Reynaldo Bignone
Encyclopedia
Reynaldo Benito Antonio Bignone (born January 21, 1928) is an Argentine
general who served as dictatorial President
of Argentina
from July 1, 1982 to December 10, 1983. In 2010, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the kidnapping
s, torture
, and murder
s of the Dirty War
.
in 1928. Enlisting in the Argentine Army
in 1947, he enrolled at the prestigious National War College, and was stationed in Spain
. Bignone returned to Argentina to be named head of the "General Viamontes" (6th) Infantry Regiment in 1964, and later directed the National War College. An August 1975 reshuffling of the Armed Forces High Command by President Isabel Martínez de Perón
resulted in the appointment of General Jorge Videla to the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. A quiet career military officer, Videla brought with him a number of protégés, among them Brigadier General Bignone, whom Videla named Secretary of the Joint Chiefs.
Worsening economic and security conditions helped trigger a March 24, 1976 coup d'état
against the hapless Mrs. Perón. The coup was welcomed by most Argentines at the time, following a wave of terrorism and kidnappings by leftist guerrilla groups, as well a by the far-right death squad
s of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. On March 28, Bignone led a regiment into the Alejandro Posadas Hospital in the western Buenos Aires suburb of Haedo. He converted a wing in the respected medical facility into his own personal "Chalet" (one of 340 detention centers
operated by Argentina's last dictatorship
). Just two days after the military coup and under his instructions, 36 members of the hospital's own staff were detained for presumably having links with the ultra-left, and three (Jacobo Chester, Jorge Roitman and Julio César Quiroga) disappeared and are presumbed to have been killed. His quiet administration of the facility earned him a promotion as head of "Area 480," a larger detention center in Argentina's most important military training base, the Campo de Mayo
; of the 4,000 prisoners detained at the facility during his 1976–78 tenure, 50 survived. He was made Director of Military Institutes by de facto President Videla in 1980.
Bignone retired from the Armed Forces following Videla's decision to transfer power to General Roberto Viola in March 1981. Presiding over the unraveling of dictatorship's economic policies
, the ailing Viola was replaced in December by General Leopoldo Galtieri
, the Army Chief of Staff and the junta leader closest to the Reagan Administration
in the United States
. Argentina's defeat by the United Kingdom
in the Falklands War
on June 16, 1982, however led not only to President Galtieri's resignation, but also to a power vacuum, wherein the Chiefs of Staff of all three services resigned. Bignone's association with Videla and his low profile before and after retirement helped secure him the Presidency on July 1, 1982.
, as head of the Argentine Central Bank. Dagnino Pastore canceled his predecessor's wage freeze (which had caused a 30% collapse in real wages) and attempted, with only partial success, to curb the growing wave of exports transacted outside official channels. This practice, designed to take full advantage of the rapidly plummeting peso
, deprived national coffers of foreign exchange and tax revenue on around 90% of Argentina's soy harvest, for instance (the fourth-largest in the World at the time). Central Bank President Cavallo inherited external and internal financial crises: the first owing to foreign debt installments twice Argentina's trade surplus in 1982 and the second the result of Central Bank Circular 1050. The policy, instituted in 1980, tied adjustable loan installment to the value of the US dollar in Argentina, which rose over tenfold in the year after March 1981. Forcing Argentine banks to write off billions in domestic business and mortgage loans (shattering lenders' confidence for years) and thousands of homeowners out of their homes, the Circular 1050 was rescinded by Cavallo days into his tenure. Cavallo also inherited a foreign debt installment guarantee program that shielded billions of private debt from the collapse of the peso, costing the treasury billions. Instituting controls over the facility, such as the indexation of payments, this move and the rescission of the Circular 1050 threw the banking sector against him and he and Dagnino Pastore were replaced in August. Bignone's new President of the Central Bank, Julio González del Solar, undid many of these controls, transferring billions more in private foreign debt to the Central Bank, though he stopped short of reinstating the hated "1050."
