Democratic forces were united in their criticism of the military in the run-up to the restoration of democracy in 1983. Less than three months after the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín, several critiques of Montoneros arose from within the democratic spectrum. Firstly, "Montoneros, la soberbia armada" (), a book written by the leftist journalist Pablo Giussani, that compared Montoneros to European extreme-left terror organizations. Then, a comprehensive and documented effort by British historian Richard Gillespie titled "Montoneros, Soldados de Perón" was widely read and contributed to cement a non-romantic image of Montoneros. Juan José Sebreli invested a whole chapter of his "Los deseos imaginarios del peronismo" () to Montoneros, calling it "left-wing fascism". A few years later, Silvia Sigal and Eliseo Verón deconstructed the (verbal) opposition between Perón and Montoneros in the third section of "Perón o muerte. Los fundamentos discursivos del fenómeno peronista".