The new
Minister of Economy, Adalbert Krieger Vasena in December 1966 inaugurated a period that would last until May 1969, characterized by the absence of a well-organized and unified civil opposition.
Krieger Vasena, decreed a wage freeze and a 40% devaluation, which weakened the
economy – in particular the agricultural sector – and favored foreign capital. Vasena suspended
collective labour conventions, reformed the "hydrocarbons law" which had established a partial monopoly of the
Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) state firm, and passed a law facilitating the
eviction of tenants over their non-payment of domestic rent. Finally, the
right to strike was suspended (Law 16,936) and several other laws passed reversing previous progressive
labor legislation (reducing retirement age, etc.). The workers' movement divided itself between Vandoristas, who supported a "
Peronism without
Perón" line (
Augusto Vandor, leader of the
General Confederation of Labour, declared that "to save Perón, one has to be against Perón") and advocated negotiation with the junta, alongside "Participationists" headed by
José Alonso, and Peronists, who formed the
General Confederation of Labour of the Argentines (CGTA) in 1968 and were opposed to any kind of participation with the military junta. Perón himself, from his exile in
Francoist Spain, maintained a cautious and ambiguous line of opposition to the regime, rejecting both the endorsement and open confrontation.
Cultural and education policies , one of the most notorious episodes of the "Argentine Revolution", was an attack by the dictatorship (using police violence) against
University of Buenos Aires' professors, teachers, students and faculty members, which led both to international condemnation of the dictatorship and a massive migration of Argentine intellectuals, professionals and scholars abroad. Onganía ended university autonomy, which had been achieved by the
University Reform of 1918. He was responsible for the July 1966
La Noche de los Bastones Largos ("The Night of the Long Truncheons"), where university autonomy was violated, in which he ordered police to invade the Faculty of Sciences of the
University of Buenos Aires. They beat up and arrested students and professors. The university repression led to the exile of 301 university professors, among whom were
Manuel Sadosky,
Tulio Halperín Donghi,
Sergio Bagú, and Risieri Frondizi. Onganía also ordered repression on all forms of "immoralism", proscribing
miniskirts,
long hair for young men, and all
avant-garde artistic movements. This moral campaign alienated the middle classes, who were massively present in
universities.
Change of direction of the Armed Forces Towards the end of May 1968, General
Julio Alsogaray dissented from Onganía, and rumors spread about a possible coup d'état, with Algosaray leading the opposition to Onganía. At the end of the month Onganía dismissed the leaders of the Armed Forces:
Alejandro Lanusse replaced Julio Alsogaray, Pedro Gnavi replaced Benigno Varela, and Jorge Martínez Zuviría replaced Adolfo Alvarez.
Increasing protests On 19 September 1968, two important events affected Revolutionary Peronism.
John William Cooke, former personal delegate of Perón, an ideologist of the Peronist Left and friend of
Fidel Castro, died from natural causes. On the same day a group of 13 men and one woman who aimed at establishing a
foco in
Tucumán Province, in order to head the resistance against the junta, was captured; among them was Envar El Kadre, then a leader of the
Peronist Youth. '', May–June 1969 In 1969, the
CGT de los Argentinos (led by
Raimundo Ongaro) headed protest movements, in particular the
Cordobazo, as well as other movements in
Tucumán,
Santa Fe and
Rosario (
Rosariazo). While Perón managed a reconciliation with Augusto Vandor, he followed, in particular through the voice of his delegate Jorge Paladino, a cautious line of opposition to the military junta, criticizing with moderation the neoliberal policies of the junta but waiting for discontent inside the government ("
hay que desensillar hasta que aclare", said Perón, advocating patience). Thus, Onganía had an interview with 46 CGT delegates, among them Vandor, who agreed on "participationism" with the military junta, thus uniting themselves with the
Nueva Corriente de Opinión headed by
José Alonso and Rogelio Coria. In December 1969, more than 20 priests, members of the
Movement of Priests for the Third World (MSTM), marched on the
Casa Rosada to present to Onganía a petition pleading him to abandon the eradication plan of
villas miserias (shanty towns). The same year, the MSTM issued a declaration supporting Socialist revolutionary movements, which led the
Catholic hierarchy, by the voice of
Juan Carlos Aramburu, coadjutor
archbishop of Buenos Aires, to proscribe priests from making political or social declarations. Various armed actions, headed by the
Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación (FAL), composed by former members of the
Revolutionary Communist Party, occurred in April 1969, leading to several arrests among FAL members. These were the first left-wing
urban guerrilla actions in Argentina. Beside these isolated actions, the
Cordobazo uprising of 1969, called forth by the CGT de los Argentinos, and its Cordobese leader,
Agustín Tosco, prompted demonstrations in the entire country. The same year, the
People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) was formed as the military branch of the Trotskyist
Workers' Revolutionary Party, leading an armed struggle against the dictatorship. ==Levingston's rule (1970–71)==