Martinez Tanoira

To what extent the Rio Tercero attack was intentionally caused by the sale of

arms by the Argentinian government to Ecuador and Croatia in 1995

1. Identification and Evaluation of the Sources

In Argentina, during the presidency of Carlos Saul Menem, the fifteenth president of the

nation. In Rio Tercero, Cordoba, Argentina, there was an explosion in the weapon fabric

of the town, this event cost the life of 7 people and 300 were wounded. This tragedy was

involved in a lot of polemic and controversy due to the lack of evidence and the suspicious

activity of the government with the weaponry conflict between Croatia versus Serbia and

Ecuador versus Peru.

Source A: Damian´s Kuc video “Historias Innecesarias: Trafico de armas- Explosiones Rio

Tercero”

This a video filmed and made by Damian Kuc about Argentinian Rio Tercero explosion in

1995, with the purpose of describing, explaining, informing and reflexing over the disaster

within an impartial point of view. This source is pertinent to this investigation as it deals

with the event studied and offers a distinctive point of view.

A value of the origin is that Damian Kuc, being an Argentine Investigator and YouTube

video creator with more than 2 years of making videos of famous Argentine and worldwide

events. He has the experience dealing with the constant corruption and how things
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happen in Argentina. A value of content is that the video includes inside it real videos of

the explosion, daily newspaper and sources from different perspectives. The purpose is

of great value because Damian presents the information in a way that makes the viewer

to use the information exposed to make their own conclusions. A limitation of the origin is

that Kuc has not a university title and people could suppose that Damian is not capable

of dealing with this type of event coverage. Limitation of the content is that the author

never shows or interpretates the intentions of the government to this accident. A limitation

of the purpose is that the author, cannot explain the who is guilty of this event.

Source B: Newspaper article, “La explosión de Río Tercero: una ciudad destruida para tapar un

contrabando de armas” by Ámbito August 14.

This is a newspaper article written by a Ámbito unknown journalist in which is related the

explosion of 1995, the legal investigation of the cause and the sentences. It is pertinent

to the investigation as it deals with the event studied and gives a wide perspective of the

explosion and the following events.

A value of the origin is that as this newspaper article is written many years after the event

itself and it can give the reader a fulfil view of the context and the events. A value of the

content is that in the article there are included quotes of people that were active

participants o the event and there are attached videos of minutes after the. A value of the

purpose is that, when analyzing and evaluating the information a conclusion of the guilty

for this accident is found. A limitation of the origin is that the author of the article is

unknown. A limitation of the content is that it does not give information as regards the
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context of the information presented. A limitation of the purpose is that the article does

not give an important space to the accused for the explosion.

SECTION2: INVESTIGATION

Carlos Saul Menem was the president of the Republic of Argentina during the last decade

of the 20th century. He took over democratically over the country after a dark time in

Argentina. A time were hyperinflation and disillusions over Peronism (supporters of

national-socialist ideas, its main leader, Juan Peron). Carlos supported the idea of a neo-

liberal Argentina but not everything went as he expected. He during his both presidential

terms he was involved in many polemics compared to their predecessors. The attack to

de Israeli embassy, the death of his son, his eccentric life, the AMIA attack, corruption

and the one we are going to investigate in this internal assessment, the Rio Tercero

attack.1

During the last decade of the century the president Menem signed three decrees in which

he approved the sale of military armaments for the war in Panama and Venezuela. On

this period, Argentina was a guarantor of peace in the conflict between Ecuador a Peru

in the war for the “Cordillera del Cóndor” and the ONU declared that it was prohibited to

send any type of armament to Croatia because of its war with Serbia2. Both conflicts were

1
https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/02/16/espanol/carlos-menem-argentina.html

2
https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-historia-venta-ilegal-armas-durante-presidencia-menem-200107040300-
32666_noticia.html
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extremely important and related to the outcome in Rio Tercero armament fabric. Why?

You may be asking; we develop that question over the next paragraphs.

