Franklin Lucero

Franklin Lucero (San Luis, 11 September 1897 – Buenos Aires, 8 October 1976) was an Argentine military officer and politician who served as Minister of the Army during the first and second presidencies of Juan Domingo Perón (1949–1955).^[1] He was regarded as Perón's most trusted man within the Army, and played a central role in suppressing the failed coup of September 1951 and in managing the final crisis of the Peronist government in September 1955.^[2] Despite his prominence, he has been described as one of the least studied figures of Peronism's first decade.^[3]

Franklin Lucero was born on 11 September 1897 in the province of San Luis, into a family of old Cuyan roots.^[4] In 1915, he began his military formation as a cadet at the National Military College.^[4] Over the following decades, he built a distinguished military career: he served as a professor at the National Military College, as a member of the General Staff of the Army, and as commander of the Infantry Battalion of the Non-Commissioned Officers' School.^[1] He also taught Tactics at the Escuela Superior de Guerra and served as chief of the School of Infantry.^[1]

In January 1943, he was serving in the Command of the Second Army Division, and that same year was posted as Military Attaché at the Argentine Embassy in Chile.^[4] In 1944, he was promoted to Colonel and appointed as Chief of the Secretariat of the Ministry of War, at a time when Juan Domingo Perón himself was the minister, establishing what would become a close and lasting relationship with Perón.^[4] He also joined in 1941 the political group that would later become the GOU.^[1]

According to historian Fabián Bosoer, Lucero became a man of deep trust for Perón from the time of the Secretariat, and played a notable role in the events leading up to 17 October 1945.^[4]

In the early years of Perón's presidency, Lucero served as Military Attaché at the Argentine Embassy in the United States and carried out various missions abroad.^[1] In 1949, following the reform of the National Constitution that created the new |Ministry of the Army as a separate portfolio, Lucero was appointed as its first minister, a post he would hold until September 1955.^[5] He held the rank of Lieutenant General and was, throughout this period, the highest-ranking military officer in the closest confidence of the President.^[2]

Lucero considered that the Army had been one of the pillars of the Peronist transformation and that the benefits of the era had strongly impacted the armed forces.^[2] As minister, he sought to articulate military policy with the First Five-Year Plan and placed industrial development, particularly through the arms manufacturing sector, at the centre of his agenda.^[2] He also issued several doctrinal documents, including a set of directives titled *Prestigio de la Unidad* (Prestige of the Unit) and, on 3 December 1954, presented the *Decálogo del Soldado Argentino* (Argentine Soldier's Decalogue).^[4]

He later also took on the task of aligning the Army more closely with Peronism while simultaneously replacing the German military model with the American one as Argentina's doctrinal reference.^[6]

On 28 September 1951, retired General Benjamín Menéndez led a military uprising against the Perón government, primarily at Campo de Mayo. The attempt was rapidly suppressed. Lucero's loyalist response was swift, and it was he who coined the derisive nickname chirinada (a term for a small and futile disturbance) to characterise the rebels' effort.^[2] The suppression of the uprising confirmed Lucero's central role as the military guarantor of the constitutional government, and Perón's political strength within the armed forces.^[3]

On 16 June 1955, dissident Navy and Air Force aircraft bombed Plaza de Mayo in an attempt to assassinate Perón and topple his government, killing hundreds of civilians. Lucero was authorised to suppress the revolt with all available force.^[2] While the uprising was ultimately put down, Lucero declined to pursue the harshest possible reprisals against those responsible.^[2] This moderation subsequently brought him into conflict with sectors of the CGT that had sought to arm a popular militia in response to the attack.^[2]

When the Revolución Libertadora erupted on 16 September 1955, led by General Eduardo Lonardi from Córdoba, Lucero was placed in command of the government's military response.^[7] In Buenos Aires, Perón and Lucero together assessed the military situation at the Ministry of War alongside a group of generals, and left the handling of operations in Lucero's hands.^[7] Lonardi's strategy, focused on the provincial city of Córdoba and other centres far from the capital, ultimately proved beyond Lucero's capacity to suppress.^[1]

On 19 September 1955 at midday, Perón wrote a confusing letter addressed to Lucero, whose wording implied a resignation: he spoke of having decided "to hand over power," declared his decision irrevocable, and stated that "Government power therefore automatically passes into the hands of the Army."^[1] The letter was interpreted by Lucero as a formal resignation. He convened a military junta composed of, among others, Generals José Domingo Molina, Raúl Tanco, Juan José Valle, Ángel Juan Manni, Emilio Forcher, and Oscar A. Uriondo, which declared itself to have assumed executive power.^[1] Lucero then read the letter aloud over the national radio and television network.^[1]

That same night, however, Perón met with the junta to clarify that he had not in fact resigned; the junta was nonetheless not dissolved.^[7] From Córdoba, Lonardi wrote to Lucero demanding Perón's formal resignation as a precondition for any truce.^[7] Faced with the collapse of the loyalist position, the junta sought a negotiated agreement, which was finalised in the early hours of 21 September 1955.^[8]

Following the coup, the military dictatorship established a court martial to try the deposed government's officials. Lucero became the first prisoner of the Armed Forces Penal Institute (present-day Unidad 28 de Magdalena).^[1] He was subsequently stripped of his military rank and uniform as punishment for his service to the Peronist government.^[1] He was held imprisoned between 1956 and 1958, during which time he wrote his memoirs.^[3] In his memoirs, he recalled the conditions of his detention, including leaks, broken sanitation, and rats and cockroaches infesting the vessel on which he was held.^[1]

He recovered his rank during Juan Perón's third presidency, in 1974.^[1]

While imprisoned at the Magdalena penal facility, Lucero composed his memoir and political testament, published in 1959 under the title El precio de la lealtad(The Price of Loyalty). The book offered his personal account of the major political events in Argentina between 1945 and 1955, and presented him as a soldier faithful to his government and to a political doctrine — what he himself described as an "unwavering loyalty."^[9]

He also published official ministerial documents during his time in office, including:

• El ejército y la república (1955), a message from the Ministry of the Army to the armed forces.^[10]

• Juan Domingo Perón
• 1951 Argentine coup attempt
• Revolución Libertadora
• Benjamín Menéndez
• Eduardo Lonardi
• Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU)

• Bosoer, Fabián. "Franklin Lucero: el precio de la lealtad." In Rein, Raanan and Panella, Claudio (eds.), Los indispensables. Dirigentes de la segunda línea peronista. Buenos Aires: UNSAM Edita, 2017.
• Bosoer, Fabián. "Franklin Lucero, un general en su laberinto: ejército y política en la Argentina (1945–1955)." Todo es Historia, No. 602, September 2017.
• Lucero, Franklin. El precio de la lealtad: injusticias sin precedentes en la tradición argentina. Buenos Aires: Editorial Propulsión, 1959.