This former Argentine military and dictator appointed de facto president by a Military Junta was born in Mercedes, Buenos Aires on August 2, 1925. He is the son of Colonel Rafael Eugenio Videla (1888 – 1952) and of Maria Olga Redondo Ojea (1897 – 1987) and is the third of the five children of the marriage. His name was chosen in honor of two twin brothers who died in 1923 from measles. His family with a very traditional ancestry from the city of San Luis, has several members of his family with outstanding political participation, such as his great-great-grandfather Blas Videla and his grandfather Jacinto Videla who was governor of San Luis between 1891 and 1893.
In 1948 she married Alicia raquel hartridge, daughter of an ambassador at the time of marriage and had seven children with her: María Cristina, the first-born born in 1949, Jorge Horacio, the first male from the prolific marriage in 1950, Alejandro Eugenio who was born in 1951 and died in 1971, Rafael Patricio in 1953, María Isabel in 1958, Fernando Gabriel in 1961 and Pedro Ignacio in 1966.
He entered the National Military College on March 3, 1942 and there he pursued a brilliant military career that finally culminated with his participation as president of the government of the military dictatorship. In December 1944 he graduated as Infantry Second Lieutenant, reaching the sixth position within a promotion number 73 composed of 196 cadets in total. He continued his training at the War College between 1952 and 1954 where he graduated as Staff officer. Due to his outstanding career he was part of the Ministry of Defense between 1958 and 1960 and from there he became the director of the Military school until 1962.
In 1971 with his promotion to Brigadier General, he was elected by Alejandro Agustin Lanusse, as director of the National Military College, considered an honor within the military career of Argentina. At the end of 1973, the commander Leandro anaya, designated it Chief of the Army Staff and as a result of her performance, the president of the moment, María Estela Martínez de Perón, names it Commander in Chief of the Army in the middle of 1975, exactly, on August 27 of that year.
In company of Emilio Eduardo Massera Y Orlando Ramon Agosti, on March 24, 1976, the coup by which the constitutional president was overthrown, María Estela Martínez de Perón, dissolving in the same act the political parties and closing the sessions of the Congress of the Republic, thus giving the beginning of what they called the National Reorganization Process.
His brilliant military career was developed on the following dates with their respective military ranks: Second Lieutenant, reached on December 22, 1944 at just 19 years of age; Lieutenant on June 15, 1947; First Lieutenant on November 3, 1949; Captain on March 1, 1952; Major on June 18, 1958; Lieutenant Colonel on December 28, 1961; Colonel on January 17, 1966; Brigadier General on November 23, 1971 and finally reached the rank of Lieutenant General on October 20, 1975, at just 50 years of age.