Fascists and Gentlemen? The Last Dictatorship 's Vexed Relationship with Argentinian Fascism (‘Nacionalismo’)

Abstract

While there is a consensus among historians that Argentina's Last Dictatorship was one of the most radically right-wing regimes in modern Latin American history, the question of whether this regime's ideology was informed by fascist ideology has remained, to a large extent, open. This article explores the relationship between the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (PRN) and Argentina's fascist movement, self-labeled the ‘nacionalistas’. It begins by examining how, in the 1970s, this movement's ‘revolutionary’ sectors resurged in demand for a constitution of a totalitarian and corporatist regime in Argentina. The study then illuminates which components of the nacionalista doctrine the PRN chose to incorporate into its public discourse, particularly in its early and more ideologically foundational years. Finally, the article explores the strained relationship between the PRN and nacionalistas amid the regime's neoliberal reforms. The article's findings suggest that, despite its murderousness, the PRN was of the least indebted to neo-fascist ideology of the military regimes that had ruled Argentina since 1943.