{{Short description|Argentine naval officer (1925–2010)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}} {{Infobox military person | name = Emilio Eduardo Massera | image = EmilioMassera1975.jpg | image_size = 250 | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1925|10|19}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2010|11|08|1925|10|19}} | burial_label = | burial_place = | birth_place = Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina | death_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | birth_name = | allegiance = {{flagicon|Argentina}} Argentina | branch = 15px Argentine Navy | service_years = 1946–1978 | rank = 25px Admiral (pre-1991 epaulette) | service_number = | unit = | commands = | known_for = Leader of the Military Junta from 24 March 1976 until 29 March 1976 with Jorge Rafael Videla and Orlando Ramón Agosti | battles = | battles_label = | awards = | spouse = Delia Vieyra<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/10/emilio-massera-obituary |title=Admiral Emilio Massera obituary |date=10 November 2010 |first=Uki |last=Goni |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=9 February 2020 |publisher=Guardian News & Media Limited}}</ref> | children = 5 | other_work = | signature = Firma de Emilio Massera.svg }}
'''Emilio Eduardo Massera''' (19 October 1925 – 8 November 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2<ref name=P12/> (also known as ''Propaganda Due''), a clandestine Masonic lodge involved in Italy's strategy of tension. Many considered Massera to have masterminded the junta's Dirty War against political opponents, which resulted in over 30,000 deaths and disappearances.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-emilio-massera-20101109,0,1279731.story |title=Emilio Massera dies at 85; member of Argentine junta that waged 'dirty war' |agency=Associated Press |date=9 November 2010 |access-date=9 February 2020 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/40077625 |title=Argentine coup leader Emilio Massera dies |first=Debora |last=Rey |date=11 August 2010 |access-date=9 February 2020 |work=NBC News}}{{dead link|date=August 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==Early life and military career==
Emilio Massera was born in Paraná, Entre Ríos, to Paula Padula and Emilio Massera, grandson of immigrants from Switzerland.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://catedras.fsoc.uba.ar/mari/Archivos/HTML/Martyniuk_ESMA.htm |title=ESMA. Fenomenología de la desaparición |language=es |access-date=9 February 2020 |first=Claudio |last=Martyniuk |work=Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires |archive-date=29 April 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030429075018/http://www.catedras.fsoc.uba.ar/mari/Archivos/HTML/Martyniuk_ESMA.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Massera entered Argentina's Naval Military School in 1942, obtaining his commission as a midshipman in 1946. In June 1955, as a Frigate Captain and one of the aids to the Minister or the Navy, he may have been involved in the bombing of Plaza de Mayo.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2024/06/16/bombas-sobre-casa-rosada-para-matar-a-peron-cientos-de-civiles-muertos-el-fracaso-del-golpe-y-el-nacimiento-de-la-grieta// |language=es |title=Bombas sobre Casa Rosada para matar a Perón: cientos de civiles muertos, el fracaso del golpe y el nacimiento de la grieta |first=Alberto |last=Amato|date=16 June 2024 |access-date=16 June 2024}}</ref> After the ''Revolución Libertadora'' in 1955, Massera entered the Naval Information Service.<ref name=P12>{{cite news |language=es |first1=Susana |last1=Viau |author-link=Susana Viau |first2=Eduardo |last2=Tagliaferro |url=http://www.pagina12.com.ar/1998/98-12/98-12-14/pag03.htm |title=En el mismo barco |newspaper=Pagina 12 |date=December 14, 1998 |access-date=9 February 2020 |quote=Gelli prestó servicios de indudable mérito a la Argentina, más allá de sus problemas financieros. Nos apoyó en la lucha contra la subversión y nos apoyó en el manejo de la imagen Argentina en el exterior}}</ref> During his career he occupied different positions within the Navy, including command of the sail training ship ARA ''Libertad'' and command of the Sea Fleet in 1973. On December 6th, 1973, Massera was designated General Commander of the Argentine Navy by Decree 552, signed by President Perón and Minister Angel F. Robledo (published on the Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina on December 13th), and, on August 23rd, 1974 he was promoted to full Admiral by Decree Nr. 612, signed by President María Estela Martínez de Perón and Minister José López Rega.{{fact|date=March 2023}}. On June 15th, 1974, he, along with the commanders of the Army and the Air Force, accompanied then-Vice President Isabel Perón to Italy and Spain, where she met with Francisco Franco. <ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2024/06/16/el-viaje-de-isabel-a-espana-15-dias-antes-de-la-muerte-de-peron-y-el-parkinson-que-franco-ya-no-podia-disimular/ |language=es |title=El viaje de Isabel a España 15 días antes de la muerte de Perón y el Parkinson que Franco ya no podía disimular |first=Juan Bautista "Tata" |last=Yofre |date=16 June 2024 |access-date=16 June 2024}}</ref>
