Tacuara Nationalist Movement The Movimiento Nacionalista Tacuara ( MNT , Tacuara Nationalist Movement ) was an Argentine far right group in the 1960s , which , after having violently opposed Peronism , later integrated Juan Perón ' s right - wing “ Special Formations ” . Linked to the more conservative sectors of the Peronist movement , and directly inspired by Julio Meinvielle ' s Catholic pronouncements , Tacuara defended nationalist , Catholic , anti - communist , antisemitic and anti - democratic ideas , and had as its first model the Spaniard Primo de Rivera ' s fascist Falange . Its main leaders were Alberto Ezcurra Medrano , Joe Baxter , Oscar Denovi and Eduardo Rosa . The Tacuara movement became the street and political university for many young people , and various contradictory tendencies emerged from this group , spanning from the far - right to the far - left . After three important splits in the early 1960s , the police cracked down on both the far - right and far - left factions in the same month , March 1964 . A year later , the entire MNT was outlawed by President Arturo Illia ( UCR ) . Composed of right - wing young people from wealthy backgrounds , it has been called the " first urban guerrilla group in Argentina " . A " tacuara " was an improvised weapon used by gaucho militias during the Argentine war of independence . It consisted of a knife blade tied to a stalk of sugarcane , resulting in a rudimentary lance . 1957 creation and antecedents . The MNT was officially established at the end of 1957 , first under the name of " Grupo Tacuara de la Juventud Nacionalista " ( Tacuara Group of Nationalist Youth ) . It was mostly formed by young offspring of Buenos Aires ’ high and middle bourgeoisie ( almost all males ) , who were active in the Unión de Estudiantes Nacionalistas Secundarios ( UNES ) students ’ union and the " Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista " ( Alliance of Nationalist Youth ) . Although strongest in Buenos Aires , during its peak the group spread all over the country , especially in Rosario , Santa Fe and Tandil . They propagandized through both their own publications and various nationalist periodicals , one of which in fact bore the name " Tacuara " ; but it had been founded back in 1945 , during the military government headed by Edelmiro Farrell , by a group of students affiliated to the UNES . Argentina , an important economic power at the beginning of the 20th century , had been hit hard by the 1929 Great Depression . Furthermore — as in other parts of the world — it was affected by a wave of authoritarianism . Argentine nationalism was influenced by Fascism and Nazism . This influence was reinforced by the arrival of Nazi exiles fleeing from Germany after 1945 . Ideology . The MNT inherited from the UNES ’ aesthetics , inspired by Nazi parades and rituals . They called each other “ comrades ” , instead of using their first names . They wore gray armbands with the insignia of the Knights of Malta . Consisting of youths educated in military high - schools and religious schools , the MNT took advantage of the conflict arising from the enactment of the law on secularization of schools a few years earlier . They advocated reestablishment of Catholic teaching , suppressed by Perón ' s government before his overthrow in 1955 by General Aramburu , and struggled against “ Judaism ” and the left - wing . They opposed what they named “ liberal democracy ” and admired Hitler and Mussolini . Inspired by Primo de Rivera , founder of the Spanish Falange , " Tacuara rejected elections and the parliamentary system , were strongly anti - Marxist , revindicated social justice , proclaimed the Fatherland ' s and the Catholic religion ' s superiority over any other violence and exalted violence as a form of permanent mobilization . " From Perón ( 1945 ) to Frondizi ( 1958 ) . When Juan Perón acceded to the presidency for the first time in 1945 , nationalists in Argentina debated on whether to support him or not . At first , most decided to join him . However , two events pushed them apart from him . First was a bombing which occurred during turmoil over the hemispheric political initiative , the " Acta de Chapultépec " ( signed by Edelmiro Farrell , it would be approved in 1947 ) . This was a plan aimed at Latin America ' s integration under the leadership of the USA . Within Argentina , this initiative was supported by both a Perón supporter , John William Cooke , and a Perón opponent Arturo Frondizi of the Radical Civic Union ( the future president of Argentina ) . Perón himself was publicly strongly opposed to the Acta but was rumored to be considering acceding , under pressure from military and business interests . Nationalists organized a protest against it , which ended with 200 being jailed . Agitation continued . On April 15 , 1953 , two bombs exploded in Plaza de Mayo , killing five . The second event which pushed various nationalists to oppose Perón was his suppression of mandatory Catholic education in 1954 . Thus , the nationalists acclaimed Eduardo Lonardi ' s arrival by plane to the chanting of " Cristo Vence " ( Christ Victorious ) , in the aftermath of Perón ' s ouster in September 1955 . However , as early as 1956 , the nationalists returned to opposing the government , upset by the assumption of control of the " junta " by General Aramburu , who was allied with the old Conservative establishment . When democratically elected president Arturo Frondizi took office in 1958 , he enforced a nonreligious education program , alongside his brother , Risieri Frondizi , rector of the University of Buenos Aires ( UBA ) . This new attack against clericalism prompted a violent response from the Catholic nationalist sectors . Created the year before , the Tacuara movement took advantage of the weakening of the Peronism movement ( Perón was living in exile in Spain under Franco ) and became a major opposition force . It was at its strongest between 1960 and 1962 , attracting many young people . These included " Joe " Baxter , a nationalist and anti - imperialist born to working class immigrants and the future founder of the Guevarist guerrilla movement , the ERP ; Alberto Ignacio Ezcurra Uriburu , who had been expelled from the Jesuits and remained a staunch defender of the radical right ideology . Moisés Ikonicoff , a Jewish socialist who had also opposed Peronism in 1955 , sometimes attended MNT meetings . And Carlos Mugica , a young theology teacher , who broke with the group after coming to support Che Guevara , and finally turned toward Peronism ( before being killed by the Triple A death squad in 1974 ) . Three brothers surnamed Guevara Lynch , who were cousins of Che , also participated in the MNT . 1960s splits . The MNT split into along ideological lines between 1960 and 1963 . Many of the new members were attracted by Peronism , while some of the old leaders were starting a slow and progressive process of ideological transformation towards Peronism and the left - wing . The 1959 Cuban Revolution was a major change and an axis of division between political forces . Joe Baxter was fascinated by the Cuban experience and its stand against the USA — which only became complete in 1961 , when Fidel Castro announced his choice in favor of socialism . At that time , Alberto Ezcurra and his followers became serious opponents of the Cuban revolution . Furthermore , many activists struggled alongside the trade unions and associated themselves with the Peronist Youth ( JP ) , which wasn ’ t well viewed in all sectors of the MNT . Thus , in March 1960 , the priest Meinvielle , opposed to the alliance with Peronism , accused the original core of Marxist deviations . Meinvielle then created the Guardia Restauradora Nacionalista ( GRN ) which imposed the membership requirements of European ancestry and a family history of at least six generations of residence in Argentina . The next splitoff , June 9 , 1961 , was the Movimiento Nueva Argentina ( MNA , New Argentina Movement ) , headed by Dardo Cabo , which strove for Perón ' s return from exile . The MNA was one of the first right - wing Peronist organizations . MNA was launched in commemoration of General Juan José Valle ' s Peronist uprising in 1956 . It became the ancestor of all modern Catholic nationalist groups in Argentina . During the visit of former United States Dwight Eisenhower to Argentina in February 1962 , the MNT headed nationalist demonstrations against him , leading to the imprisonment of several of their leaders , among them Joe Baxter . During the 1962 elections , the MNT presented candidates in Buenos Aires city and in Entre Ríos through the " Unión Cívica Nacionalista " ( Civic Nationalist Union ) . However , sectors headed by Joe Baxter and José Luis Nell decided to join the Peronist movement ( Justicialist party ) believing in its revolutionary capacities . With Perón in exile , the movement named after him attracted people of various ideologies . from various backgrounds . This heterogeneity would be lifted only with his return , during the 1973 Ezeiza Massacre . In 1963 , after the " Aramburu decree " which banned even the use of Perón ' s name , and the subsequent prohibition of Peronism because of its success in the previous elections , Joe Baxter and José Luis Nell created the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario Tacuara ( MNRT , Revolutionary Nationalist Tacuara Movement ) which , without forsaking nationalism , broke away from the Church , the right - wing , and antisemitism . Baxter ' s MNRT became progressively more left - wing and attracted by Marxism . Many leaders of the future Montoneros and ERP ' s would come from the MNRT . On the other hand , Ezcurra ' s MNT was expecting a military coup . His group progressively became more and more instrumentalized by the secret services in the framework of a strategy of tension which was to justify the repression of the left - wing . Operations . The MNT maintained contacts with the police as well as with some former Nazi bureaucrats exiled in Argentina , which helped them gain easy access to weapons , an advantage which put them apart from other political organizations . They were also engaged in racketeering , demanding a “ revolutionary tax ” from