Argentina’s Montoneros Movement

In the 1960s and 1970s,radical social movements reached their climax around the world,of which Latin America was not an exception.Under the Cold War,the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for Latin America intensified the turbulence of the situation in Latin America,and promoted the radical youth in Latin America to copy the advanced experience of Cuba and launch various forms of social movements and guerrilla movements.These radical ideas were not only derived from the evolution of international geopolitics,but also related to the political and social situation of Latin American countries.The outbreak of a large number of social movements in Argentina led some radical youth to judge that the country was provided conditions for revolution and chose the road of armed revolution.Among them,Montoneros is one of the largest radical resistance movements.The resistance movement of Montoneros was born in the political culture of Argentina which this paper investigates from the following aspects:First of all,the Renovated Catholicism’s social network became their initial gathering space,and the Renovated Catholic thoughts provided them with a tool to interpret the reality and promoted them to make revolutionary justification.Secondly,Montoneros chose the political identity of Peronism,inherited the Peronist political culture and obtained great mobilization ability.However,the Peronism they chose deviated from the peronist movement and Peron himself,which eventually led to the conflict within the peronist movement.Thirdly,the brutal suppression of the military government led to the failure of Montoneros,but Montoneros’ misjudgment of the revolutionary condition and the country’s military capability as well as the lack of political organization capability were also important reasons for their failure.Finally,after the democratic government of Argentina came into power,the definition of the membership of Montoneros became a topic debated by all sectors of the society and highlighted the core characteristics of the contradiction between left and right in Argentine politics and society.Based on Montoneros’ core publications,the former members interview and main leaders’memoirs,the military junta’s internal intelligence archives etc,this thesis reconstructs the whole history of the movement including the rise of the movement,organization and expansion,exile,counter-offensive and failure by combining multiple angels of research such as the Global 60s,the Cold War plus political and social structure of the specific case country,organization network,subjective thought and motivation.It outlines the political culture with the Argentine characteristic from the movement.A historical study of Montoneros movement helps to understand the logic of Argentina’s current politics.