Juan Perón

Infobox_President | name=Juan Domingo Perón


nationality=Argentine
order1=41st President of Argentina
3 Term
order2=29th President of Argentina
2 Term
term2=June 4, 1952 – September 21, 1955
order3=29th President of Argentina
1 Term
term3=June 4, 1946 – June 3, 1952
order4=2nd President the Eva Perón Foundation
term_start4=1952
term_end4=September 21, 1955
president4= Juan Perón
predecessor4=Maria Eva Duarte de Perón
successor4="Post rescinded".
predecessor3=Edelmiro Farrell
predecessor2=Reelected
predecessor1=Raúl Lastiri
successor3= Reelected
successor2=José Domingo Molina
successor1=Isabel Martínez
birth_date=birth date|1895|10|8
birth_place=Lobos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
death_date=death date and age|1974|07|1|1895|10|8
death_place=Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
spouse=Aurelia Tizón (1929-1938)
Eva Duarte (1945-1952)
Isabel Martínez (1961-1974)
party=Justicialist
vicepresident3=Hortensio Quijano(1946-52)
None(1952)
vicepresident2=None(1952-54)
Alberto Tessaire(1954-55)
vicepresident1=Isabel Martínez
profession=Military


relations=Mario Tomás Perón ("father")
Juana Sosa ("mother")

Juan Domingo Perón (October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974) was an Argentine colonel and politician, elected three times as President of Argentina, after serving in several government positions including Labor Secretary and Vice President. He returned to power in 1973 and served for nine months, until his death in 1974 when he was succeeded by his third wife Isabel Martínez.

Perón and his second wife, Eva, were immensely popular amongst many of the Argentine people and are still considered icons by the Peronist Party. The Peróns' followers praised their efforts to eliminate poverty and to dignify labor, while their detractors considered them demagogues and dictators. The Peróns gave their name to the political movement known as Peronism, which in present-day Argentina is represented by the Justicialist Party.

Childhood and youth

Perón was born near Lobos, Province of Buenos Aires. He was the son of Mario Tomás Perón, a farmer whose family was partly Scottish and Italian, and Juana Sosa, of Spanish descent.

Perón married his first wife, Aurelia Tizón, on January 5, 1929, but she died of uterine cancer nine years later. He called her "Potota."

Perón received a strict Catholic upbringing. He entered military school at 16, and after graduation he progressed through the ranks. In 1938 he was sent to Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Albania and Yugoslavia as a military observer, and became familiar with Benito Mussolini's government and other European governments of the time.

Military government of 1943-1946

In May 1943, as a colonel, he took a significant part in the military coup by the GOU (United Officers' Group), a secret society, against the conservative civilian government of Ramón Castillo. At first an assistant to Secretary of War General Edelmiro Farrell, under the administration of General Pedro Ramírez, he later became the head of the then-insignificant Department of Labor.

Perón's work in the Labor Department led to an alliance with the socialist and syndicalist movements in the Argentine labor unions. This caused his power and influence to increase in the military government. [es icon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
] ]

After the coup, socialists from the labor union CGT Nº1, made contact with Colonels Domingo Mercante and Peron through the mercantile labor leader Angel Borlenghi and the railroad union lawyer Juan Atilio Bramuglia. They established an alliance to promote labor laws that had long been demanded by the workers' movement, strengthen the unions, and transform the Department of Labor into a more significant government office. In February 1945, Peron became Vice President and Secretary of War under General Edelmiro Farrell. Forced to resign by opponents within the armed forces on October 9, 1945, Perón was arrested, but mass demonstrations organized by the CGT trade union federation forced his release on October 17. Four days later, he married his second wife, Eva Duarte, who became hugely popular. Known as Evita, she helped her husband gain support with labor and women's groups.

Election as president and first term (1946-1952)

Perón leveraged his popular support to victory in the February 24, 1946 presidential elections.

Once in office, Perón pursued policies aimed at empowering the working class. He greatly expanded the number of unionized workers, and strengthened the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), created in 1930. He called these policies the "third position", between capitalism and communism. Perón also pushed industrialization hard; in 1947 he announced the first five-year plan to boost newly nationalized industries. He also proceeded, in 1948, to the nationalisation of the railway companies, establishing the "Ferrocarriles Argentinos". Peronism became a major force in Argentine politics, and Perón continued to exert a strong influence after the 1955 military uprising forced him into exile.