Uncomfortable with the media, Bignone's press statements were halting and laconic, leaving doubts as to the most pressing issue of the day: the imminent call for elections. His loosening of certain free speech restrictions also put his regime's unpopularity in evidence and the newsstands brimmed with satirical
publications. Perhaps the most memorable, Humór, had its January 1983 issue confiscated after Army
Chief of Staff, General Cristino Nicolaides, objected to caricaturist Andrés Cascioli's irreverent portrayals of the stodgy junta.
Six years of intermittent wage freezes had also left real wages close to 40% lower than during Mrs. Perón's rocky tenure, leading to growing labor unrest. Bignone's decision to restore limited rights of speech and assembly, including the right to strike, inevitably led to increased strike activity, particularly by Saúl Ubaldini
, the new leader of the reinstated CGT
, Argentina's largest labor union. Bignone's new Economy Minister, Jorge Wehbe
, a banking executive with previous experience in the post, reluctantly granted two large, mandatory wage increases in late 1982. Calls for immediate elections led, likewise, to frequent demonstrations at the President's executive offices, the Casa Rosada
. One such protest, on December 16, led to the death of a demonstrator, making the return to democracy practically inevitable.
Supportive of this solution, which he termed a "democratic way out," Bignone was opposed by the Army Chief, General Nicolaides, and other conservatives. Partly in response, Bignone decreed a blanket amnesty on April 28, 1983 for those involved in human rights abuses
(including himself). In statements made during his dour press statements, he conditioned the return to democracy by imposing limits to any future investigations of human rights violations that had taken place during the 1976-83 military dictatorship, as well as into allegations of insider trading, numerous extortion kidnappings and other corruption. Rejected by the majority of society, this proposal met with thunderous opposition from Raúl Alfonsín
, the head of the centrist UCR
's progressive wing. Drawing a contrast between his position and the lukewarm reproach by others in his own party and in other parties, Alfonsín, who had also opposed the Falklands War
when few others in Argentina did, earned his party's nomination in July. The hastily organized convention was called only days after Bignone publicly announced the scheduling of elections (to be held on October 30, three months after the announcement). The UCR's only important opposition, the Justicialist (Peronist) Party, was hamstrung by voters' memories of President Isabel Perón's chaotic two years in office and by internal friction that dragged their nominating process on by nearly two months.
The Argentine economy, which had recovered modestly following the July 1982 rescissions of prevailing wage freezes and the "Circular 1050," was saddled with foreign debt interest payments
of over US$4 billion, capital flight, budget deficits around 10% of GDP and a resulting rise in inflation: rising to 200% in 1982, it approached 400% in 1983. The peso in tatters (trading at 90,000 per US dollar by mid-1983), Economy Minister Jorge Wehbe trotted out a new currency in June, the peso argentino, to replace the worthless peso ley at 10,000 to one. This move secured him concessions from international creditors, but did not slow inflation, and the economy slipped back into recession during the second half of 1983.
Careful to avoid the appearance of endorsement of any one candidate (a mistake made by a previous dictator, Gen. Pedro Aramburu, in 1958), Bignone concerned himself with the marathon shredding of documents and other face-saving measures, such as generous new wage guidelines. The economy, which had contracted by around 12% in the eighteen months before he took office, managed a recovery of around 4% during Bignone's eighteen month term. Following a brief, though intense campaign and tight polls, election night
resulted in a decisive 12-point margin for the UCR's Alfonsín over Justicialist nominee Ítalo Lúder
, who, tied to repressive measures he signed in 1975, could not avoid suspicion of a gentlemen's agreement with Bignone for the sake of preventing future investigations.