==Military junta and resignation== {{Main|1976 Argentine coup d'état}}
Between 1976 and 1978 Admiral Massera was part, together with Jorge Rafael Videla and Orlando Ramón Agosti, of the military junta that deposed President Isabel Perón and ruled Argentina ''de facto'' during the National Reorganization Process. In September 1978 Massera stepped down from the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and from his seat in the Military Junta. In 1981 he travelled to Bucharest, Romania.<ref name=P12/>
==Trial and imprisonment== After the end of the dictatorship in 1983, he was tried for human rights violations and sentenced to life imprisonment and the loss of his military grade. However, on 29 December 1990, he was pardoned by then-President Carlos Menem. Massera was free until 24 November 1998, when he was imprisoned again pending an investigation of several instances of kidnapping and suppression of the identity of minors during his term, as well as orders of torture, execution, confinement in illegal detention centres, and drowning of prisoners.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/1998/12/03/baby-snatchers|title=Baby-snatchers|publisher=The Economist|date=3 December 1998|accessdate=28 November 2025}}</ref>
He also explained the delivery of diplomatic passports to Licio Gelli, head of Propaganda Due, by stating that Gelli had "supported [us] in the struggle against subversion and the management of the image of Argentina abroad".<ref name=P12/> Massera was an active participant in the lodge, promoting Gelli's appointment as an economic advisor to Argentina.<ref>{{Citation |last=Tognonato |first=Claudio |title=The Hidden Italy Connection |date=2015 |work=The Economic Accomplices to the Argentine Dictatorship: Outstanding Debts |pages=339–350 |editor-last=Verbitsky |editor-first=Horacio |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/economic-accomplices-to-the-argentine-dictatorship/hidden-italy-connection/295BA51B2AE3F36B9973C217D906D705 |access-date=2024-12-22 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-11419-7 |editor2-last=Bohoslavsky |editor2-first=Juan Pablo}}</ref>
In 2004 he suffered a cerebrovascular accident caused by a burst aneurysm, and he was admitted to the Military Hospital of Buenos Aires. As a result of the stroke, Eduardo Massera was declared legally irresponsible because of insanity on 17 March 2005, and the cases against him were suspended.{{fact|date=March 2023}}
==Death== Massera died on 8 November 2010 of a hemorrhagic stroke in the Hospital Naval of Buenos Aires.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2010/11/25/emilio-massera |title=Emilio Massera - Obituary |newspaper=The Economist |date=25 November 2010 |access-date=25 November 2010 |publisher=The Economist Newspaper Limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1322871 |title=Murió Emilio Eduardo Massera |newspaper=La Nación |language=Spanish |date=8 November 2010 |access-date=8 November 2010 |archive-date=11 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101111092425/http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1322871 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The funeral was kept in secrecy to avoid escraches, and was attended by only 10 people, without any representation of the government or the armed forces.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1323327 |title=Inhumaron a Massera con la máxima reserva |language=es |newspaper=La Nación |first=Mariano |last=De Vedia |date=10 November 2010 |access-date=9 February 2020 |archive-date=13 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113165716/http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1323327 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef | before = Carlos Álvarez}} {{s-ttl | title = Commander-in-chief of the Argentine Navy| | years = 6 September 1973 – 15 September 1978}} {{s-aft | after=Armando Lambruschini }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massera, Emilio Eduardo}} Category:1925 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Argentine Navy admirals Category:Operatives of the Dirty War Category:People from Paraná, Entre Ríos Category:Argentine people of Swiss-Italian descent Category:Argentine people convicted of crimes against humanity Category:Politicide perpetrators Category:Prisoners and detainees of Argentina Category:Recipients of Argentine presidential pardons Category:Argentine anti-communists Category:Argentine Freemasons Category:Propaganda Due