Tragic Week (Argentina)

For other uses, see Tragic Week.

Tragic Week

Part of Revolutions of 1917–1923
Disturbances during Tragic Week
Date	January 1919
Location	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Also known as	Semana Trágica
Participants	Argentine Federal Police, the military, and the Argentine Patriotic League
Deaths	77-700, 100+ Jews

Tragic Week (Spanish: Semana Trágica), also known as Bloody Week, was a series of riots and massacres that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from January 7 to 14, 1919. An uprising led by anarchists and communists was eventually crushed by the Argentine Federal Police, the military, and the Argentine Patriotic League. Estimates of the death toll vary but are estimated to be 77-700, mostly of workers at the hands of the government forces.

Violence and bloodshed

When militant workers at the Vasena metal works went on strike in Buenos Aires in early January 1919 there was soon an upsurge of street violence which resulted in the death of a policeman (Vicente Chávez). The police responded with violence of their own and in one demonstration five workers were killed and another 20 were wounded. Second Lieutenant Antonio Marotta from the Argentine Army and Pascual Arregui from the Manifestación Patriótica (Patriotic Manifestation) vigilante movement were also reportedly killed in this action.

The city erupted, with police and supporting vigilante groups operating together to target those whom they perceived as foreign enemies, notably Germán Boris Wladimirovich, Gregorio Petroff, Andrés Ragapeloff, Moisés Scutz, José Buwitz, Máximo Sagarin, Iván Mijin, Simón Bolkosk and their followers who were accused of organizing a Communist revolution.

General Luis Dellepiane and his 2nd Division along with reinforcements in the form of 500 Marines restored order. These events became known, because of the violence and bloodshed, as 'Tragic Week'.

See also

• Patagonia rebelde
• Argentine Regional Workers' Federation
• List of cases of police brutality in Argentina

Further reading

• Baer, James A. (March 30, 2015). Anarchist Immigrants in Spain and Argentina. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09697-6.
• Godio, Julio (1985). La Semana Trágica de enero de 1919 . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Hyspamérica. (in Spanish)
• Horowitz, Joel (September 10, 2015). Argentina's Radical Party and Popular Mobilization, 1916–1930. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-271-07429-0.
• Pigna, Felipe (2006). Los mitos de la historia argentina: De la ley Sáenz Peña a los albores del peronismo. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta. (in Spanish)
• Schiller, Herman (2005). Momentos de luchas populares. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Instituto Movilizador de Fondos Cooperativos. (in Spanish)
• Galasso, Norberto (2006). Perón: Formación, ascenso y caída (1893-1955) (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Colihue. ISBN 950-581-399-6.
• Hébert, John Raymond (1972). The Tragic Week of January, 1919, in Buenos Aires: Background, Events, Aftermath (Ph.D.). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University. OCLC 123178801.