Cuyo Mobilizes
On the night of September 17, the troops of the Second Army arrived at the gates of the city of Mendoza and stopped there. General Julio Alberto Lagos was waiting for them at that point ready to receive command from his commander, General Eugenio Arandía.
Once at the head of the powerful unit, Lagos requested a report on the situation as he needed to take quick measures before setting off towards Córdoba. The picture of the situation that Arandía described to him was not what he expected because, as they explained to him, there was a lack of integration between the commanders and the news broadcast on the radio, they limited the revolution to the rebel focus of the Mediterranean province that at that time was being surrounded. by loyal troops under the command of generals Iñíguez, Morello and Moschini.
In view of this, influenced by the false news broadcast by government radio stations and letting himself be carried away by a counterproductive excess of caution, Lagos approved the resolution issued by his General Staff and retreated towards Mendoza, abandoning Lonardi's forces to his side. luck. According to the conclusion they had reached with General Arandía, if the civil war broke out (which in fact had already begun), it would be necessary to consolidate the three Cuyo provinces without risking their forces in a confrontation that would short term, it would have to annihilate them.
The Lagos troops spent the night next to the access bridge to Palmira and the next morning they entered the city, with the 2nd Mountain Infantry Battalion of Calingasta at the head, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Aguirre. The long column of vehicles found the access roads blocked by buses and trucks that the CGT had abandoned during the night to make progress difficult, punctured the tires of most of them. Under the direction of officers and non-commissioned officers, the conscripts proceeded to remove them, moving the vehicles off the road or throwing them into the river and slowly, the displacement became effective.
The Second Army was received with joy. The population, mobilized by Dr. Facundo Suárez[1], took to the streets to cheer him and people approached the soldiers to give them food and drinks while shouting and applauding his passage from Guaymallén, along San Martín Avenue.
Lagos installed his command in the Military High School and appointed General Roberto Nazar as provisional governor of the province. Whoever was its owner until that moment, Dr. Carlos Horacio Evans, appeared shortly after, to make himself available to him and after a brief and correct exchange of words, he was told that he could leave the province or remain at home, finally opting for this last proposition.
General Julio Alberto Lagos
One of the first orders given by Lagos upon arriving in Mendoza was to occupy the radio station, dispatching for that mission a platoon under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Aguirre, chief of the 2nd Mountain Battalion of Calingasta, which performed prominently during the San Luis rebellion. . Aguirre took over the station without any problems and immediately put Lieutenant Colonel Mario A. Fonseca on duty, who once at the microphone, proceeded to inform the citizens that both Mendoza and San Luis were in the power of the revolution.
Another important measure adopted by General Lagos was the arrest of senior leaders of the regional ruling party, represented mainly by the political and union leadership and by militants of the Justicialist basic units, who represented a serious threat to the revolution. There was no resistance in any of the basic units raided. Where there were problems was at the CGT premises, where many of its leaders, members and workers had barricaded themselves.
Lieutenant Colonel Aguirre headed towards the headquarters of the workers' union at the head of a platoon, believing that taking over the building was going to be a simple matter. However, upon arriving at the place, he was greeted by a large hail of bullets that forced him to to adopt defensive measures.
Following orders from their boss, the soldiers jumped out of the jeeps in which they had come and once under cover they opened fire, generating a violent exchange of fire in which two conscripts lost their lives and two officers were wounded.
The fight continued for several minutes, with the unionists containing any attempt to approach them, which forced Aguirre to ask for reinforcements. While he fired the submachine gun, he gave directives, concerned for the safety of his men. Two of them lay dead on the pavement and two others, seriously injured, were trying to take cover behind the vehicles.
Aguirre saw that the union members were shooting from various points, some from the upper windows and others from the roofs, so he tried to concentrate his bursts on those points.