Among upper-class Argentines, improvement of the workers' situation was a source of resentment; industrial workers from rural areas had formerly been treated as servants. It was common for better-off Argentines to refer to these workers using racist slurs like "little black heads" ("cabecitas negras", the name of a bird), "greased" ("grasas" which came from people with grease in their hands/fingernails ie blue-collar), "un-shirted" ("descamisados", since they "took off their jackets and/or shirts"). The radical deputy Ernesto Sammartino said that people who vote for Perón were a "zoological flood" ("aluvión zoológico"). [ [http://ricardobalbin.tripod.com/los44.htm Quoted by Hugo Gambini in his book "Historia del peronismo"] He said, in Spanish: "El aluvión zoológico del 24 de febrero parece haber arrojado a algún diputado a su banca, para que desde ella maúlle a los astros por una dieta de 2.500 pesos. Que siga maullando, que a mí no me molesta..."] In the 1940s upper-class students were the first to oppose Peronist workers, with the slogan: "No to espadrille dictatorship" ("No a la dictadura de las alpargatas"). A graffito revealing the strong opposition between Peronists and anti-Peronists appeared in upper-class districts in the 1950s, "Long live cancer!" ("¡Viva el cáncer!"), when Eva Perón was dying of cancer. [ [http://www.elhistoriador.com.ar/frases/evaperon/vivaelcancer.php Eduardo Galeano , Memorias del Fuego , México, Siglo XXI, 1990] ] She died of uterine cancer in 1952 at the age of thirty-three. [Lerner, BH (2000). The illness and death of Eva Perón: cancer, politics, and secrecy. Lancet 355:1988-1991]

Weiss (2005, p.45) recalls events in the universities:

"As a young student in Buenos Aires in the early 1950s, I well remember the graffiti found on many an empty wall all over town: "Build the Fatherland. Kill a Student" ("Haga patria, mate un estudiante"). [Perón] opposed the universities, which questioned his methods and his goals. A well-remembered slogan was, "Alpargatas sí, libros no" ("peon footwear? Yes! Books? No!"). Universities were then 'intervened'. In some, a "Peronista" mediocrity was appointed rector. Others were closed for years."

Between 1947 and 1950, Argentina manufactured two advanced jet aircraft called Pulqui I (designed by the Argentine engineers Cardehilac, Morchio and Ricciardi with the French Emile Dewoitine, condemned in France in absentia for Collaborationism), and Pulqui II designed by Kurt Tank. In the test flights, the planes were flown by Lieutenant Edmundo Osvaldo Weiss and Kurt Tank himself, reaching 1000 km/h with the Pulqui II. Argentina continued testing the Pulqui II until 1959; in the tests, two pilots lost their lives. [ [http://www.lucheyvuelve.com.ar/pulqui/pulqui1.htm El proyecto Pulqui: propaganda peronista de la época] ] The Pulqui project opened the door to two successful Argentinian planes: [http://www.choiquehobbies.com.ar/revista/notas/pucara/Pucara.htm I.A.58"Pucara] and the [http://www.fuerzaaerea.mil.ar/material/pampa.html I.A.63'Pampa] manufactured at the Aircraft Factory of Córdoba. [http://www.reconstruccion2005.com.ar/0412/aviacion.htm La aviación militar apunta a Cordobacomo vector comercial del poder aéreo]

In 1951, Perón announced that the Huemul Project would produce nuclear fusion before any other country. The project was led by an Austrian, Ronald Richter, who had been recommended by Kurt Tank. Tank expected to power his aircraft with Richter's invention. Perón announced that energy produced by the fusion process would be delivered in milk-bottle sized containers. Richter announced success in 1951, but no proof was given. The next year, Perón appointed a scientific team to investigate Richter's activities. Reports by José Antonio Balseiro and Mario Báncora revealed that the project was a fraud. After that, the Huemul Project was transferred to the Centro Atómico Bariloche (CAB) of the Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and to the physics institute of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, later named Instituto Balseiro (IB).

Protection of Nazi war criminals

After World War II, Argentina became a leading haven for Nazi war criminals, with explicit protection from Perón. Uki Goñi showed in his 1998 book that Nazis and French and Belgian collaborationists, including Pierre Daye, organized a meeting in the "Casa Rosada" with Perón. In this meeting, a network was created with support by the Immigration Service and foreign office. The Swiss Chief of Police Heinrich Rothmund [http://www.millersville.edu/~holo-con/epstein.html] and the Croatian Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović also helped organize the ratline [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-14198-2002-12-15.html La Odessa que creó Perón] , "Pagina/12", 15 December 2002 es icon ] . According to Goñi, 1948 was the most active year, during which Carlos Fuldner was in Switzerland with a special passport describing him as "special envoy of the President of Argentina." In 1946, Cardinal Antonio Caggiano went to the Vatican, in the name of the Argentine government, offered refuge for French collaborationists who had fled to Rome .

