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Emilio Eduardo Massera

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Emilio Eduardo Massera
Born(1925-10-19)19 October 1925
Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina
Died8 November 2010(2010-11-08) (aged 85)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
AllegianceArgentina Argentina
Service / branch Argentine Navy
Years of service1946–1978
Rank Admiral (pre-1991 epaulette)
Spouse(s)Delia Vieyra[1]
Children5
Signature

Emilio Eduardo Massera (19 October 1925 – 8 November 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2[2] (also known as Propaganda Due), a clandestine Masonic lodge involved in Italy's strategy of tension. Many considered Massera to have masterminded the junta's Dirty War against political opponents, which resulted in over 30,000 deaths and disappearances.[3][4]

Biography

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Emilio Massera was born in Paraná, Entre Ríos, to Paula Padula and Emilio Massera, grandson of immigrants from Switzerland.[5] Massera entered Argentina's Naval Military School in 1942, obtaining his commission as a midshipman in 1946. In June 1955, as a Frigate Captain and one of the aids to the Minister or the Navy, he may have been involved in the bombing of Plaza de Mayo.[6] After the Revolución Libertadora in 1955, Massera entered the Naval Information Service.[2] During his career he occupied different positions within the Navy, including command of the sail training ship ARA Libertad and command of the Sea Fleet in 1973. On December 6th, 1973, Massera was designated General Commander of the Argentine Navy by Decree 552, signed by President Perón and Minister Angel F. Robledo (published on the Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina on December 13th), and, on August 23rd, 1974 he was promoted to full Admiral by Decree Nr. 612, signed by President María Estela Martínez de Perón and Minister José López Rega.[citation needed]. On June 15th, 1974, he, along with the commanders of the Army and the Air Force, accompanied then-Vice President Isabel Perón to Italy and Spain, where she met with Francisco Franco. [7]

Between 1976 and 1978 Admiral Massera was part, together with Jorge Rafael Videla and Orlando Ramón Agosti, of the military junta that deposed President Isabel Perón and ruled Argentina de facto during the National Reorganization Process. In September 1978 Massera stepped down from the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and from his seat in the Military Junta. In 1981 he travelled to Bucharest, Romania.[2]

After the end of the dictatorship in 1983, he was tried for human rights violations and sentenced to life imprisonment and the loss of his military grade. However, on 29 December 1990, he was pardoned by then-President Carlos Menem. Massera was free until 1998 when he was imprisoned again pending an investigation of several instances of kidnapping and suppression of the identity of minors during his term, as well as orders of torture, execution, confinement in illegal detention centers, and drowning of prisoners.

He also explained the delivery of diplomatic passports to Licio Gelli, head of Propaganda Due, by stating that Gelli had "supported [us] in the struggle against subversion and the management of the image of Argentina abroad".[2] Massera was an active participant in the lodge, promoting Gelli's appointment as an economic advisor to Argentina.[8]

In 2004 he suffered a cerebrovascular accident caused by a burst aneurysm, and he was admitted in the Military Hospital of Buenos Aires. As a result of the stroke, Eduardo Massera was declared legally irresponsible because of insanity on 17 March 2005, and the cases against him were suspended.[citation needed]

Massera died on 8 November 2010 of a hemorrhagic stroke in the Hospital Naval of Buenos Aires.[9][10] The funeral was kept in secrecy to avoid escraches, and was attended by only 10 people, without any representation of the government or the armed forces.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Goni, Uki (10 November 2010). "Admiral Emilio Massera obituary". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d Viau, Susana; Tagliaferro, Eduardo (14 December 1998). "En el mismo barco". Pagina 12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 February 2020. Gelli prestó servicios de indudable mérito a la Argentina, más allá de sus problemas financieros. Nos apoyó en la lucha contra la subversión y nos apoyó en el manejo de la imagen Argentina en el exterior
  3. ^ "Emilio Massera dies at 85; member of Argentine junta that waged 'dirty war'". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  4. ^ Rey, Debora (11 August 2010). "Argentine coup leader Emilio Massera dies". NBC News. Retrieved 9 February 2020.[dead link‍]
  5. ^ Martyniuk, Claudio. "ESMA. Fenomenología de la desaparición". Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 29 April 2003. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  6. ^ Amato, Alberto (16 June 2024). "Bombas sobre Casa Rosada para matar a Perón: cientos de civiles muertos, el fracaso del golpe y el nacimiento de la grieta" (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  7. ^ Yofre, Juan Bautista "Tata" (16 June 2024). "El viaje de Isabel a España 15 días antes de la muerte de Perón y el Parkinson que Franco ya no podía disimular" (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  8. ^ Tognonato, Claudio (2015), Verbitsky, Horacio; Bohoslavsky, Juan Pablo (eds.), "The Hidden Italy Connection", The Economic Accomplices to the Argentine Dictatorship: Outstanding Debts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 339–350, ISBN 978-1-107-11419-7, retrieved 22 December 2024
  9. ^ "Emilio Massera - Obituary". The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 25 November 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  10. ^ "Murió Emilio Eduardo Massera". La Nación (in Spanish). 8 November 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  11. ^ De Vedia, Mariano (10 November 2010). "Inhumaron a Massera con la máxima reserva". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 February 2020.
Military offices
Preceded by Commander-in-chief of the Argentine Navy
6 September 1973 – 15 September 1978 		Succeeded by
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