Argentina

The Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina) is a country in South America. It is bordered to the north by Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia, and to the east by Uruguay. Argentina also shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom as well as Ecuador.

History
Argentine president Hipólito Yrigoyen won the election of 1928, promising extensive reforms to labor rights. His victory agitated the fractured conservative factions in Argentina, who began plotting to overthrow his presidency for the first time since the Argentine Constitution of 1853.

In 1930, a military coup, supported by the Argentine Patriotic League, forced Hipólito Yrigoyen from power, and replaced him with José Félix Uriburu. Support for the coup was bolstered by the sagging Argentine economy, as well as a string of bomb attacks and shootings involving radical anarchists, which alienated moderate elements of Argentine society and angered the conservative right, which had long been agitating for decisive action by the military forces.

During his brief tenure as president, Uriburu cracked down heavily on anarchists and other far-left groups, resulting in 2,000 executions of members of anarchist and communist groups. The most famous (and perhaps most symbolic of anarchism's decay in Argentina at the time) was the execution of Severino Di Giovanni, who was captured in late January 1931 and executed on the first of February of the same year.

On March 30, 1931, Uriburu was assassinated by an anarchist gunman while enjoying a glass of wine along the boulevard in Buenos Aires. Several bombings in the following days killed multiple politicians and military leaders, leaving the country temporarily leaderless as anarchists declared a New Republic. Many Argentines failed to take the declaration seriously and street fighting between various factions broke out across Buenos Aires. Sensing weakness in its neighbour, Chile moved to seize the disputed Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands in the far south and quickly overran the demoralized local garrison.

A collection of military officers, led by Admiral José Luis Villán, moved to reassert control over the country as things began to spiral out of control. Military checkpoints were setup at strategic points and Buenos Aires essentially placed under siege by the armed forces. The countryside, largely oblivious to the goings on the if the city-folk carried on as they might normally do.

Several weeks of street fighting ended with over a thousand dead and the military firmly in charge of the country with Villán at the helm. A number of anarchists were arrested and exiled, most of them to Chile.

From 1932 to 1942 Villán steered the country deftly through crisis after crisis. Argentina fought a brief war with Chile, retaking the disputed island in the south, and purchased the Falklands from a cash strapped and fading British Empire. In 1941 the Galapagos Islands were purchased from Ecuador, under the noses of an interested Chile, allowing Argentina to spread its influence into the southern Pacific. During this time he strengthened ties with Spain and modernized the countries military.

Tensions continued to climb with Chile as the anarchists exiled during the 1931 coup began to rebuild their support in Argentina with the quiet support of the Chilean government. In 1944 Chile and Paraguay announced an mutual military aid pact and made not secret of their ambition to curtail Argentine power in South America.

1946 saw several Brazilian ministers who had showed sympathy for the Chilean-Paraguayan Alliance were assassinated during this period and Argentina found itself at the brink of war with virtually all of its neighbours.

To ease tensions, Villán stepped down as President in 1947, a position he had never been elected to in the first place, and was replaced by Miguel Juárez Celman who began to try and mend relationships with neighbours. For two years there was a marked decrease in tensions throughout the region as Celman sought to strengthen diplomatic ties and economic relationships.

All the hopes for a peaceful future were dashed in 1950 when Celman was killed by a roadside bomb, along with a dozen Argentine civilians. Links between the bomber, anarchists, and Chilean intelligence, led to a savage response from Argentines. The Chilean embassy burned even as shots were fired over the border.

The small-arms fire turned into artillery shells, and before anyone could really put a stop to it, planes were pounding positions on either side of the border. Paraguay and Chile declared war on Argentina in the fall of 1951. Brazil declared neutrality even as troubles festered within her own borders.

Fierce fighting broke out along the border that turned into massacres are Argentine fighter bombers, acquired from Spain, hammered Paraguayan forces even as light armour and mechanized infantry pushed aside any real resistance. Chilean forces failed to provide any of the promised support for their allies and in 1953 Paraguay surrendered after nearly a third of the population had been killed.

By the end of 1954, Argentine paratroops, in conjunction with Naval elements, captured the city of Puerto Montt, effectively severing southern Chile from the rest of the country. A few isolated garrisons would surrender in early 1955 and Argentina would consolidate all of Chile south of Puerto Montt. Now Argentine units probe the edges of Osorno and all of Chile knows an attack is coming.