Bignone in 1993 authored a reflection on his brief tenure, El último de facto (The Last Dictator), to condemnation over the book's marginalizing of Dirty War
abuses. He was again placed at the disposal of the courts in January 1999, after the reopening of trials for misappropriation of children. Under house arrest in October 2006, a consideration accorded him on account of his advanced age, he was arrested in March 2007 and taken into custody at a military base outside Buenos Aires as part of an investigation into past human rights abuses, including the atrocities at the Posadas Hospital and complicity in the trafficking of infants abducted from the roughly 500 pregnant women who were among the disappeared. These were ruled to have no statute of limitations owing their nature as crimes against humanity.
On 20 April 2010, Bignone was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 56 people, including guerrilla fighters, at the extermination center that worked in the Campo de Mayo
military complex.
On April, 2011, Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to life in prison.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
general who served as dictatorial President
President of Argentina
The President of the Argentine Nation , usually known as the President of Argentina, is the head of state of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.Through Argentine history, the...
of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
from July 1, 1982 to December 10, 1983. In 2010, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
s, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s of the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
.
Early career
Reynaldo Benito Antonio Bignone Ramayón was born in Morón, Buenos AiresMorón, Buenos Aires
Morón is a city in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires, capital of the Morón Partido, located in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, at...
in 1928. Enlisting in the Argentine Army
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army is the land armed force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of the country.- History :...
in 1947, he enrolled at the prestigious National War College, and was stationed in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Bignone returned to Argentina to be named head of the "General Viamontes" (6th) Infantry Regiment in 1964, and later directed the National War College. An August 1975 reshuffling of the Armed Forces High Command by President Isabel Martínez de Perón
Isabel Martínez de Perón
María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón , better known as Isabel Martínez de Perón or Isabel Perón, is a former President of Argentina. She was also the third wife of another former President, Juan Perón...
resulted in the appointment of General Jorge Videla to the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. A quiet career military officer, Videla brought with him a number of protégés, among them Brigadier General Bignone, whom Videla named Secretary of the Joint Chiefs.
Worsening economic and security conditions helped trigger a March 24, 1976 coup d'état
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
against the hapless Mrs. Perón. The coup was welcomed by most Argentines at the time, following a wave of terrorism and kidnappings by leftist guerrilla groups, as well a by the far-right death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. On March 28, Bignone led a regiment into the Alejandro Posadas Hospital in the western Buenos Aires suburb of Haedo. He converted a wing in the respected medical facility into his own personal "Chalet" (one of 340 detention centers
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
operated by Argentina's last dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
). Just two days after the military coup and under his instructions, 36 members of the hospital's own staff were detained for presumably having links with the ultra-left, and three (Jacobo Chester, Jorge Roitman and Julio César Quiroga) disappeared and are presumbed to have been killed. His quiet administration of the facility earned him a promotion as head of "Area 480," a larger detention center in Argentina's most important military training base, the Campo de Mayo
Campo de Mayo
Campo de Mayo is a military base located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, northwest of Buenos Aires.Campo de Mayo covers an area of and is one of the most important military bases in Argentina, including Argentine Army's:...
; of the 4,000 prisoners detained at the facility during his 1976–78 tenure, 50 survived. He was made Director of Military Institutes by de facto President Videla in 1980.
Bignone retired from the Armed Forces following Videla's decision to transfer power to General Roberto Viola in March 1981. Presiding over the unraveling of dictatorship's economic policies
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz was an Argentine executive and policy maker. He served as Minister of the Economy under de facto President Jorge Rafael Videla between 1976 and 1981, and shaped economic policy during the self-styled National Reorganization Process military dictatorship.-Early...
, the ailing Viola was replaced in December by General Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship . The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him...
, the Army Chief of Staff and the junta leader closest to the Reagan Administration
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Argentina's defeat by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
on June 16, 1982, however led not only to President Galtieri's resignation, but also to a power vacuum, wherein the Chiefs of Staff of all three services resigned. Bignone's association with Videla and his low profile before and after retirement helped secure him the Presidency on July 1, 1982.
