308 civilians killed and an additional number that could not be identified[5]
The bombing of Plaza de Mayo was a massacre that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 June 1955. Thirty aircraft from the Argentine Navy and Air Force strafed Plaza de Mayo in the largest aerial bombing ever on the Argentine mainland. The attack targeted the adjacent Casa Rosada, the official seat of government, while a large crowd gathered to demonstrate support for President Juan Perón. The strike took place during a day of official public demonstrations to condemn the burning of a national flag allegedly carried out by detractors of Perón during the recent Corpus Christi procession. The military reacted as a result of growing tension between President Juan Perón and his actions against the Roman Catholic Church. The action was to be the first step in an eventually aborted coup d'état. The number of identified bodies was put at 308, including six children; an unknown number of victims could not be identified.[5]
The heavy loss of civilian lives and the violence with which the act was carried out has prompted comparisons with the wave of state terrorism during the dictatorship of 1976–1983.[6]
Background
After his victory in the 1946 Argentine general election, President Perón had enacted many reformative policies that considerably changed Argentina, including embracing industrialisation, nationalising railroads, financing public works, and instituting material benefits for labour, such as higher wages. By 1955, he had spent nine years in power.[7] His first term was marked by isolationism, with an emphasis on Argentine self-sufficiency.[7] Increased fiscal spending caused a drop in cash holdings and foreign earnings. Problems during his second tenure included rising inflation, a stagnant economy, and labor strikes, mostly in support of higher wages. His leadership style also drew heavy criticism from academics, clerics, and other elements of the international community for embracing censorship and cracking down on freedom of expression.[8] The death of his second wife, first lady Eva Perón, in July 1952 had diminished his popular appeal and party support.[9]
The attack was carried out in the crowded city center on Thursday, during working hours. Without warning, the attack led to many civilian casualties. Those commuting on public transport were among the first recorded victims.[10] As the first bomb fell on a trolleybus packed with children, it killed everyone on board.[11]
General Franklin Lucero
Meanwhile, two companies of the rebel 4th Marine Infantry Battalion marched on the Casa Rosada, intending to capture it. One was deployed 40m from the northern façade while the other took position in the Automóvil Club Argentino parking lot, between Colón Park and the Central Post Office, 100m from the rear.[2] However, they were pushed back by members of the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers from within the Casa Rosada and by Army troops marching from the sector of the Ministry of Finance, under the command of General Lucero.[5] The defense of the Casa Rosada consisted of a mere two 12.7mm Browning M2 machine guns placed on the roof, while defenders on the lower floors only had access to small arms, including bolt-action Mauser 1909 rifles.[12] Loyal troops were accompanied by Peronist civilians who took up arms.[13]
At 13:12, union leader Héctor Hugo Di Pietro, acting head of the CGT due to the absence of its Secretary-General, spoke on national broadcasting, calling all workers in the Federal District and Greater Buenos Aires to concentrate immediately around the CGT building, in order to defend the constitutional government. Moreover, union officials were already mobilizing workers from factories around Buenos Aires towards the city center.[5] Perón ordered his adjutant, Major Jose Ignacio Cialceta, to inform Di Pietro that a clash strictly between soldiers was taking place and therefore civilians were not to gather in Plaza de Mayo. Historian Joseph Page claimed, citing a US Embassy report, that this order was not given until 16:00.[14]
Consequently, the bulk of the civilian casualties occurred when large numbers of mobilized workers arrived in Plaza de Mayo to defend the presidency of Juan Perón. Gloster Meteor fighters suddenly arrived to bomb and strafe the large crowds of Peronist supporters exiting the central subway and gathering in the nearby streets and the immediate vicinity of the Presidential Palace, killing and wounding hundreds in the process.[15]
According to police commissioner Rafael C. Pugliese, a police observation reported at 14:00, large numbers of civilians arrived in trucks to defend the Presidential Palace and gathered in the Paseo Colón and Belgrano pedestrian walkways around it, before being caught out in the open when the main air attacks took place at 15:00. The Gloster Meteors then bombed the survivors as they pulled up from their final dive bombing attacks and headed back to base.[16]
The rebel ground offensive began to wane around 15:00, as the marines surrounding the Casa Rosada's northern façade came under fire from army artillery units positioned in a building located at the intersection of Leandro N. Alem and Viamonte streets. Olivieri contacted the Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy to request reinforcements, however, it was already surrounded by elements of the 1st Infantry Regiment.[2]
The marines retreated in disarray towards the Ministry of the Navy, where they would remain under siege from loyal Army units until the end of hostilities that evening. Lucero ordered the use of heavy machine guns against the rebels, and 81mm mortars were brought in to reinforce the assault. At 15:17, after two telephone conversations between Olivieri and Lucero, the rebels waved a white flag from the Ministry of the Navy. However, when generals Carlos Wirth and Juan José Valle arrived in a jeep to discuss the terms of surrender, the second wave of air attacks began. The explosions destroyed two floors of the south wing of the Ministry of War, killing a soldier and a general.[2] At the same time, an M4 Sherman fired on the second floor, causing a fire in the admirals' room.[2]
