Leopoldo Galtieri

Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri was born on 15 July 1926 in Caseros, Buenos Aires Province to working-class Italian Argentine parents Francisco Rosario Galtieri and Nélida Victoria Castelli.[4] In 1943, at 17 years-old, he enrolled at the National Military Academy to study civil engineering, and his early military career was as an officer in the engineering branch of the Argentine Army. As well as rising through the ranks of the military, he continued his studies in engineering until the mid-1950s. In 1949 he graduated from the US Army School of the Americas.[5] In 1958, he became a professor of engineering at the Senior War College.[6]

Galtieri was married to Lucía Noemí Gentili, and the couple had one son and two daughters.[7]

In 1975, after more than 25 years as a combat engineer, Galtieri became commander of the Argentine engineering corps. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the March 1976 coup d'état that overthrew President Isabel Perón and started the self-styled National Reorganisation Process, the establishment of a right-wing military junta government in Argentina. This helped him rise through the ranks, becoming a major general in 1977, and commander-in-chief of the army in 1980 with the rank of lieutenant general. During the junta's rule, Congress was suspended, trade unions, political parties, and provincial governments were banned, and in what became known as the Dirty War, between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing subversives disappeared from society with torture and mass executions being commonplace. Argentina's economy had been in dire condition prior to the coup and recovered for a short time. An impending economic collapse was one of the main justifications for the overthrow of Perón and the civilian government.

In March 1981, Galtieri visited the United States and was warmly received, as the Reagan administration viewed the regime as a bulwark against communism. National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen described him as a "majestic general". An adherent to the Argentine military's Cold War-era doctrine of "ideological frontiers", Galtieri secured his country's support for Contra rebel groups opposing the Socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua during the Nicaraguan Revolution. In August, he sent advisers to help organize the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN, for a time the principal Contra group), as well as training FDN leaders in Argentine bases. His support for this initiative allowed Galtieri to remove a number of rival generals.

Galtieri on his first day as President of Argentina

On 22 December 1981, Galtieri was appointed President of Argentina one week after ousting General Roberto Viola, who had been in power since March. Officially Viola resigned due to a health issue and designated Interior Minister Horacio Liendo as his successor. In reality, Viola was removed from power due to his regime's inability to reverse the economic crisis which caused infighting within the military.

Galtieri retained direct control of the army whilst President of the governing Military Junta and did not appoint a new commander-in-chief.[8]

Political policy

Galtieri in the Casa Rosada

Galtieri instituted limited political reforms which allowed the expression of dissent, and anti-junta demonstrations soon became common, as did agitation for a return to democracy.[9]

Falklands War

See also: Falklands War

Galtieri in the Falkland Islands

By April 1982, Galtieri had been in office for four months and his popularity was low.[15] On 2 April, on his orders, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands, a United Kingdom territory subject to a long-standing Argentine claim.

Initially the invasion was popular in Argentina, and the anti-junta demonstrations were replaced by patriotic demonstrations in support of Galtieri.

Galtieri and most of his government mistakenly believed the United Kingdom would not respond militarily.[16][13]

The British government led by the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands militarily if Argentina refused to comply with a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate Argentine withdrawal. Argentina did not comply with the resolution which resulted in a surrender to British forces on 14 June 1982.

On 14 June 1982, the Falklands' capital, Stanley, was retaken by British forces. The fact that an administration ruled by military figures failed to contain the British armed response provoked an unprecedented crisis inside the Junta. Galtieri was blamed for the defeat and was removed from power, and he spent the next 18 months at a well-protected country retreat while democracy was restored to Argentina. Along with other members of the former junta, he was arrested in late 1983 and charged in a military court with human rights violations during the Dirty War and with mismanaging the Falklands War. The Argentine Army's internal investigation, known as the Rattenbach report after the general who led it,[17] recommended that those responsible for the misconduct of the war be prosecuted under the Code of Military Justice.[18] In 1986 he was sentenced to twelve years in prison.[19]

Galtieri was cleared of the civil rights charges in December 1985, but (together with the Air Force and Navy commanders-in-chief) in May 1986 he was found guilty of mishandling the war and sentenced to prison. All three appealed in a civil court, and the prosecution appealed for heavier sentences. In November 1988 the original sentences were confirmed, and all three commanders were stripped of their rank. In 1989, Galtieri and 39 other officers of the dictatorship received President Carlos Menem's pardon.[20]

Galtieri was heavily blamed for Argentina's defeat in the Falklands War. Following his release from prison, he moved to the Villa Devoto suburb of Buenos Aires, and lived modestly with his wife Lucía. He became a recluse and refused most requests for interviews by journalists, though in a rare interview he stated he had "no regrets" over anything he had done during the Dirty War. He lived on an army pension of 9,000 pesos per month, and attempted to claim a Presidential pension, but a judge denied it. In her ruling, the judge stated that his presidency had been illegal due to his never having been elected, and she also ordered him to pay court costs. In May 2002, he was invited to the military parade of the Argentine Army for the celebrations of Argentine Army Day (Día del Ejército Argentino): the presence of the former "president de facto" caused a huge controversy in public opinion after he was confronted and questioned by the journalist Martín Ciccioli in the television programme Kaos en la Ciudad.

In July 2002, new civil charges were brought concerning the kidnapping of children and the disappearance of 18 leftist sympathizers in the late 1970s (while Galtieri was commander of the Second Army Corps), and the disappearance or death of three Spanish citizens at about the same time. Galtieri faced prosecution with 28 other officials, but due to his poor health, he was allowed to remain at home.[21][22]

Leopoldo Galtieri underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer on 16 August 2002 at a hospital in Buenos Aires. He died there of a heart attack on 12 January 2003, aged 76.[23] His body was interred in a small mausoleum at La Chacarita Cemetery.