Damage control
Inheriting international isolation and an economy hobbled by speculative losses and foreign debt exceeding US$40 billion, Bignone replaced Galtieri's conservative economic team with a moderate academic, Dr. José María Dagnino Pastore, as Minister of the Economy and a young, relatively unknown former adviser, Dr. Domingo CavalloDomingo Cavallo
Domingo Felipe "Mingo" Cavallo is an Argentine economist and politician. He has a long history of public service and is known for implementing the Convertibilidad plan, which fixed the dollar-peso exchange rate at 1:1 between 1991 and 2001, which brought the Argentine inflation rate down from over...
, as head of the Argentine Central Bank. Dagnino Pastore canceled his predecessor's wage freeze (which had caused a 30% collapse in real wages) and attempted, with only partial success, to curb the growing wave of exports transacted outside official channels. This practice, designed to take full advantage of the rapidly plummeting peso
Historical exchange rates of Argentine currency
The following table contains the monthly historical exchange rate of the different currencies of Argentina, expressed in Argentine currency units per United States dollar...
, deprived national coffers of foreign exchange and tax revenue on around 90% of Argentina's soy harvest, for instance (the fourth-largest in the World at the time). Central Bank President Cavallo inherited external and internal financial crises: the first owing to foreign debt installments twice Argentina's trade surplus in 1982 and the second the result of Central Bank Circular 1050. The policy, instituted in 1980, tied adjustable loan installment to the value of the US dollar in Argentina, which rose over tenfold in the year after March 1981. Forcing Argentine banks to write off billions in domestic business and mortgage loans (shattering lenders' confidence for years) and thousands of homeowners out of their homes, the Circular 1050 was rescinded by Cavallo days into his tenure. Cavallo also inherited a foreign debt installment guarantee program that shielded billions of private debt from the collapse of the peso, costing the treasury billions. Instituting controls over the facility, such as the indexation of payments, this move and the rescission of the Circular 1050 threw the banking sector against him and he and Dagnino Pastore were replaced in August. Bignone's new President of the Central Bank, Julio González del Solar, undid many of these controls, transferring billions more in private foreign debt to the Central Bank, though he stopped short of reinstating the hated "1050."
Uncomfortable with the media, Bignone's press statements were halting and laconic, leaving doubts as to the most pressing issue of the day: the imminent call for elections. His loosening of certain free speech restrictions also put his regime's unpopularity in evidence and the newsstands brimmed with satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
publications. Perhaps the most memorable, Humór, had its January 1983 issue confiscated after Army
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army is the land armed force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of the country.- History :...
Chief of Staff, General Cristino Nicolaides, objected to caricaturist Andrés Cascioli's irreverent portrayals of the stodgy junta.
Six years of intermittent wage freezes had also left real wages close to 40% lower than during Mrs. Perón's rocky tenure, leading to growing labor unrest. Bignone's decision to restore limited rights of speech and assembly, including the right to strike, inevitably led to increased strike activity, particularly by Saúl Ubaldini
Saúl Ubaldini
Saúl Edólver Ubaldini was an Argentine labor leader and parliamentarian for the Peronist Justicialist Party....
, the new leader of the reinstated CGT
General Confederation of Labour (Argentina)
The General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic is a national trade union centre of Argentina founded on September 27, 1930, as the result of the merge of the USA and the COA trade union centres...
, Argentina's largest labor union. Bignone's new Economy Minister, Jorge Wehbe
Jorge Wehbe
Jorge Wehbe was an Argentine lawyer and economist....
, a banking executive with previous experience in the post, reluctantly granted two large, mandatory wage increases in late 1982. Calls for immediate elections led, likewise, to frequent demonstrations at the President's executive offices, the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
. One such protest, on December 16, led to the death of a demonstrator, making the return to democracy practically inevitable.