Simultaneously, civilian commandos under Zavala Ortiz's orders began clashing with the police and sniping from the roofs of various buildings. Throughout the afternoon, rebel reinforcements coming from the Central Post building unsuccessfully tried to break the siege on the Ministry of the Navy building.[5]
Air-to-air combat
As ground combat raged in the center of Buenos Aires, loyal forces were dispatched from Morón Air Base to intercept rebel fighters. Heated discussions took place among the pilots over the possibility of whether to join the coup or not. A squad of loyal Gloster Meteors took off and one of them shot down a rebel Navy AT-6 Texan over the Río de la Plata, scoring the first air-to-air kill of the Argentine Air Force. Another rebel warplane was downed by ground fire from hastily mounted anti-aircraft batteries.[5]
In the meantime, Morón Air Base along with the loyal pilots were captured by anti-Peronist forces. Their Meteors were seized and pressed into service by the rebels, participating in strafing sorties until the final surrender. With the coup on the verge of failure, naval warplanes launched a second attack on the seat of government. Having run out of ordnance, one pilot dropped his auxiliary fuel tank as an ersatz incendiary bomb, which fell on the cars in a parking lot near the Casa Rosada.[17]
Retreat and surrender
After heavy urban fighting, which included a false surrender incident, the besieged rebels finally opted for handing over the Ministry of the Navy to the Army units posted outside. Fire ceased at 17:20 local time. Between 9.5 and 13.8 tonnes of ordnance were dropped, killing between 150 and 364 people,[18] mostly civilians, and injuring over 800. Nine members of the Mounted Grenadiers Presidential Guard[1] and five police officers were killed in action.[19]
Faced with the failure of the intended coup, the rebel pilots received orders to head toward Uruguay to seek asylum. At least 32 civilian and military aircraft headed towards Carrasco Airport, continuing along the way to drop their bombs until they ran out of ammunition. Most of them landed in Carrasco, and four others in Colonia. One Gloster Meteor crash-landed in the Río de la Plata off Carmelo, having exhausted all its fuel during the attacks. The pilot was rescued by a local resident. The pilots were interned by the Uruguayan government until the fall of Perón in September.[20]
At 03:00 on 17 June, Olivieri, Toranzo Calderón, and Gargiulo, the three top leaders of the failed coup, were informed they were to be tried under martial law and were each offered a pistol to end their lives, which Olivieri and Toranzo Calderón declined. Gargiulo, however, accepted the offer and committed suicide in his office at 05:45.[21]
Aftermath
Shrapnel-ridden outer wall of the Ministry of Economy, pictured in 2009
That same night, Peronist crowds burnt eight churches, two basilicas, and the Curia office in revenge for the Catholic Church's support to the coup.
In September of that year, the bulk of the armed forces joined in a coup d'état known as the Revolución Libertadora, which overthrew President Perón and started a military dictatorship that lasted until the 1958 presidential elections, won by Arturo Frondizi of the UCRI. The Peronist party was not allowed to stand for election, but Frondizi's victory was aided by a pact between himself and Perón.[22]
One of the naval pilots who took part in the bombings, Máximo Rivero Kelly, was promoted and was second-in-command of the Argentine Navy during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín. He would later claim that the naval aviation's target was the Presidential Palace but that an aircraft missed, causing about 20 civilian deaths.[23]
Bullet and shrapnel marks remained visible on some buildings on the south side of the square as of 2023.
Casualties
Peronist sources claim around 400 were killed. In 1965, a journalist from Extra magazine claimed that once the fighting had ended near Plaza de Mayo, there were around five hundred people either dead or heavily injured.[24]
Monument to the victims of Plaza de Mayo Bombing
On 22 June 1955, commissioner Rafael C. Pugliese in the Official Police Report put the official death toll at 136 after collating the number of identified as well as unidentified bodies in the morgues of various hospitals in Buenos Aires. The various medical centres that received victims and helped in identification and counting the deaths were: Public Assistance (62 dead), Argerich (45 dead), Rawson (3 dead), Clínicas (7 dead), Ramos Mejía (7 dead), Alemán (2 dead), Fernandez (3 dead), Policlínico del Ministerio de Hacienda (3 dead), Policlínico Militar (2 dead), Policlínico Rivadavia (1 dead) and Morgue Judicial (1 dead).[24]
Of the 136 killed according to Pugliese's report, five were police officers: Senior Officer Alfredo Aulicino (head of the Personnel Section of the Communications Directorate), Sub-Inspector Rodolfo Nieto (1st Political Order Section), Agent José María Bacalja (1st Mechanical Workshop and Garage Section), Agent Ramón Alderete (Traffic Police Corps) and retired agent César Augusto Puchulu.[24] The rebel and loyal military suffered a combined 44 casualties.[25]
^«Los ataques de los aviones produjeron numerosos daños en los edificios, resultando gran cantidad de muertos y heridos entre los transeúntes y ocupantes de automóviles particulares y de transporte colectivo de pasajeros, especialmente en la esquina de Paseo Colón e Hipólito Yrigoyen y frente al Ministerio de Hacienda.» Police report dated 22 June 1955 and relayed by commissioner Rafael C. Pugliese to President Juan Domingo Perón.
