Particle.news
Download on the App Store

35 Years On, Argentina Reexamines the Bloody 1990 Carapintada Uprising

New reporting features Hugo Abete’s operational account alongside Alberto Kohan’s recollection of Menem’s demand for unconditional surrender.

Overview

  • Rebels seized the Army’s headquarters, the Patricios regiment, Batallón 601 and the TAMSE complex, unleashing urban combat with tanks that left 14 dead and more than 100 wounded.
  • Abete outlines a failed plan to free Mohamed Alí Seineldín, blaming infiltration, defections and an accidental discharge that disrupted the timing and coordination.
  • He denies responsibility for the deaths of Lt. Col. Hernán Pita and Maj. Federico Pedernera, stressing that courts could not determine who fired the fatal shots.
  • Kohan recounts relaying Menem’s ultimatum of “unconditional surrender,” as loyal commanders, including Martín Balza and Martín Bonnet, opened fire on the insurgents.
  • Coverage revisits a Linea 60 bus crushed by a tank with five fatalities, journalists wounded in the crossfire, hundreds detained, roughly 15 later convicted, and eventual 2003 pardons for figures such as Abete and Seineldín.