The arrival of two trucks with troops was what decided the confrontation. Knowing they were surrounded and overwhelmed in men and weapons, the unionists waved a piece of white cloth tied to a stick and surrendered. The union headquarters was controlled and its defenders forced to leave slowly, with their hands on their heads. Once outside, they were subjected to an intense search and were then forced to board trucks to be taken to prison. The bodies of the dead soldiers were evacuated in an ambulance that arrived a few minutes later and the wounded left with them in the direction of the hospital. The actions in Cuyo had claimed their first victims.
Once the city was dominated, General Lagos ordered the occupation of the El Plumerillo Air Base, to which he sent General Arandía's second, Colonel Nicolás Plantamura, accompanied by the escort of the Mountain Infantry Detachment 1 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alberto Cabello. Waiting for them at the place was Vice Commodore Martín Alió, known for his Peronist tendency, who handed over the military unit, clarifying beforehand that he did not agree to the uprising. However, his officers did, whom Plantamura met in the casino to talk and find out his position regarding the revolution. Twelve nationally manufactured Calquin bombers were at the disposal of the rebel forces, which, added to the powerful crew of Villa Reynolds, constituted a weapon of great value.
Back in Mendoza, Lieutenant Colonel Cabello received the order to support Major Rufino Ortega's platoon that was to take the local headquarters of the Federal Police, a mission that was accomplished with the support of revolutionary civilian commands without any incidents.
That was the situation in Mendoza and San Luis when, after noon, Lieutenant Colonel Fonseca, the same one who had transmitted the revolutionary messages by radio, requested authorization to march on San Juan, fearful of the attitude that the head of the army might assume. that garrison, Colonel Ricardo Botto.
After obtaining the approval of his superiors, Fonseca gathered under his command Colonel Aguirre's Infantry Battalion and the San Juan Sapper Company that reinforced the Second Army there and provided it with a cannon from the artillery battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Fernando. Elizondo, he started.
The troops traveled throughout the night, stopping their march at dawn, in the town of Carpintería, close to the provincial capital. From there they continued in broad daylight, while people, almost all from the fields, farms and vineyards immediately around the route, gathered on the side of the route to greet the troops. As Ruiz Moreno, from whom we extract most of the information, relates, people did not forget the prohibition on carrying out the procession of the Virgin of Andacollo, imposed by the government.
Where there was tension was in San Juan, as a result of the deployment of police forces carried out by Commissioner César Camargo. The police were determined to resist but the intervention of Fonseca, also from San Juan and a childhood friend of Camargo, prevented bloodshed. It was evident that the police were not an adequate force to confront the Army and it was necessary, at all costs, to avoid any type of clash.
Camargo agreed and raised the device for the troops to enter the city, birthplace of illustrious personalities in Argentine history such as Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Brother Justo Santa María de Oro and Francisco Narciso Laprida. There were also scenes of joy, with the crowd cheering and applauding the passage of the rebel troops. The Virgin of Mercy was even taken out of the cathedral in front of which the crowd gathered and prayed, covering the Plaza 25 de Mayo. Fonseca was carried on a litter to the Government House where his head, Juan Viviani, handed over command to him. In this way, Cuyo was left in the power of the revolution with General Lagos, at the head of the civil and military command.
At 06:30 on September 19, a Beechcraft AT-11 from Córdoba landed in the countryside, on Route 40, 30 kilometers south of Mendoza, bringing on board frigate captain Carlos García Favre, emissary of General Lonardi. As soon as he got off the plane, the naval officer boarded a private vehicle that immediately took him to Luján de Cuyo, a stop before the provincial capital, where he arrived around 11:00 when the population was celebrating the arrival of the Second Army in the streets. coming from St. Louis.
An hour later, he was brought before General Lagos, urgent as he was to inform him of the difficult situation that the rebel garrison was going through. Once in his presence, frigate captain Carlos García Favre conveyed to him his distressing request for reinforcements and the imperative need for him to get underway as soon as possible to alleviate the difficult situation of he. While this was happening, in the streets, the crowd chanted slogans in favor of revolution and freedom, ignorant of those events that were unfolding.
