1989 attack on La Tablada barracks

In 1989, 40 members of Movimiento Todos por la Patria (MTP) attacked the military barracks in La Tablada, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. 39 people were killed and 60 injured by the time the Argentine army retook the barracks. The MTP was commanded by former ERP leader Enrique Gorriarán Merlo. It carried out the assault under the alleged pretense of preventing a military coup supposedly planned for the end of January 1989 by the Carapintadas, a group of far-right military officers who opposed the investigations and trials concerning Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983). The Argentine president of the time, Raúl Alfonsín declared that the attack, which carried the ultimate goal of sparking a massive popular uprising, could have led to a civil war. Given a life sentence and imprisoned, as his comrades, in high security quarters, Gorriarán Merlo was eventually freed in 2003. He died on 22 September 2006 while awaiting surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm. On 23 January 1989, a group of approximatively 40 members of the Movimiento Todos por la Patria ("All for the Fatherland" Movement, "MTP", founded in 1986 by former ERP leader Enrique Gorriarán Merlo) attacked the 3rd 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, followed by several other vehicles. 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".