Double Symbol. Captain Astiz, the Navy and Democratic Transition in Argentina

Authors

  • Daniel H. Mazzei Universidad de Buenos Aires

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v6i11.250

Keywords:

Argentine Navy, Democratic Transition, Civil-Military Relations, Alfonsín Presidency, State Terrorism

Abstract

This article proposes to reconstruct the relationship between the government of President Raúl Alfonsín (1983-1989) and the Argentine Navy during the so-called democratic transition, whose main axes were the revision of the recent past and human rights. During that period the political situation of the Navy was relatively stable. At least if we compare it with what happened with their comrades of the Army. Throughout his term, President Alfonsin maintained the same Naval Chief of Staff and promotions occurred in a normal way. There were moments of great tension but didn´t have media coverage and happened almost behind the scenes. In all cases was present the figure of Liutenant Alfredo Astiz. Minister of Defense Borrás was the first to realize that Astiz had become a double symbol that reflected the gap between the Society and the Armed Forces. To many he was a repressor, a murderer without compassion who had infiltrated Madres de Plaza de Mayo, had kidnapped two nuns, and also the coward who had surrendered without fighting in the Georgias Islands, during the Malvinas War. For his comrades in arms he was the officer who followed orders, a victim of the Navy that publicly exposed him after having assigned him intelligence missions, but also a witness case. If in 1984 his summons was the prelude to many others, in 1988 his early retirement by an administrative decision could mean the first of a long list.

President Alfonsin couldn´t satisfy his desire to see Astiz out of the Navy. That is why he doesn´t hesitate to speak of “painful circumstances” and use the word “failure”. Moreover the Navy showed all united and in solidarity with officers, of any rank, prosecuted or detained, and hug in defending the officer who had become, for the Society, the most visible face of repression.

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Author Biography

  • Daniel H. Mazzei, Universidad de Buenos Aires

    Daniel Horacio Mazzei (Buenos Aires, 1965). Doctor en Historia por la Universidad de Buenos Aires; Profesor Adjunto de Historia Argentina Contemporánea en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires; e investigador del Programa de Historia Oral. Se ha especializado en relaciones civiles-militares en la Argentina durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Es autor de Medios de comunicación y golpismo. El golpe contra Illia (GEU, 1997), CEMIDA, militares argentinos para la transición democrática (Capital Intelectual, 2011), y Bajo el poder de la Caballería. El Ejército argentino (1962-1973) (Eudeba, 2012), y numerosos artículos en revistas especializadas.

References

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Published

2017-06-15

How to Cite

Double Symbol. Captain Astiz, the Navy and Democratic Transition in Argentina. (2017). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 6(11), 258-276. https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v6i11.250

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