An investigation of 22,000 documents by the DAIA in 1997 discovered that the network was managed by Rodolfo Freude who had an office in the Casa Rosada and was close to Eva Perón's brother, Juan Duarte. According to Ronald Newton, Ludwig Freude, Rodolfo's father, was probably the local representative of the Office Three secret service headed by Joachim von Ribbentrop, with probably more influence than the German ambassador Edmund von Thermann. He had met Perón in the 1930s, and had contacts with Generals Juan Pistarini, Domingo Martínez and Molina. Ludwig Freude's house became the meetingplace for Nazis and Argentine military officers supporting the Axis. In 1943, he went with Perón to Europe to attempt an arms deal with Germany. [ [http://www.lanacion.com.ar/202464 La rama nazi de Perón] , "La Nacion", 16 February 1997 es icon ] Examples of Nazis and collaborators who went to Argentina include Emile Dewoitine, who arrived in May 1946 and worked on the Pulqui jet, Erich Priebke, who arrived in 1947, Josef Mengele in 1949, Adolf Eichmann in 1950, his adjutant Franz Stangl, Austrian representative of Spitzy in Spain, Reinhard Spitzy, Charles Lescat, editor of "Je Suis Partout" in Vichy France, SS functionary Ludwig Lienhardt, German industrialist Ludwig Freude, "SS-Hauptsturmführer" Klaus Barbie.

As well, many members of the notorious Croatian Ustaše (including their leader, Ante Pavelic) took refuge in Argentina, as did Milan Stojadinovich, Prime minister of occupied Yugoslavia Mark Falcoff, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/981109/latin_america.perons_na30a.html Perón's Nazi Ties] , "Time", November 9, 1998, vol 152, n°19 ] . The Croatian priest Krunoslav Draganović, organizer of the San Girolamo ratline, was authorized by Perón to help Nazis come to Argentina . He helped in particular the Ustaše, and Pavelic became a security advisor of Perón, before leaving for Francoist Spain in 1957 Yossi Melman, [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=670245 Tied up in the Rat Lines] , "Haaretz", 17 January 2006 ] .

As in the United States (Operation Paperclip), Argentina also welcomed displaced German technicians such as Kurt Tank and Ronald Richter. Some of these refugees took important roles in Perón's Argentina, such as French collaborationist Jacques de Mahieu, who became an ideologue of the Peronist movement, before becoming mentor to a Roman Catholic nationalist youth group in the 1960s. Belgian collaborationist Pierre Daye became editor of a Peronist magazine. Rodolfo Freude, Ludwig's son, became Perón's chief of presidential intelligence in his first term. Stojadinovitch founded "El Economista" in 1951, which still carries his name on its masthead.

Recently, Uki Goñi's research, drawing on investigations in Argentine, Swiss, American, British and Belgian government archives, as well as numerous interviews and other sources, was detailed in "The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina" (2002), showing how escape routes known as ratlines were used by former NSDAP members and like-minded people to escape trial and judgment. [Uki Goñi, "The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina" (2002) (Granta Books, 2002, ISBN 1862075816) ] Uki Goñi places particular emphasis on the part played by Perón's government in organizing the ratlines, as well as documenting the aid of Swiss and Vatican authorities in their flight. The Argentine consulate in Barcelona gave false passports to fleeing Nazi war criminals and collaborationists.

Perón and the Jewish and German communities of Argentina

cquote|"When I realized that Perón, contrary to previous governments, gave Jewish citizens access to public office, I began to change my way of thinking about Argentine politics..."

Ezequiel Zabotinsky, president of the Jewish-Peronist Organizacion Israelita Argentina, 1952-1955 [ [http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?osu1039034580 "The Jews and Perón: Communal Politics and National Identity in Peronist Argentina, 1946–1955" by Lawrence D. Bell] Page 10. Retrieved May 2, 2008]

Fraser and Navarro write that Juan Perón was a complicated man who over the years stood for many different, often contradictory, things. [Fraser, Nicholas. Navarro, Marysa. Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London. 1980, 1996.] In the book "Inside Argentina from Perón to Menem" author Laurence Levine, former president of the US-Argentine Chamber of Commerce, writes, "although anti-Semitism existed in Argentina, Perón's own views and his political associations were not anti-Semitic...." Laurence also writes that one of Perón's advisors was a Jewish man from Poland named José Ber Gelbard. "Inside Argentina from Perón to Menem: 1950–2000 From an American Point of View" by Laurence Levine, page 23" ISBN 0964924773] U.S. Ambassador George S. Messersmith visited Argentina in 1947 during the first term of Juan Perón. Messersmith noted, "There is not as much social discrimination against Jews here as there is right in New York or in most places at home..."Crassweller, David. Peron and the Enigmas of Argentina. W.W. Norton and Company. 1987: 221. ISBN 0-393-30543-0]