In the early months of 1995, it was registered a delivery of armament from Rio Tercero to

Venezuela and Panama, but they never reached those destinations. By the investigation

of the lawyer Carlos Stornelli, it was found in the cause, “illicit association, ideological

falsehood and smuggling” that 6500 tons of all type of weapons (bullets, canons, guns,

missiles, and howitzers) were sent to Croatia in seven ship delivers and to Ecuador in

three through planes.3 This accusation was severe, it made Argentina’s reputation vile,

developing into a huge worldwide polemic. It was a very serious situation as it was

supposed that Argentina should have a pacific role over these conflicts and not be a

country which promoted and helped Ecuador and Croatia to continue their wars. The

national government had to act over this penal cause, they needed to restore the national

and global support and destroying the tracks that helped to tie the ropes into the sale

would be a priority for them.

The day of the catastrophe. The November third of 1995 in Rio Tercero, Cordoba,

Argentina a series of explosions were held in the military factory of the city, the same

factory were the supposed military equipment and weapons were delivered to Venezuela

and Panama. This explosion destroyed part of city and took the life of 7 citizens. “I went

out with my motorcycle, people were shouting, running, we were all going a thousand, the

cars, desperate, we did not know what was happening. I grabbed the Savio on my moped

3
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/contrabando-armas-ecuador-croacia-causa-mas-23-nid2178479/
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and the splinters flew. It was a danger. I wanted to see how my house was” said Veronica

Gimenez in an interview years later. The city was a post-war scenery, buildings

destroyed, people desperate, parts of armament flying in the air. 4

The first expertise proved that the type of explosions in the factory were not a just accident

they showed the right opposite the way they exploded and how the damage destroyed

the building proved that it was almost certain that external explosives were installed to

destroy the fabric and all the evidence it was held inside of it. This could be the movement

of Menem’s government to avoid more investigation and accusation in the cause, “illicit

association, ideological falsehood and smuggling”. This started a chaos in the country.

Moreover, people were really disgusted with the AMIA attack (it was a bombing that killed

85 people and left 300 wounded) just a year before. There was an immense social

pressure over the justice to reveal the truth over this shady and corrupt “accident”.

The first testimony of the president was, “In principle it would be an accident” arguing that

the security chief had the opportunity to warn and activate the security alarm after a

problem inside the manufacturing inside the assembly of the explosives. But this wasn`t

a unique testimony. The defense minister, Oscar Camilión, and Menem in repeatedly
5
causes assured that the Rio Tercero explosion was a “regrettable accident”.

4
https://www.perfil.com/noticias/cordoba/tres-testimonios-de-victimas-que-dan-cuenta-de-las-cicatrices-que-
perduran-en-rio-tercero.phtml

5
https://www.apdh-argentina.org.ar/declaraciones/carlos-menem-1989-1999-la-segunda-decada-infame
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On the other hand, we have the investigation from the fiscal Stornelli, that with deep and

developed evidence argued that it was clear that they were not talking about an accident

it was an intentional attack made from the national presidency to uncover the sales of

arms to Ecuador and Croatia.6 The social opinion was really against the government.

People, especially Rio Tercero citizens, wanted to see Menem behind the bars. “There

were two explosions. We always waited for justice.” A testimony declared. 7

After almost 6 years of investigations, accusations and trials in the province of Cordoba,

Carlos Saul Menem was declared guilty for the cause of “illicit association, ideological

falsehood and smuggling” This was shocking, it was the first time in the history of the

country that a president was going to jail. Menem was arrested and had been sent to

domiciliary prison in June 2001, but this situation did not last much. In December of the

same year, after some suspicions and not clear arguments, the Supreme Court of Justice

ordered to let him free as it was not proven that there existed an illicit association and

there was not a reason for the accused to be private from his liberty. This cause was

many times appealed but as many trails in Argentina that involves politicians, it took ten

more years when in a vague judicial oral trial Carlos Saul Menem and his defense

minister, Oscar Camilión were absolved from the cause of smuggling. After this verdict

6
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/contrabando-armas-ecuador-croacia-causa-mas-23-
nid2178479/

