Alianza Anticomunista Argentina

(AAA or TRIPLE A)

   / ARGENTINE ANTICOMMUNIST ALLIANCE

   A collection of right-wing death squads formed in 1973 in Argentina and active until the coup of 24 March 1976, when its functions were absorbed by the military. It grew out of the incident at Ezeiza Airport in June 1973, when a private army organized by José López Rega and Jorge Osinde opened fire on columns of leftist Peronists assembled to welcome Juan Perón home from exile. Fearing that the left might use the event to take control of the Peronist Movement, rightists had formed a loose federation of mercenaries from the Ministry of Social Welfare (headed by López Rega), the trade unions, the police-intelligence services, and fascist groups like the Comando de Organización (Organization Command) and the Concentración Nacional Universitaria (National University Concentration).

   The AAA made its public debut in October 1973, claiming responsibility for a car bomb that maimed the leftist senator Hipólito Solari Yrigoyen. Two thousand deaths were attributed to it over a period of two and a half years. Some of its victims were guerrillas, but most were nonmilitant supporters of the Peronist left. They included governors and union leaders, academics and journalists, and actors and singers. Traveling in their customary Ford Falcons without license plates, AAA agents operated with impunity, publicly threatening prominent figures with death if they failed to leave the country in 24 hours. Many of their intended victims went into exile.