Democratic way out
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
(including himself). In statements made during his dour press statements, he conditioned the return to democracy by imposing limits to any future investigations of human rights violations that had taken place during the 1976-83 military dictatorship, as well as into allegations of insider trading, numerous extortion kidnappings and other corruption. Rejected by the majority of society, this proposal met with thunderous opposition from Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
, the head of the centrist UCR
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
's progressive wing. Drawing a contrast between his position and the lukewarm reproach by others in his own party and in other parties, Alfonsín, who had also opposed the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
when few others in Argentina did, earned his party's nomination in July. The hastily organized convention was called only days after Bignone publicly announced the scheduling of elections (to be held on October 30, three months after the announcement). The UCR's only important opposition, the Justicialist (Peronist) Party, was hamstrung by voters' memories of President Isabel Perón's chaotic two years in office and by internal friction that dragged their nominating process on by nearly two months.
The Argentine economy, which had recovered modestly following the July 1982 rescissions of prevailing wage freezes and the "Circular 1050," was saddled with foreign debt interest payments
Latin American debt crisis
The Latin American debt crisis was a financial crisis that occurred in the early 1980s , often known as the "lost decade", when Latin American countries reached a point where their foreign debt exceeded their earning power and they were not able to repay it.-Origins:In the 1960s and 1970s many...
of over US$4 billion, capital flight, budget deficits around 10% of GDP and a resulting rise in inflation: rising to 200% in 1982, it approached 400% in 1983. The peso in tatters (trading at 90,000 per US dollar by mid-1983), Economy Minister Jorge Wehbe trotted out a new currency in June, the peso argentino, to replace the worthless peso ley at 10,000 to one. This move secured him concessions from international creditors, but did not slow inflation, and the economy slipped back into recession during the second half of 1983.
Careful to avoid the appearance of endorsement of any one candidate (a mistake made by a previous dictator, Gen. Pedro Aramburu, in 1958), Bignone concerned himself with the marathon shredding of documents and other face-saving measures, such as generous new wage guidelines. The economy, which had contracted by around 12% in the eighteen months before he took office, managed a recovery of around 4% during Bignone's eighteen month term. Following a brief, though intense campaign and tight polls, election night
Argentine general election, 1983
The Argentine general election of 1983 was held on 30 October and marked the return of Democracy after the 1976's dictatorship self-known as National Reorganization Process...
resulted in a decisive 12-point margin for the UCR's Alfonsín over Justicialist nominee Ítalo Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder was an Argentinian politician who served as the acting President of Argentina from September 13, 1975 until October 16, 1975, for Isabel Perón....
, who, tied to repressive measures he signed in 1975, could not avoid suspicion of a gentlemen's agreement with Bignone for the sake of preventing future investigations.
Epilogue
Presiding over a difficult six years, President Raúl Alfonsín advanced the Trial of the Juntas in 1985, proceedings which acquitted Bignone of responsibility, but left civil trials against him open. These, however, were precluded by decrees signed by Alfonsín himself in early 1987, the result of pressure from the Armed Forces.Bignone in 1993 authored a reflection on his brief tenure, El último de facto (The Last Dictator), to condemnation over the book's marginalizing of Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
abuses. He was again placed at the disposal of the courts in January 1999, after the reopening of trials for misappropriation of children. Under house arrest in October 2006, a consideration accorded him on account of his advanced age, he was arrested in March 2007 and taken into custody at a military base outside Buenos Aires as part of an investigation into past human rights abuses, including the atrocities at the Posadas Hospital and complicity in the trafficking of infants abducted from the roughly 500 pregnant women who were among the disappeared. These were ruled to have no statute of limitations owing their nature as crimes against humanity.
On 20 April 2010, Bignone was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 56 people, including guerrilla fighters, at the extermination center that worked in the Campo de Mayo
Campo de Mayo
Campo de Mayo is a military base located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, northwest of Buenos Aires.Campo de Mayo covers an area of and is one of the most important military bases in Argentina, including Argentine Army's:...
military complex.
On April, 2011, Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to life in prison.