Speeches infiltrated in the novels of Andrea del Boca and attacks against businessmen and officials: 40 years after the "counter-offensive" of Montoneros

-Our people can fight in the most diverse circumstances. The goal is to roll back the dictatorship. We demand that elections be called and the only option for triumph is to build a national front.

We are in 1978 and the fragment is part of "Resist", kind of long documentary interview elaborated by the montonera dome from exile, with texts of Juan Gelman and led by Jorge Cedrón.

Firmenich's call for a "Resistance of the Argentine people" in short, it was part of a new political strategy: the counteroffensive of Montonera.

The political diagnosis of Montoneros was that the army, after more than three years of fierce repression, was facing a crisis of social legitimacy..

It was then that the leadership decided that the members who were exiled and others who were still in the country were recruited for a new job. The order distributed in an internal document: "To carry out direct and propaganda actions in Argentina between 1979 and 1980".

But the The intelligence service of the army followed his movements and undertook a plan of action to neutralize the mission. Near 600 militants montoneros They joined the counteroffensive and many rallied to the crackdown even though another good part of them were kidnapped, tortured and killed. Others continue faded away

They spent 40 years on this and next Tuesday, in front of the San Martin Federal Oral Court No. 1, the trial will begin with "Counter-offensive Montonera", as we call it in the file. On the bench, there will be 9 repressors accused of unlawful deprivation of liberty, torment and murder against 94 victims.. And the crimes were labeled as crimes of humanity "for being committed as part of a plan of systematic repression of the state apparatus".

To concretize the counter-offensive, the self describes Army of Montonero planned to regroup its most active members into two units: TEI Special troops of infantry-, a command group formed in southern Lebanon "intended to conduct armed operations in the country"; and the TEA Special agitation, press and indoctrination – which have been recorded in propaganda tasks.

L & # 39; historian Hernán Confino He did his doctoral thesis on this subject and thinks it was the last move of Montoneros in his vanguard party strategy. "The counter-offensive is a stage of the Chinese revolutionary guerrilla, inspired by the writings of Mao Tse-Tung, and Montoneros adopts it"explains to Infobae.

For Confino, it is impossible to understand the counteroffensive without understanding what happened in exile. "The montonera hierarchy was exiled and launched a call from its 78 in their political centers in Mexico and Spain, and then began the training phase, which was held in the East by arrangements with the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine"

Propaganda consisted of the distribution of leaflets and pamphlets and, above all, interfere clandestinely with higher rated television signals, such as the novels in which Andrea del Boca played and the Copa Libertadores matches.

While the spectators were sitting in the armchair of their homes, suddenly the transmission was interrupted and the Peronist march sounded with the speeches of the leaders of Montonero. "The aim was to destroy the history of the dictatorship, which said that the fight against subversion had been a resounding success.The counteroffensive, in this sense, is Montoneros' latest attempt to penetrate into society and to say "we are active, no we are dying and we will lead them on the path of liberation. "

The first part of Montonera's counteroffensive was a failure: This resulted in the arrest of most militants who had tried to reorganize themselves inside the country. Conduction evaluated the following steps. It was decided that those entering the country should take advantage of the summer tourist flow via the borders of Brazil, Paraguay, Chile (via Mendoza and Bariloche) and Uruguay.

The second litter has successfully infiltrated the country with greater success. There develops the main activity of agitation and propaganda, they manage to distribute the book Montoneros, the path of liberation and activists start having meetings with shop stewards to demand marches and strikes. As well Armed actions are planned.

A euphoric Firmenich speaks of Nicaragua, in the fire of the Sandinista revolution"The triumph of the Sandinista National Liberation Front's offensive is also the triumph of the popular counteroffensive that has just begun in our country."

At the end of 1979, The military objective of Montoneros was to attack members of the economic cabinet of José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz. However, attacks on officials Juan Alemann and Guillermo Klein did not prosper like the employer Francisco Pío Soldati, killed by a machine gun.

It was the last act: in 1980, the Montoneros abandoned the armed struggle.

"The counteroffensive marks the end of the montonero projecteven there were internal dissidents, "badyzes the historian Hernán Confino.This does not mean that it was the madness of their leaders, but that it was part of the repertoires of political action We do not forget that in 1976 they created a Leninist party, maybe it's better to understand the leader's words. Roberto Perdíawho said something like "we found the diagnosis, but not with the recipes". Anyway, it's a defeat. And a certainty: the repressive apparatus of the dictatorship remained firm"

According to the prosecutor Gabriela Sosti, the trial that begins Tuesday will mark a before and after historical interpretation.

"In the first place, it is to rethink the myth of the counter-offensive, because there is a social rigged to consider it as a delusion," he said during a dialogue with Infobae– The victims' world not only reaches those who have been murdered or disappeared, but we will also have surviving witnesses and great documentary evidence that proves the agile and effective organization of the dictatorship's intelligence structure with a view to extermination. The other myth to demolish is that, around 1980, the dictatorship was released in its repressive face and this is not true ".

One of the most important cases is the Noemí Gianneti from Molfino, kidnapped in Peru and murdered in Madrid. On the night of June 17, 1980, three of the Montoneros members who had been kidnapped in Lima by the 601 Intelligence Battalion of the Argentine Army were delivered by the Peruvian Intelligence Police at the Desaguadero Border Station, Bolivia . Noemí was 55 years old, six child activists and was temporarily in Lima as part of a Montoneros support network. Between his abduction – that day in Peru – and his badbadination – in a hotel in Madrid on July 21, 1980 – there is a network of joints between the Armed Forces and the governments of Argentina, Peru and Spain..

