In an interview for Zoom, Camilo Ratti, author of the book «Cachorro: Vida y muertes de Luciano Benjamín Menéndez», reveals the roots of internal military polarization and how it translates into current discussions.
One of the biggest revelations in the book is Menéndez's frustrated attempt to stage a coup in 1979 against the Videla-Viola duo. General Santiago himself, Menéndez's second-in-command, confessed to me: «This was not a war, it was a hunt». Even after being expelled from the army for this rebellion, he remained highly respected within its ranks; in fact, he was useful to Videla as a «political stopper» against the actions of Massera.
After his expulsion, Menéndez began to align with the civil economic sector, which had a more productivist profile. Menéndez held anti-Chilean sentiments and considered the Argentine Army invincible, despite never having faced a real battle since Independence, except for Julio Argentino Roca's campaigns to eliminate indigenous peoples. He confronted a more combative, honest unionism that sought social transformation.
When the Dictatorship failed to meet expectations, Menéndez positioned himself as a voice from the interior, supported by the Fundación Mediterránea, Córdoba's economic group. He believed Argentina occasionally needed a conflict to build the national identity. In his book, Ratti states that «Menéndez insisted on the elimination of workers as a factor of power».
Later, everything got out of hand with the Falklands/Malvinas War, as the Dictatorship was falling apart. However, central to the story is Menéndez's frustrated attempts to pressure Videla into declaring war against Pinochet's Chile during the Beagle conflict. Menéndez was a fascist in military terms but liberal in economics, just like Videla.
In 1981, Menéndez founded the Movement for Action for Sovereignty (MAS), where he believed he could be a candidate for these economic sectors to govern Córdoba. Ratti points out that the labor reform proposals that were later approved were actually put forward by Menéndez in 1981.
The author criticizes historians Agustín Laje and Nicolás Márquez for using certain misguided or frustrated guerrilla actions to build a narrative of a war that never existed. He believes that today's youth on the new right, who echo Menéndez's anti-communist rhetoric, lack knowledge of their own history. They were born into democracy and do not know what happened in the past.
Ratti argues that state terrorism is directly proportional to the popular power built up to 1975. The Dictatorship's main goal was not to target armed organizations, but to destroy all popular organizations. To achieve this, they had to resort to an atrocious level of repression. The powerful union movement in 1970s Argentina was unique in Latin America, and this was a primary reason for the military coup.