Far from what García Favre imagined, Lagos's attitude was one of caution. After listening attentively, the general spoke slowly, detailing the inconveniences involved in providing aid to Lonardi. According to him, the Second Army was not fully aware of what was happening, it was imbued with the slogan of not spilling blood between brothers and for that reason, its full subordination could not be counted on when marching on Córdoba. . On the other hand, the capture of Río Cuarto was impossible because fuel was scarce and extremely difficult to obtain.
García Favre was dismayed because he did not expect such an attitude. Extremely nervous, he insisted again: Córdoba urgently needed reinforcements because if it did not have them the revolution would end up being defeated. Lagos remained in his position. Without saying a word, he listened to the emissary with a serious expression and then summoned him to a new meeting at 6:00 p.m.
By then, all Peronist party headquarters had been raided and the private homes of several activists confiscated, in order to prevent acts of sabotage, all this before the radio reported that starting at 9:00 p.m. that same day, the curfew and that martial law was in force throughout the city.
At the agreed time, García Favre, wearing civilian clothes, appeared at the barracks of the Sapper Battalion 8 for his second meeting with Lagos. Upon arrival, he was invited to witness the formation in the parade ground, in front of which, the general took formal possession of his position and harangued troops and civilians, exhorting them to fight for freedom. He also praised the Navy for its courageous and unwavering actions, stating at the end that the union of the three forces would ultimately grant them victory. But as far as the help requested is concerned, he said nothing specifically to García Favre. When the liaison tried to communicate with Lonardi to relieve him of the situation, he found that the arrest of the officers in charge of communications prevented him from establishing contact.
During the night of September 18 to 19, General Lagos and his high command developed a plan to alleviate the difficult situation in which General Lonardi found himself. Among other things, an air attack was decided from Villa Reynolds to the Las Higueras airfield, in order to neutralize the loyalist Gloster Meteors operating from there.
As Ruiz Moreno explains, Villa Reynolds, seat of the V Air Brigade, had been occupied on Sunday the 18th by troops from the IV Mountain Detachment of Tupungato who had left the previous day from San Luis, with that destination.
The taking of the base was carried out by the I Battalion of the 21st Mountain Infantry Regiment under the command of Major Celestino Argumedo, who arrived after two hours of march along a 110-kilometer route. In the brigade, the officers who at that time (03:00 in the morning) had control of the unit were waiting for them, after an intense combat with the 278 loyal non-commissioned officers who guarded it and who attempted acts of sabotage.
That same afternoon (5:30 p.m.), Major Argumedo contacted General Lagos to suggest carrying out the planned attack on the Las Higueras airfield, because at that height, it was imperative to neutralize the threat posed by the Gloster Meteors that operated from there. They responded three hours later, telling him to stay in his position until further notice.
The attack never materialized and Argumedo limited himself only to supplying bombs to both the revolutionary forces of Córdoba and those of Comandante Espora and to providing light weapons to the revolutionary civilian command of Dr. Guillermo Torres Fotheringham that was to take over Radio Ranquel in Río Cuarto. .
The next morning, an unexpected event took place that significantly raised the morale of the revolutionary forces. Soldiers of the Second Army who were inspecting the Mendoza railway station discovered a car full of cutting-edge weapons from the United States, which was there in transit to Chile. The cargo, composed of bazookas, recoilless rocket cannons and machine guns, was seized and distributed among the troops that were to march on Río Cuarto the next day. The joy that the discovery aroused meant little to Captain García Favre since in the afternoon, General Lagos told him that he was not planning to divert troops towards Córdoba because he planned to consolidate his positions in Mendoza.
General Lonardi's emissary was perplexed but managed to make a proposal aimed at complicating Perón's situation and lightening that of his superior: request international organizations to recognize Cuyo as a belligerent territory. Lagos agreed and without wasting time, ordered Dr. Bonifacio del Carril, honorary auditor of the Army in the Field, to begin the corresponding steps.
