1989 attack on La Tablada Regiment The 1989 attack on La Tablada Regiment was an assault on the military barracks located in La Tablada , in the province of Buenos Aires , Argentina , by 40 members of " Movimiento Todos por la Patria " ( MTP ) , commanded by former ERP leader Enrique Gorriarán Merlo . 39 people were killed and 60 injured by the time the Argentine army retook the barracks . The MTP carried out the assault under the false pretense of preventing a military coup , allegedly planned for the end of January 1989 by the " Carapintadas " , a group of far - right military officers opposed to the investigations concerning the " Dirty War " . The Argentine president of the time , Raúl Alfonsín declared that the attack , with the ultimate goal of sparking a massive popular uprising , could have led to civil war . Given a life sentence and imprisoned , as his comrades , in high security quarters , Gorriarán Merlo was eventually freed in 2003 . He died in September 2006 after making it known he was intending to run for the Argentine presidency . The assault on the barracks . On 23 January 1989 , a group of approximatively 40 members of the " Movimiento Todos por la Patria " ( " All for the Motherland " Movement , " MTP " , founded in 1986 by former ERP leader Enrique Gorriarán Merlo ) attacked the Third Mechanized Infantry Regiment barracks in La Tablada ( " Regimiento de Infantería Mecanizada Nº 3 " , RIM3 ) . They broke into the barracks by ramming a stolen truck into the main gate . Several other vehicles followed it . According to " Clarín " newspaper , three different versions about the attack exist . Ten days before the assault , lawyer and MTP member Jorge Baños had declared in a conference that the " Carapintadas " were planning a coup for the end of January . The " Carapintadas " were members of the Armed Forces that had rebelled against the national government three times in 1987 and 1988 , protesting the investigations on human rights abuses during the " National Reorganization Process " ( 1976 – 1983 ) . This has remained to this day the MTP ' s version , held in particular by the late Gorriarán Merlo who claimed that the MTP was fulfilling the constitutional obligation of " bear [ ing ] arms in defense of the fatherland and of [ the ] Constitution " . The official report on the attack by head of the Army Francisco Gassino claimed in contrary that it was the MTP , formed of several former ERP members , that had planned a coup . A last version claims that the MTP was victim of a manipulation by intelligence services . A sociologist and professor who published an investigation into the attack believes the MTP had wider aims : " " They weren ’ t planning to put down a coup . They were creating the false image of a coup , to set the scene , but were planning to take the barracks and from there start a revolution . " " The Argentine Army , assisted by the Policía Bonaerense ( a total of 3 , 600 personnel ) was called on to counterattack , and undiscriminately used white phosphorus ( WP ) in the zone , in violation of the Geneva Conventions , which in civil wars are only binding with the consent of both parties , and not at all in police actions . The use of WP in combat is forbidden by international law . In this case , it had the effect of completely burning the barracks and of carbonizing corpses . 39 people were killed and 60 injured during the attack ( the majority by conventional weapons ) . Nine were military personnel , two were police officers and the 28 remaining were members of the MTP . Lawyer Jorge Baños was among the dead . In addition , 53 soldiers and police were wounded in the fighting . The following day President Raúl Alfonsín ( UCR , 1983 – 89 ) visited the site , protected by Argentine army commandos , along with federal judge of Morón , Gerardo Larrambebere , who is today member of the court judging the 1994 AMIA bombing . Alleged human rights violations . In their newspapers and in the Argentine press , the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo denounced the way the security forces had handled the La Tablada incident , making a connection between what had happened to their children and the treatment endured by the MTP guerrillas . At least two MTP members reported as killed , among whom Claudia Deleis , are suspected of having been " executed " after surrendering , and there was evidence that at least three others " disappeared " after being captured . In all , nine are thought to have been killed after capture . Five corpses were never identified . In addition , prisoners were allegedly tortured immediately after capture , and then again while in custody of the Federal Police and the Penitentiary Service . Retired sergent José Almada , who had participated in the capture of the MTP members , declared in 2004 that Iván Ruiz and José Díaz had been tortured . According to sergent Almada , they referred to two persons who were not members of their brigade , and most probably SIDE agents . He identified one of them as Jorge Varando , chief of security of HSBC corporation in Buenos Aires during the December 20 , 2001 events . Furthermore , sergent Almada declared that he had clearly heard a radio conversation ordering to kill two of the captured prisoners . He also said that adjuvant sergent Esquivel , killed during the attack , had been in fact shot by the Army itself , after trying to get to his brother who had been taken prisoner . Sergent Almada explicitly denounced the OEA report done by Jorge Varando and General Arrillaga , the highest official in charge of the repression , which aimed at disguising adjuvant sergent Esquivel ' s suspicious death . José Almada said that he had tried to inform his hierarchy about these human rights violations , in accordance with article 194 of the Military Justice Code , but that they ignored him . He notably tried to inform General Martín Balza . He also informed head of Argentine Army , General Bonifacio Cáceres , also telling him about his concerns that his neighbours were insulting him , saying that they were responsible of new cases of " desaparecidos " . Moreover , in his complaint before justice , he also said he had informed former head of the Army Ricardo Brinzoni . After Cáceres ' s retirement in 1989 , colonel Gasquet threatened José Almada of 40 days of arrest — he was finally given two days of arrest on charges of wearing a beard , and then sent him to Paraná , Entre Ríos . Later , he was again sentenced to 30 days of arrest , confined to Crespo near Paraná and finally forced to retire . He has claimed that to this day he is still being " persecuted . " The MTP guerrillas were also accused of human right violations . As a conscript serving in the 3rd Infantry Regiment , Eduardo Navascues was taken prisoner early in the assault and suffered shrapnel wounds in the fighting that followed . Despite having been shot several years later in an attempt to silence him , he has given testimony in a recent court case alleging human rights abuses including physical and mental torture at the hand of the guerrillas . Another conscript , Private Víctor Eduardo Scarafiocco claims that he and others were used as human shields by the guerrillas and that Private Héctor Cardozo was killed as a result . Convictions . Twenty surviving members of the MTP were later convicted and given sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment . They were judged under the " Ley de Defensa de la Democracia ( Argentina ) " ( Defense of the Democracy Act ) which deprive them of a right to appeal and to a new trial . Enrique Gorriarán Merlo was given a life sentence , and his ex - wife , Ana María Sívori , was sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment . During the oral and public trial , Gorriarán put in question the legitimity of the process and objected the circumstances of his capture in the suburbs of Mexico in October 1995 , which he called a " kidnapping " . He was charged of being co - author of qualified illicit association , rebellion , usurpation , homicide with aggravated circumstances , aggravated illegal privation of freedom and reiterated injuries . His ex - wife Sívori was charged of co - author of qualified illicit association , and secondary participant to offenses of rebellion , doubly aggravated homicide , tentative of homicide , aggravated theft , reiterated injuries and co - author of the use of false identity documents . Most of those convicted in the attacks were placed in a maximum security cell block on the eighteenth floor of the Caseros prison in Buenos Aires . Finally , President Fernando de la Rúa ( Alliance for Work , Justice and Education , 1999 – 2001 ) commuted the prison sentences . And two days before Néstor Kirchner ' s access to his functions , Interim President Eduardo Duhalde ( member of the Justicialist Party ) freed Gorriarán Merlo , on May 23 , 2003 , after 14 years of prison in high security quarters , who declared that it was " an act of justice " . Gorriarán Merlo died of a cardiac arrest at the Hospital Argerich in Buenos Aires , while he was about to be operated of an abdominal aortic aneurysm , on 22 September 2006 , at the age of 64 .