Bombing of Plaza de Mayo
| Bombing of Plaza de Mayo | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
|
Anti-Peronist faction
| ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Juan Perón Franklin Lucero |
Samuel Toranzo Calderón Benjamín Gargiulo † Aníbal Olivieri | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
|
Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers Motorized Garrison Buenos Aires 1st Regiment 3rd Regiment Argentine Air Force |
Argentine Naval Aviation 7th Air Brigade 4th Naval Infantry Battalion elements of the Argentine Air Force | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
330 Mounted Grenadiers 4 aircraft 4 Sherman tanks Armed Peronist civilians |
700 marines 30–34 aircraft At least 875 civilian commandos | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
17 killed 55 wounded |
44 killed and wounded 3 aircraft shot down | ||||||||
| 156-308 civilians killedor more including 40 children that could not be identified | |||||||||
On 16 June 1955, 30 aircraft from the Argentine Navy and Air Force bombed and strafed Plaza de Mayo, the main square of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. The attack targeted the adjacent Casa Rosada, the seat of government, while a large crowd demonstrated in support of the president, Juan Perón. The strike took place during a day of official public demonstrations to condemn the burning of a national flag allegedly carried out by detractors of Perón during the recent Corpus Christi procession. The military reacted as a result of growing tension between Perón and his actions against the Roman Catholic Church. The action was to be the first step in an eventually aborted coup d'état. The number of identified bodies was put at 308, including six children, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history. Some victims could not be identified.
The heavy loss of civilian lives and the violence with which the act was carried out has prompted comparisons with the wave of state terrorism during the dictatorship of 1976–1983.