On March 24, 1976, a military junta led by General Jorge Rafael Videla seized power from President María Estela 'Isabel' Martínez de Perón in a coup that the United States had been quietly informed about in advance. Over the next seven years, the junta operated approximately 340 clandestine detention centers across Argentina. An estimated 30,000 people — students, journalists, trade unionists, priests, psychoanalysts, and the children of perceived opponents — were 'disappeared.' The single largest detention site, the Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), processed roughly 5,000 detainees, of whom approximately 90% were murdered. Some were drugged and dropped from naval aircraft into the Río de la Plata. Approximately 500 babies were taken from pregnant detainees and given to military families. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo — mothers and grandmothers in white headscarves — began circling the square in front of the presidential palace every Thursday from April 1977 demanding their children's return. The regime ended in December 1983 after the Falklands defeat. The Trial of the Juntas in 1985 convicted five top commanders, including Videla.
State & Intelligence Operations
1976-1983
