Spaces of Confrontation and Defeat: The Spatial Dispossession of the Revolution in Tucumán, Argentina

Abstract

This is the story of a space that was lost; a space in rebellion that became a space of defeat. This story revolves around the space of the monte1 of Tucumán situated in the north of Argentina. There, on 9 February 1975, the so-called Operativo Independencia (Operation Independence) was launched with the aim of undertaking ‘all military operations deemed necessary in order to neutralize or annihilate any uprising of subversive elements operating in the province of Tucumán’ (Decree N261/75).2 The objective was, more specifically, to eliminate the rural guerrillas belonging to the armed wing of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (Workers’ Revolutionary Party, PRT) the Ejército Revolucinario del Pueblo (the People’s Revolutionary Army — ERP) and break the ties that it had forged with workers’ and peasants’ movements.