Bombing of Plaza de Mayo
The bombing of Plaza de Mayo was a massacre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 June 1955. Thirty aircraft from the Argentine Navy and Air Force strafed Plaza de Mayo. The attack targeted the adjacent Casa Rosada, the seat of government, while a large crowd demonstrated in support of the president, Juan Perón. The strike took place during a day of official public demonstrations to condemn the burning of a national flag allegedly carried out by detractors of Perón during the recent Corpus Christi procession. The military reacted as a result of growing tension between Peron and his actions against the Roman Catholic Church. The action was to be the first step in an eventually aborted coup d'état. The number of identified bodies was put at 308, including six children. Some victims could not be identified.
| Bombing of Plaza de Mayo | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Civilian casualties after the massacre | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Peronist militants and loyal Argentine Armed Forces | Anti-Peronist elements of the Armed Forces | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Juan Perón Franklin Lucero |
Samuel Toranzo Calderón Benjamín Gargiulo Aníbal Olivieri | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
|
Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers Motorized Garrison Buenos Aires 1st Regiment 3rd Regiment Argentine Air Force |
Argentine Naval Aviation 7th Air Brigade 4th Naval Infantry Battalion elements of the Argentine Air Force | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
330 Mounted Grenadiers 4 aircraft 4 Sherman tanks Armed Peronist civilians |
700 marines 30–34 aircraft At least 875 civilian commandos | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
17 killed 55 wounded |
44 killed and wounded 3 aircraft shot down | ||||||||
| 308 civilians killed and an additional number that could not be identified | |||||||||
The heavy loss of civilian lives and the violence with which the act was carried out has prompted comparisons with the wave of state terrorism during the dictatorship of 1976–1983.