Commonly referred to as the Triple A, the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance was a right-wing, semi-official terrorist group active during the mid-1970s. The Peronist government, led by Isabel Peron, the wife of former dictator Juan Domingo Peron, secretly created the Triple A in 1974 to terrorize radical left-wing groups responsible for hundreds of assassinations of police and military officials. The Triple A collaborated with the military and was staffed from police rolls, though the government officially pledged to bring the mysterious assassins to justice. The group was famous for assassinations, bombings, and torture. From 1974-1976, the Triple A waged war on Argentina's political left under the leadership of Jose Lopez Rega, the Minister of Social Welfare and a long-time advisor to the Perons. <P><br /><br />The war between leftist terrorists and the Triple A grew out of a split between supporters of Juan Domingo Peron. Peron had attracted rabid support from both the left and the right. Leftists saw him as a populist who would bring about socialist revolution, while the right-wing supported his economic and political nationalism. When Peron was restored to power after a seventeen-year absence in 1973, he publicly cast aside his far-left supporters to build a better relationship with the church and economic elites. The left-wing of the Peronist movement, referred to as the Montoneros, became outcasts and took up arms. The violence escalated until military leaders staged a coup on March 24th 1976 to restore order. <P><br /><br />The leaders of the coup dissolved the Triple A in mid-1976. The army then took over the group's "counter-terrorism" responsibilities. What followed was a massive campaign of state terror against suspected subversives that resulted in as many as 30,000 deaths. This period, which lasted until 1983, is referred to as "the dirty war." The new military leaders used many of the same techniques, personnel, and even cars used by the Triple A. Thus, the Triple A is often described as the precursor to the state terror of the dirty war.  <br />