Blackwell Reference Online

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The Ezeiza Protest and Massacre occurred on June 20, 1973, when Argentine anti-communist terrorist snipers attacked a crowd of over 2 million people who had assembled near the Buenos Aires airport as Juan Perón returned from nearly two decades in exile in Spain. The attacks, according to official figures, resulted in 13 deaths and more than 300 wounded, but those who were present at the massacre and prominent newspaper sources claim that the number was much higher. The event marked the bloody and tragic downturn of Juan Perón's politically bifurcated but devoted party (comprised largely of an unlikely alliance of leftist and right-wing Peronistas), as well as the beginning of what became known as Argentina's Dirty War. The snipers who committed the atrocity belonged to a right-wing terrorist group called the Triple A, which stood for the Argentine Anti-communist Alliance, of which José López Rega, Juan Perón's personal secretary, was a founder. The Triple A snipers, standing alongside members of various ultra-right wing associations on a tribune prepared for Juan Perón, fired into the predominantly left-wing crowd assembled to celebrate Perón's return. Among those present, and of course targeted by the Triple A, were members of the Montoneros, a left-wing Peronist guerilla group, and the Peronist Youth. The attack was intended to facilitate the removal of President Héctor Cámpora, ... log in or subscribe to read full text