Osvaldo Bayer

Osvaldo Bayer (18 February 1927 – 24 December 2018) was an Argentine writer and journalist. He lived in Buenos Aires. In 1974, during the presidency of Isabel Perón, he went into exile, residing in Linz am Rhein, Germany, throughout the National Reorganization Process dictatorship (1976–1983).

Biography Osvaldo Bayer was a self-defined "ultra-pacifist anarchist". He was born in the capital city of Santa Fe, and grew up in Bernal and in the Belgrano neighborhood in the capital city of Buenos Aires. Bayer only returned to Argentina after Raúl Alfonsín's 1983 election and the transition to democracy. In 1984, he collaborated with the poet Juan Gelman on a book on exile.

Bayer's best-selling book on the Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni, was banned by President Raúl Alberto Lastiri (1973), as was La Patagonia Rebelde, his second work, by Isabel Perón; others were burnt by the military after they took power in 1976. Francesco Rosi, who directed Christ Stopped at Eboli, planned to make a film adaptation of his book on Di Giovanni, but renounced the project after the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, saying it was not the time to make a film about a terrorist.

Bayer was involved in the struggle for Indigenous rights. Fifteen days after having been declared "Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires" by the mayor Aníbal Ibarra, he was declared persona non grata by the Senate (an initiative of Eduardo Menem) for having proposed the unification of the Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia, as the "first step for a common Latin-American market".

As of 2008, he collaborated with the newspaper Página 12, founded Jorge Lanata. He was the author of the scenario of the film La Patagonia Rebelde, adapted from his book and realized by Héctor Olivera, which won the Silver Bear Award in the 1974 Berlin International Film Festival. He also wrote the screenplay of the 1988 film La Amiga, a drama on the dictatorship.

Bayer died on 24 December 2018 in Buenos Aires, at the age of 91.

Legacy and 2025 monument controversy

In March 2025, Argentina’s National Road Authority (Vialidad Nacional) demolished a monument to Osvaldo Bayer located near Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz. The piece, inaugurated in 2023, featured Bayer’s silhouette and referenced his work on the Patagonian strikes. Authorities cited safety concerns and lack of authorization, but the removal drew criticism from Bayer’s family, local officials, and cultural figures, who viewed it as an attack on historical memory.