Roberto Eduardo Viola (13 October 1924 – 30 September 1994) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

military officer who served as the 43rd

President of Argentina The president of Argentina, officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation, is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Argentina, the national constitution, the president is also the Head of go ...

and the 2nd President of the National Reorganization Process from 29 March to 11 December 1981 as a military dictator.

Early life

He was born as Roberto Eduardo Viola on 13 October 1924. His parents were

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

immigrants Angelo Viola and Rosa Maria Prevedini, both from Casatisma, a town in the

Province of Pavia The province of Pavia () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is Pavia. , the province has a population of 548,722 inhabitants and an area of ; the town of Pavia has a population of 72,205. History T ...

Presidency (1981)

After

Jorge Rafael Videla Jorge Rafael Videla ( ; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and the ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981, during the National Reorganization Process. His rule, which was during the time of Operati ...

left office, Viola formally assumed the post of

Economic policy

Viola appointed Lorenzo Sigaut as finance minister, and it became clear that Sigaut were looking for ways to reverse some of the economic policies of Videla's minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz. Notably, Sigaut abandoned the sliding

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

mechanism and devalued the

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several Hispanophone, Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol com ...

, after boasting that "they who gamble on the

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...

, will lose". Argentines braced for a recession after the excesses of the ''sweet money'' years, which destabilized Viola's position.''La nueva política económica argentina se basa en la modificación del esquema de cambios de la moneda. Según Lorenzo Sigaut, el nuevo ministro de Economía ''
El País, reproducción del artículo publicado el 8 de abril de 1981. Viola priorities were economic recovery and greater political freedom for Argentina. He intends to combat the problems of inflation, an overvalued peso, and the balance of payments by continuing the previous administration's policy of encouraging a liberal economy dominated by private enterprises. Viola was also the victim of infighting within the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

. After being replaced as Navy chief, Eduardo Massera started looking for a political space to call his own, even enlisting the enforced and unpaid services of political prisoners held in concentration camps by the regime. The mainstream of the Junta's support was strongly opposed to Massera's designs and to any attempt to bring about more "

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

" economic policies.

Foreign policy

Argentina-United States relations improved dramatically with the

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

administration, which asserted that the previous

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

had weakened US diplomatic relationships with

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

allies in Argentina and reversed the previous administration's official condemnation of the junta's

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

practices. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties allowed for

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service in arming and training the Nicaraguan

Contras In the history of Nicaragua, the Contras (Spanish: ''La contrarrevolución'', the counter-revolution) were the right-wing militias who waged anti-communist guerilla warfare (1979–1990) against the Marxist governments of the Sandinista Na ...

against the

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...

government. The 601 Intelligence Battalion, for example, trained Contras at Lepaterique base, in Honduras. Argentina also provided security advisors, intelligence training and some material support to forces in

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El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

to suppress local rebel groups as part of a U.S.-sponsored program called

Operation Charly Operation Charly () was allegedly the code-name given to a program during the 1970s and 1980s undertaken by the junta in Argentina with the objective of providing military and counterinsurgency assistance to right-wing dictatorships and insurge ...

."Los secretos de la guerra sucia continental de la dictadura"
Clarín, March 24, 2006

Ousted in a coup

Viola found his maneuvering space greatly reduced, and was ousted by a military coup in December 1981, led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General

Leopoldo Galtieri Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli (15 July 1926 12 January 2003) was an Argentine military officer who served as the ''de facto'' President of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982. Galtieri ruled as a military dictator, military ruler d ...

, who soon became president. The official explanation given for the ousting was Viola's alleged health problems. Galtieri swiftly appointed

Roberto Alemann Roberto Alemann (December 22, 1922 – March 27, 2020) was an Argentine lawyer, economist, publisher, and academic. Twice Minister of Economy, he was also the Argentine ambassador to the United States and director of the traditional Argentine-Ge ...

as finance minister and presided over the build-up and pursuit of the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

Later years

After the collapse of the military regime and the election of

Raúl Alfonsín Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (; 12 March 1927 – 31 March 2009) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after the 7-yea ...

in 1983, Viola was arrested, judged for

violations committed by the military junta during the

Dirty War The Dirty War () is the name used by the military junta or National Reorganization Process, civic-military dictatorship of Argentina () for its period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and secu ...

, and sentenced to 17 years in prison. His health deteriorated in prison; Viola was pardoned by

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

in 1990 together with all junta members. He died on 30 September 1994, at age 69.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viola, Roberto Eduardo Acting presidents of Argentina 20th-century presidents of Argentina 1924 births 1994 deaths Politicians from Buenos Aires Military personnel from Buenos Aires Recipients of Argentine presidential pardons Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine generals Colegio Militar de la Nación alumni Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery 20th-century Argentine politicians Heads of government who were later imprisoned Argentine politicians convicted of crimes Grand Crosses of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru Leaders ousted by a coup Prisoners and detainees of Argentina