many Jewish shops in the Once ( " once " means ' eleven ' ) neighborhood of Buenos Aires , at least until the shops organized themselves to confront the MNT together . At first mainly engaged in street fights with other rival students ’ organizations , in particular concerning the conflict between nonreligious and religious schooling , the MNT also engaged in antisemitic acts ( profanations in the Jewish cemetery of La Tablada in 1959 , etc . ) . The MNT ' s antisemitism became even stronger after Adolf Eichmann ' s May 1960 kidnapping by Israel ' s intelligence agency , the Mossad , leading to a violent antisemitic campaign which lasted until 1964 , when the MNT was almost completely dismantled . This led the Jewish association DAIA to pressure the government into taking actions against MNT . The peak was reached on August 17 , 1960 , when MNT people from Sarmiento National High School attacked Jewish pupils and injured a 15 - year - old , Edgardo Trilnik , during the celebrations in honor of San Martín , Argentina ' s national hero in the war of independence . From then on , the MNT perpetrated acts of intimidation against the Jewish community , including bombing synagogues and other Jewish institutions and defacing the buildings with antisemitic graffiti . Following Eichmann ' s execution in 1962 , the MNT launched 30 antisemitic attacks . On June 21 , 1962 , they kidnapped a 19 - year - old Jewish girl , Graciela Sirota , tortured her , and scarred her with Swastika signs . In retaliation against this odious act , which raised public outrage , the DAIA on June 28 , 1962 , stopped all the activities of Jewish trade , supported by students ( many high schools went on strike ) and various political organizations , trade unions and intellectuals . These violent actions finally led the government to issue decree 3134 / 63 which prohibited , in 1963 , any MNT or GRN activity . However , the influence of the secret services effectively nullified this decree . Some members of the MNRT became famous on August 29 , 1963 , by assaulting the Policlínico Bancario bank , stealing 14 million pesos ( equivalent to 100 , 000 US dollars ) , a fortune at the time . Two employees were killed in the assault and three injured . This was the first armed political action carried on by an exclusively civil group in Argentina ' s history , making of the MNT - MNRT the " first urban guerrilla group in Argentina " . However , the police finally tracked down the robbers and practically dismantled the MNRT . Most imprisoned activists were freed in May 1973 , when center - left ( and Peronist ) president Héctor Cámpora issued a broad amnesty decree for all political prisoners . The MNT was invited by the Peronist trade - unions to the CGT ' s assembly in Rosario in 1964 in order to counter the left - wing . However , in obscure circumstances , gunshots in a closed environment led to the death of two Tacuara activists and one Peronist Youth member . The Tacuaras then retaliated by murdering Raúl Alterman , a Jewish communist chosen only on the basis of his background . This assassination again raised national public outrage , and Joe Baxter , former Tacuara activist who had formed the MNRT , publicly denounced Ezcurra ' s Nazi ideology on a media show hosted by Bernardo Neustadt . Rodolfo Barra , Justice Minister of Carlos Menem , was forced to resign in 1996 on charges that he had participated to the assassination . Decline . After the 1963 Policlinico Bancario assault and the 1964 murder of Raúl Alterman , many MNTers were arrested or forced into hiding . Thus , in the same month , March 1964 , the two rival branches of Tacuaras ( MNRT and MNR ) , were dismantled . The group was officially outlawed in 1965 under president Arturo Illia ( UCR ) . After having met Perón , fighting in Vietnam ( against the US ) and travelling to China , Joe Baxter , one of the founders of the MNT , turned toward the revolutionary left - wing and finally became one of the cofounders of the ERP , alongside Mario Roberto Santucho . Baxter died on 11 July 1973 in a plane crash in France . José Luis Nell , another MNT leader , joined the left - wing guerrilla group , the FAR - Montoneros . He became a paraplegic from injuries suffered during the 1973 Ezeiza massacre on the day of Perón ' s return from 20 years of exile , and committed suicide two years later . On the other hand , Alberto Ezcurra Uriburu , who was one of the strongest proponent of antisemitism , became a priest at the end of 1964 and left the organization ' s direction in the hands of Patricio Collins . Ezcurra would later work for the secret services , and then for the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance ( Triple A ) death squad and , following the 1976 military coup , elite military secret service squad , Batallón de Inteligencia 601 . Dardo Cabo later joined the Vandorista trade - union . Alongside three activists , Dardo Cabo hijacked a plane belong to Aerolíneas Argentinas in 1966 to bring it to the Falkland Islands , where he planted an Argentine flag . He was later killed in detention by the military on January 6 , 1977 .