Perón sought out other Jewish Argentines as government advisers, besides Ber Gelbard. The powerful Secretary of Media, Raúl Apold, also Jewish, was (ironically) called "Perón´s Goebbels." He favoured the creation of institutions like New Zion (Nueva Sión), the Argentine-Jewish Institute of Culture and Information, presided by Simón Mirelman, and the Argentine-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Also, he named Rabbi Amran Blum the first Jewish professor of philosophy in the National University of Buenos Aires. After being the first Latin American government to acknowledge the State of Israel, he sent a Jewish ambassador, Pablo Mangel. Education and Diplomacy were the two strongholds of Catholic nationalism, and both appointments were highly symbolic. The same goes for the 1946 decision of allowing Jewish privates to celebrate their holidays, which was aimed at fostering the Jewish position in another traditionally Catholic institution, the army.Argentina signed a generous commercial agreement with the Jewish state, that granted favourable terms for Israeli acquisitions of Argentine commodities, and also the Eva Perón Foundation sent a huge humanitarian aid. Chaim Weizmann and Golda Meir expressed their gratitude during their visit to Buenos Aires in 1951.

The German Argentine community in Argentina is the third largest ethnic group in the country, after the Spanish Argentines and the Italian Argentines. The German Argentine community predates Juan Perón's presidency, going back as far as the time of the unification of Germany. Laurence Levine writes that Perón found German civilization too "rigid" and therefore had a "distaste" for it. Crassweller writes that while Juan Perón's own personal preference was for Hispanic culture, with which he felt a spiritual affinity, Perón was "pragmatic" in dealing with the diverse populace of Argentina.

While Juan Perón's Argentina allowed many Nazi criminals to take refuge in Argentina, Juan Perón's Argentina also accepted more Jewish immigrants than any other country in Latin America, which in part accounts for the fact that Argentina to this day has a population of over 200,000 Jewish citizens, the largest in Latin America, the third largest in the Americas, and the sixth largest in the world. ["Continuing Efforts to Conceal Anti-Semitic Past." Valente, Marcela. Valente, Marcela. IPS-Inter Press Service. April 27, 2005.] [ [http://www.jpppi.org.il/JPPPI/SendFile.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&GID=489 The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute; Annual Assessment, 2007] [ [http://www.ujc.org/section.html?id=29 United Jewish Communities; Global Jewish Populations] ] [http://www.jdc.org/p_amer_arg_pop.html] The Jewish Virtual Library writes that while Juan Perón had sympathized with the Axis powers, "Perón also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949. Since then, more than 45,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel from Argentina." [Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Argentina.html#WW2]

Tomás Eloy Martínez, professor of Latin American studies at Rutgers University, writes that Juan Perón allowed Nazi criminals into the country in hopes of acquiring advanced German technology developed during the war. Martínez also notes that Juan Perón's wife, Eva Perón, played no part in allowing Nazis into the country. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1997/int/970120/cinema.the_woman.html THE WOMAN BEHIND THE FANTASY: PROSTITUTE, FASCIST, PROFLIGATE--EVA PERON WAS MUCH MALIGNED, MOSTLY UNFAIRLY] Tomás Eloy Martínez, Director of the Latin American program at Rutgers University]

The second term

Perón was re-elected in 1951. During his second term, Perón's administration faced serious economic problems. Perón called employers and unions to a Productivity Congress to regulate social conflict through dialogue; but, the conference failed and a deal was not made. Opposition to Perón grew bolder following the first lady's death. On April 15, 1953, a terrorist group detonated two bombs in a public rally at Plaza de Mayo, killing 7 and injuring 95. Exhorting the crowd to take reprisals during the chaos, they made their way to their adversaries' gathering places, the Socialist Party headquarters and the aristocratic Jockey Club (both housed in magnificent turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts buildings), burning them to the ground.

A stalemate of sorts ensued between Perón and his opposition and, despite austerity measures taken late in 1952 to remedy the country's unsustainable trade deficit, the president remained quite popular among the public in general. In March, 1954, Perón called Vice-Presidential elections to replace the late , which his candidate won by a nearly two-to-one margin. Given what he felt was as solid a mandate as ever and with the economy on a more secure footing, Perón ventured into a line of policy very new to him: the creation of incentives designed to attract foreign investment. Drawn to an economy with the highest living standard in Latin America, automakers FIAT and Kaiser Motors responded to the initiave by breaking ground on new facilities in the city of Cordoba, as did the freight truck division of Daimler-Benz, the first such investments since General Motors' Argentine assembly opened in 1926. