'Violence is nothing new in Argentine politics, but it has now reached proportions that are staggering even by local standards. Last Sunday night terrorists scattered more than 50 bombs round Buenos Aires, mainly at automobile showrooms, banks and financial companies. Two men, including a policeman who was trying to dismantle a bomb when it exploded, were killed and several others wounded. Next night, before the city had recovered from the first onslaught, 60 more bombs were planted. Earlier that day the bullet-riddled body of Atilio López, a leftist labor leader and former provincial vice governor, was discovered along a highway 45 miles from the capital. The following afternoon Alejandro Bartosch, a police physician, was shot to death as he stood in front of his home.
Since Aug. 1 the toll from both left-and right-wing terrorism has averaged one death every 19 hours, and it is rising steadily. That chilling statistic is only one sign of Argentina's turmoil. Late last week two members of one of Argentina's richest families, Juan and Jorge Born, were kidnaped by left-wing guerrillas in the Buenos Aires suburb of La Lucila while a trainload of commuters looked on in horror.
Strange Bedfellows. In large part, the wave of violence is a consequence of President Juan Perón's death on July 1. When his widow Isabel succeeded him as President, her most pressing task was to maintain some semblance of unity among the diverse political factions that had supported her husband. Peronism had always been more of a personality cult than a cohesive political ideology. With El Lider gone, the danger was that his followers, who ranged from conservative businessmen to radical students and unionists, would realize what impossibly strange bedfellows they made. The inevitable splintering of the Peronist movement, whose fundamental divisions were clear long before Perón died, was briefly forestalled by a period of intense national mourning that united Argentines. As the current violence attests, the widow's "honeymoon" is now definitely over.
Earlier this month the Montoneros, a leftist guerrilla organization that helped return Perón to power in 1973, accused Isabel of "harboring imperialists and oligarchs" and then declared war on her government. Issuing their "War Communiqué No. 1" at a clandestine press conference, the Montoneros threatened a terrorist campaign of arson, assassination, sabotage and bombing. As a chilling reminder of their past exploits, they also released a detailed report of how they kidnaped former President Pedro Eugenic Aramburu in 1970, stuffed him into a truckload of hay, and transported him to a ranch outside Buenos Aires, where he was summarily tried, sentenced and executed. Although the Montoneros are not the sole purveyors of Argentine violence, they are widely believed to be responsible for most of the recent bombings.