^Di Pietro, Secretario General de la CGT, convocó a los trabajadores a defender el gobierno. Los citó en la Plaza de Mayo. Lo hizo por radio, por cadena nacional. Unos minutos antes, los rebeldes habían tomado Radio Mitre. Desde allí emitieron una proclama en la que, entre otras cosas, decían que «el Tirano ha muerto». Rápidamente, la proclama fue desmentida. Una segunda oleada de bombardeos. Esta vez eran los Gloster Meteor. Los objetivos habían cambiado. Las bombas ya no cayeron sobre la Casa Rosada. La Plaza de Mayo, las bocas de subte y las avenidas aledañas fueron los objetivos. Ya habían empezado a llegar trabajadores citados imprudentamente por Di Pietro a la Plaza. Los trabajadores furiosos se dirigieron al Ministerio de Marina y lo atacaron a pedradas. Desde dentro, los rebeldes atrincherados les respondieron a los tiros. Seguía incrementándose la lista de bajas. La multitud vociferaba. En el Ministerio, los líderes rebeldes estaban sentados en el suelo: no quedaban ventanas con vidrios. Olivieri le preguntó a uno de sus asistentes qué gritaba la gente. «La vida por Perón», le contestaron. Olivieri, el que había iniciado el día mostrándose prescindente, el hombre de confianza del Presidente en la marina, contestó: «Vamos a darles el gusto». Las ráfagas de ametralladora arreciaron. La gente corría despavorida. Muchos cayeron. Una épica de los últimos instantes: Tratado de adioses. Epitafios. Estertores. Suspiros. Gestos postreros y palabras, Matías Bauso, p. 122, Grupo Editorial Argentina, 2012
^A la hora 14.10 se recibe comunicación telefónica del personal de observación, de que en Paseo Colón y Belgrano se iba reuniendo numerosos civiles, que llegaban en camiones principalmente, advirtiéndose densa humareda en las inmediaciones de la Casa del Gobierno... Cuando las informaciones generales indicaban que las fuerzas leales se hallaban cercando el reducto de los insurgentes en el Ministerio de Marina y que hasta las últimas habrían enarbolado bandera blanca de rendición, a la hora 15.00 sorpresivamente aparecen nuevos aviones que bombardean la Casa del Gobierno e inmediaciones, para luego ametrallar la misma zona en distintas evoluciones, causando gran cantidad de víctimas personales y graves daños materiales. Diseminados quedaron numerosos cadáveres de civiles, quienes encontraron la muerte mientras intentaban buscar refugio en los edificios contra las bombas y metralla. Los aviones se alejan, siempre ametrallando en picada, suponiéndose que volverían luego de reabastecerse de proyectiles. Informe Policial, fechado el 22 de junio de 1955 y remitido por el comisario Rafael C. Pugliese al Presidente Juan Domingo Perón
^Bombas sobre Buenos Aires: Gestación y desarollo del bombardeo aéreo sobre la Plaza de Mayo del 16 de junio de 1955, Daniel E. Cichero, p. 163, Vergara Grupo Zeta, 2005.
^Alfredo Aulicino, Rodolfo Nieto, José María Bacalja, Ramón Alderete and César Augusto Puchulu, according to p. 4 of the Clarín newspaper from 18 June 1955.
Cichero, Daniel (2005). Bombas sobre Buenos Aires. Gestación y desarrollo del bombardeo aéreo sobre Plaza de Mayo (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Vergara. ISBN950-15-2347-0.
Moreno, Isidoro Ruiz (2013). La Revolución del 55 (in Spanish). Claridad. ISBN978-950-620-336-8.
Portugheis, Elsa (2010). Bombardeo del 16 de junio de 1955(PDF) (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Secretaría de Derechos Humanos de la Nación Argentina.
Peronist militants and loyal Argentine Armed Forces
Anti-Peronist elements of the Armed Forces
