish: Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, often simply el Proceso, "the Process") was the name used by its leaders for the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar (the last military junta) or la última dictadura (the last dictatorship), because there have been several.
The Argentine military seized political power during the March 1976 coup, amid violent factional conflicts between supporters of recently deceased President Juan Domingo Perón. The junta continued the Dirty War. After losing the Falklands War to the United Kingdom in 1982, the junta faced mounting public opposition and finally relinquished power in 1983.
The military has always been highly influential in Argentine politics, and Argentine history is laced with frequent and prolonged intervals of military rule. The popular Argentine leader, Juan Perón, three-time President of Argentina, was a colonel in the army who first came to political power in the aftermath of a 1943 military coup. He advocated a new policy dubbed Justicialism, a nationalist policy which he claimed was a "third way," an alternative to both capitalism and communism. After being re-elected to the office of president by popular vote, Perón was deposed and exiled by the Revolución Libertadora in 1955.
After a series of weak governments, and a seven-year military government, Perón returned to Argentina in 1973, following 20 years exile in Francoist Spain, amidst escalating political unrest, divisions in the Peronist movement, and frequent outbreaks of political violence. His return was marked by the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre, after which the right-wing Peronist movement became dominant.