7
https://www.perfil.com/noticias/cordoba/tres-testimonios-de-
victimas-que-dan-cuenta-de-las-cicatrices-que-perduran-en-rio-
tercero.phtml
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Carlos made a very famous and at the time polemic declarations, “It is impossible for the

president of the Nation to control were the arms goes.” 8

All this cause never gave a sensation of justice to anyone in the country, people knew

that something was hidden between this courts and the arms, and that the sales of arms

had to relate to the explosion, this led to to trials for the next 10 years were always the

accused were absolved from all the charges, it seemed that they were untouchable, or

they just were innocents? Maybe we will never be sure of what really happened behind

the November 3rd of 1995. February the 14th of 2021. Menem was found dead, he was

probably, the only person in the world that had the information to know the truth. As that

is impossible, I tried to conclude that I’m almost certain that Rio Tercero attack was

intentionally caused by the sale of arms by the Argentinian government to Ecuador and

Croatia. All the information I could found point that it was certain that an accident was the

least probable cause of the explosion in the fabric. Testimonies, prosecutors, diaries and

some suspicious trials made me comprehend and reflect over, to understand that an

attack to Rio Tercero armaments fabric was the most reasonable reason to cover the

sales of arms. At the end of the day, it is very likely that we would never know the truth,

but this investigation helps us to understand that many questions not always have a

concrete answer.

Section 3 Reflection:

8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJnXlX4FbU
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While carrying out this investigation I came into understanding on how important an

investigation carried out by historians is, it was really harsh for me to find a text related to

the issue form an impartial perspective which could describe the key events and evidence

from Rio Tercero tragedy. The audiovisual material had a very important role in the

investigation. Videos, testimonies and interviews helped me to dimension and create a

bigger picture of the time and event I was getting into. By evaluating all this information, I

could also understand why there was so little information in the web, it was clear that the

Argentinian government wanted to hide all the information from the explosion and that

many civilians from the zone and workers from the fabric knew there was something

murky behind the explosion.

Moreover, I comprehend that a historian must use different investigation methods to prove

what he thinks, at a first instance, I was sure that with the articles I could find in the web

would be enough to carry out the investigation but just following that methodology would

have led me to a misunderstanding of the event at issue. I understood that there is not a

unique method of investigating but a historian should always evaluate each source they

have available if not they might be ignoring a part of the history.

Finally, when evaluating the causes and consequences all the information I gather never

were able to completely justify the intensions behind the explosion, it would have been

impossible to establish a certain guilty for this cause and I think, after reflecting over my
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investigation, that maybe not having a concrete answer to my question makes my job as

a historian valid as I could be able to truly immerge over the topic, not just keeping myself

in the sensationalist newspapers and truly understanding the whole context in which this

event passed by, not just focusing on the event itself.

Bibliography:
Audiovisual content:
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● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcd9hoH8RvA
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiRyUkuZ_-A
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_EfZxWhCkc
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbwXFJ8CmpI
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJnXlX4FbU
●
Web Pages:

● https://www.perfil.com/noticias/cordoba/tres-testimonios-de-victimas-que-dan-
cuenta-de-las-cicatrices-que-perduran-en-rio-tercero.phtml
● https://www.apdh-argentina.org.ar/declaraciones/carlos-menem-1989-1999-la-segunda-
decada-infame
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/contrabando-armas-ecuador-croacia-causa-mas-
23-nid2178479/
● https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/world/iran-leader-names-another-amia-bombing-
suspect-as-official-angering-argentina.phtml
● https://www.perfil.com/noticias/politica/confirmaron-condena-de-siete-anos-de-
prision-para-carlos-menem.phtml
● https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-77305-2006-12-06.html
● https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/diego-palleros-menem-sabia-la-verdad-sobre-
las-armas-nid564716/
● https://www.clarin.com/politica/explosion-fabrica-rio-tercero-
intencional_0_BkUxkATx0Kl.html
●
● https://www.perfil.com/noticias/politica/la-historia-de-la-causa-que-hace-18-anos-
complica-la-vida-de-menem-20130308-0029.phtml
● https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/los-antecedentes-del-caso-nid1405860/
● https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/02/16/espanol/carlos-menem-argentina.html
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● https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-historia-venta-ilegal-armas-durante-
presidencia-menem-200107040300-32666_noticia.html
●