Leopoldo Galtieri
Argentine President and General · 1926–2003
Who is Leopoldo Galtieri?
Leopoldo Galtieri was an Argentine Army general who served as de facto President of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982, during the final years of the country's military dictatorship. As head of the ruling junta, he ordered the invasion of the British-held Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982, a move intended to assert Argentina's longstanding claim to the territory, known in Argentina as the Malvinas, and to rally public support for the struggling military government amid a deep economic crisis. Addressing a large crowd from the balcony of the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires on the day of the invasion, Galtieri defiantly declared that Argentina would meet any British response with battle. The subsequent seventy-four-day war ended in Argentina's defeat and the surrender of its forces on 14 June 1982, a humiliation that discredited the junta and led directly to Galtieri's removal from power days later. He was later court-martialled by Argentina's own military over the conduct of the war, and separately faced human rights charges from the broader "Dirty War" period before his death in 2003.
Sources: Leopoldo Galtieri, Wikipedia · Falklands War, Wikipedia · Infobae, "la arenga de Galtieri en la Plaza de Mayo" (2026 retrospective)