"We want to know who killed her, but also who concealed the crime"says his son Gustavo Molfino, plaintiff in the case. State terrorism hit his family long before his mother's death. One of Naomi's main efforts was that in October 1979 a military gang abducted her daughter Marcela Molfino and her husband Guillermo Amarilla, militants of Montoneros who had also participated in the counter-offensive, of which he had not had more news. Marcela was pregnant for one month at the time of her abduction. In 2009 The grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have found their son, Guillermo Amarilla Molfino, the grandson restored 98.

As part of the counter-offensive, Noemi Molfino had been one of the organizers of a network protecting Montoneros militants abroad. After her abduction, she was taken to Madrid, as part of a propaganda campaign of the dictatorship aimed at discrediting the allegations of disappearance in Argentina. However, They poisoned her at a hotel in the Spanish capital. At the door of the room, his killers had placed the "Do not disturb" sign.

Another story that resonates is that of Monica Pinus from Binstock. At the end of the 70s, the militant couple of Montonero composed of Monica Pinus and Edgardo Binstock They lived in exile in Cuba. He was responsible for kindergarten who took care of Montonero's activist children – the documentary "Nursery", directed by Virginia Croatto, daughter of militant montonero Armando Croatto, who participated in the counter-offensive and was badbadinated in 1979, illustrates this period. She was responsible for the babies. Then the Montoneros dome ordered them to go to Brazil as part of the counter-offensive. Monica was kidnapped in Brazil when she returned to the country in 1980 and is still missing.

"We had doubts about the operation, but we had to organize and on the other hand We have seen that the dictatorship was in crisis with the first strikes of 1979 and stifled by the international pressure. There was also the Sandinista struggle in Nicaragua, "he recalls now. Edgardo Binstockwhile waiting for the trial.

After his stay in Cuba, Binstock was the first to arrive in Brazil. Monica traveled with Horacio Domingo Campiglia, another leader of the organization. When they got off, they were surprised by the Brazilian army. They were separated from the rest of the pbadengers and, despite their resistance, were handed over to the 601 Battalion repressors. They were taken on another plane bound for Argentina. The repressive plan had been a logistical success.

The detainees of the counter-offensive were transferred to Campo de Mayo, which served as a center of extermination.. They were there with others 40 people abducted.

According to data from the forensic anthropology team, the dictatorship killed more than 80 activists – Between murdered and missing – who had returned to participate in the counter-offensive between 1979 and 1980. Monica Pinus It was one of them

And stories with less cinematic actors, but that was curiously caught on the giant screen, is that of Benjamín Ávila, who realized "Clandestine childhood" based on your own story. Son of a mother in a relationship with a high command of Montonero, Horacio Mendizábal, He was a child when he returned with them to Argentina for the so-called counter-offensive: his mother had disappeared, his partner had been murdered, his younger brother was appropriate and he had been raised by his father in Tucumán.

"If we were today in the mid-1980s, there would be about 48 people to investigate, not just nine, because all the people in the staff structure would be alive," he said. ;lawyer. Pablo Llonto, representative of the complaint.

The imputed repressors were part of the hierarchy of the army: Jorge Apa, former head of intelligence division "Subversive Terrorist", attached to the Department of the Interior of IInd Intelligence Headquarters; Roberto Dambrosiformer head of the Psychological Activities Company of Intelligence Battalion 601; Raúl Pascual Muñoz, former head of the personnel department (G1) of the General Staff of the Command of the Military Institutes; Jorge Banoformer head of the Operations Division of the Intelligence Department (G2) of the Military Institutes Command; Eduardo Aschieriformer head of the plans division of the intelligence department (G2) of the command of the military institutes; Carlos Casuccioformer second chief of the 201 intelligence detachment of the General Staff of the Command of Military Institutes; Luis Firpo, Former head of the Counterintelligence Center and Head of the Security Division of Intelligence Battalion 601; Marcelo Cinto Courtalsformer chief of the first section of the 201 detachment of the intelligence of the General Staff of the command of military institutes; and Alberto Sotomayor, former head of the second section of the detachment 201 Intelligence Command Military Institutes. The last two were fugitives for years.

According to Llonto, it is a small part of a larger group of direct and indirect perpetrators of the Army, Federal Police and the Province of Buenos Aires .

During the counter-offensive, there were two cases of appropriate children treated in other files. "This is the first test and other instructions are already in place. Judge Ariel Lijo he had dictated 9 perpetual against repressors, in a written lawsuit, but it is the first time that an oral trial takes place, with a global cause which is a detachment of the Megacausa of Campo de Mayo. "

The complaint mentions a document that shows how the army focused its action on the counter-offensive: the history of repressor Eduardo Francisco Stigliano.

In an administrative complaint, The soldier recounted how he was ordered to kill the prisoners, inject them with deadly drugs and wrap the bodies in nylon to throw them into the river. On the basis of this testimony, the operations of May Field's Special Operations Section, which participated in the suppression of the counteroffensive, were reconstructed.

The expectation of relatives – who for decades have conducted an investigation with exhaustive work – is that there is not only justice and reparation for the victims, but the veil of what the Montonera counteroffensive actually meant should be lifted.

"When he Judge Claudio Bonadio ordered the arrest of Perdía, Firmenich and Vaca Narvaja, it was established that the theory that the conduct was responsible for the death of the militants – says Llonto -. It was nonsense that justice itself rejected. The counter-offensive had to do with a phase of resistance to dictatorship. Only 20% were armed actions. Of the more than 600 people who participated, they could only capture 100, although among those who were abducted there was little survival. The brutality of the dictatorship was total ".