Because the situation in Cuyo was unknown in Córdoba, Lonardi dispatched Major Francisco Guevara with the mission of communicating to Lagos that he was ready to establish an air bridge between both provinces in order to transport the reinforcements of the Second Army to the combat zone. .
In accordance with this plan, the Military Aviation School began to prepare three DC-3s and a Convair from Aerolíneas Argentinas, from which the seats were removed to increase its capacity. Civil aviator Alfredo Barragán, pilot of the state airline company and determined supporter of the revolution, was placed in charge of them, who had to drive the planes to Mendoza in the company of Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Godoy.
Guevara boarded a Beechcraft AT-11 piloted by Captain González Albarracín, a co-pilot and a radio operator and left through the San Roque Lake air corridor, the only one that still remained open to rebel aviation, bound for Cuyo. The ship flew low until it reached the waters and at that point took flight, to move away between the positions occupied by the 14th Infantry Regiment and the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment.
After two hours of flight, the plane touched down in El Plumerillo, from where Guevara departed to meet Lagos.
Upon seeing him arrive, the general stood up and greeted him affectionately, inviting him to participate in the meeting that he was currently holding with Arandía and García Favre. The head of the Second Army seemed oblivious to reality and gave the impression that the triumphal entry he had made in Mendoza had negatively influenced him.
Guevara gave a detailed account of what was happening in Córdoba and, like García Favre, placed special emphasis on General Lonardi's need for reinforcements. When he finished speaking, he gave Lagos a letter from the leader of the revolution in which he requested the urgent sending of all the infantry with their mortars and machine guns, explaining that the crisis that his group suffered was, precisely, an infantry crisis and that His situation had worsened so much that he counted on that help to overcome it as soon as possible.
Despite this and the fact that Guevara explained that Lonardi planned to resist until the end, Lagos hesitated again, arguing that he had only 1,000 men to defend Cuyo and that he could not deprive himself of any. When he expressed his decision to establish a provisional government in Mendoza, Guevara was surprised and responded that this idea had already been adopted by General Lonardi but that it was not essential at that time.
That made Lagos reconsider and, at least for the moment, he scrapped the project to once again study sending reinforcements to Córdoba.
He was leaving on the 19th and Lagos was still thinking.
While Lagos and Guevara argued, the Aerolíneas Argentinas plane that Lonardi had sent to Barragán's command landed in El Plumerillo.
Once on land, the new arrivals hurried to the Lagos command post and asked to speak to him. At that time, the general was meeting with General Arandía, Major Enzo Garuti, Judge of Military Instruction, Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Aguirre, Captain García Favre and Major Guevara.
The newcomers were extremely anxious when they entered the room, assuming that by then everything had been decided, but once again Lagos delayed the matter, wanting his General Staff to stop and thoroughly analyze the situation. This attitude exasperated spirits, especially that of Commander Barragán who, raising his voice, demanded the immediate sending of reinforcements. The response he received left him stunned by its unusual and absurd nature:
-I can't distract troops because here the CGT is very strong and I could have problems.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
-But how is the CGT going to be a problem for the Army?!! -Barragán shouted- what are you saying?!! We have the problem!! Come on general, you have to give us the troops and weapons right now!!!
The pilot was so out of his mind that while he was speaking he pulled out his weapon, forcing those present to intervene to try to appease his anger.
-Calm down Barragán! - said Lieutenant Colonel Aguirre - Everything will be solved!
Then, it was Major Garuti who made himself feel above the tumult.
-We must help Córdoba, general. Whose is able to do it!
Upon hearing those words, Lagos seemed convinced and in a serious tone ordered:
-Well Garuti, organize a Company.
Finally, after wasting precious hours in musings, the doubtful chief of the Second Army authorized the enlistment of 200 infantry personnel who, equipped with heavy machine guns and under the command of Major Garuti, immediately left for El Plumerillo to board the planes that, in a non-stop flight would take them to the theater of operations.
Notes
- He was a known radical leader of the province.
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