Bombing of the Plaza de Mayo
The bombing of the Plaza de Mayo was a by putsch end Argentine soldiers on June 16, 1955 in Buenos Aires ( Argentina largely perpetrated) of civilians massacre , in which over 300 people died.
background
Argentina was ruled by Juan Domingo Perón from 1946 to 1955 . The authoritarian style of government as well as the strengthening of the trade unions and the weakening of the Catholic Church led to strong resentment among the upper class, large landowners, the Catholic Church and parts of the military. The latter initiated the attack on the presidential seat ( Casa Rosada ) in the Plaza de Mayo . A large crowd gathered in front of the Casa Rosada to demonstrate their support for the Perón government. Perón himself had been warned by his Minister of War and was at the Ministry of Defense at the time of the attack.
procedure
On June 16, 1955 at 12:40 p.m., fighter planes of the Argentine Air Force and Navy bombed the Plaza de Mayo in low flight.
Thirty- four Navy and Air Force fighter jets, consisting of 22 North American AT-6s , five Beechcraft AT-11s , three Consolidated PBY Catalina and four Air Force Gloster Meteor took part in the attack. A total of 9.5 tons of grenades / cluster bombs were dropped, which resulted in the deaths of over 300 people - mostly civilians. More than 800 people were injured. The attack ended at 5:20 p.m.
During the attack, soldiers loyal to the government managed to deploy anti- aircraft guns and shot down three aircraft. Nine Argentine grenadiers belonging to the Presidential Guard fell. An AT-6 was shot down by a pilot loyal to the government in a Gloster Meteor over the Río de la Plata . The Argentine marines sided with the coup plotters and were fought down by loyal soldiers. They capitulated that evening. The leader of the coup, Vice-Admiral Samuel Toranzo Calderón , was arrested and his deputy, Vice-Admiral Benjamín Gargiulo, died by suicide . Some pilots fled to Uruguay in their planes and asked for political asylum .
In September of the same year, the entire armed forces of Argentina took part in the so-called Revolución Libertadora , which overthrew Perón's government and established military rule that lasted until 1958.
Casualty numbers
The exact determination of the number of victims is difficult to this day. There are numbers between 308 and almost 400 dead. Most of the victims were civilians who demonstrated in front of Casa Rosada. Including many children. In the Casa Rosada, the target, 12 people were killed.
See also
Web links
literature
- Norberto Galasso: Perón. Volume 1: Formación, ascenso y caída, (1893–1955). Ediciones Colihue, Buenos Aires 2005, ISBN 950-581-399-6 .
- Rosa Elsa Portugheis: Bombardeo del 16 de junio de 1955. Ed .: Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Nación. Buenos Aires, 2015, ISBN 978-987-1407-88-0 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Rosa Elsa Portugheis: Bombardeo del 16 de junio de 1955 . Ed .: Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Nación. Buenos Aires 2015, ISBN 978-987-1407-88-0 .
- ↑ Victoria Eglau: Bombing the Plaza de Mayo - An attempted murder turns into a massacre. 2015, accessed March 4, 2019 .
- ^ Daniel Cichero: Bombas sobre Buenos Aires . Vergara, Buenos Aires 2005, ISBN 950-15-2347-0 , pp. 73 f .
- ^ Anne Hufschmid: Cracks in space: memory, violence and urban life in Latin America . Springer, Wiesbaden 2015, p. 224-252 .
- ^ Antonius Robben: From Dirty War to Genocide: Argentina's checkered memory of a violent past . In: Ernst Halbmayr, Silvia Karl (ed.): The remembered violence . transrcipt, Bielefeld 2012, p. 31-56 .