Emilio Massera

Emilio Eduardo Massera (19 October 1925 – 8 November 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2

Early life and military career

Emilio Massera was born in Paraná, Entre Ríos, to Paula Padula and Emilio Massera, grandson of immigrants from Switzerland. Massera entered Argentina's Naval Military School in 1942, obtaining his commission as a midshipman in 1946. In June 1955, as a Frigate Captain and one of the aids to the Minister or the Navy, he may have been involved in the bombing of Plaza de Mayo. After the Revolución Libertadora in 1955, Massera entered the Naval Information Service. During his career, he occupied different positions within the Navy, including command of the sail training ship ARA Libertad and command of the Sea Fleet in 1973. On 6 December 1973, Massera was designated General Commander of the Argentine Navy by Decree 552, signed by President Perón and Minister Angel F. Robledo (published on the Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina on 13 December), and, on 23 August 1974, he was promoted to full Admiral by Decree Nr. 612, signed by President María Estela Martínez de Perón and Minister José López Rega.. On 15 June 1974, he, along with the commanders of the Army and the Air Force, accompanied then-Vice President Isabel Perón to Italy and Spain, where she met with Francisco Franco.

Military junta and resignation

Between 1976 and 1978, Admiral Massera was part, together with Jorge Rafael Videla and Orlando Ramón Agosti, of the military junta that deposed President Isabel Perón and ruled Argentina de facto during the National Reorganization Process. In September 1978, Massera stepped down from the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and from his seat in the Military Junta. In 1981 he travelled to Bucharest, Romania.

He also explained the delivery of diplomatic passports to Licio Gelli, head of Propaganda Due, by stating that Gelli had "supported [us] in the struggle against subversion and the management of the image of Argentina abroad".

In 2004, he suffered a cerebrovascular accident caused by a burst aneurysm, and he was admitted to the Military Hospital of Buenos Aires. As a result of the stroke, Eduardo Massera was declared legally irresponsible because of insanity on 17 March 2005, and the cases against him were suspended.

Death Massera died on 8 November 2010 of a hemorrhagic stroke in the Hospital Naval of Buenos Aires. The funeral was kept in secrecy to avoid escraches, and was attended by only 10 people, without any representation of the government or the armed forces.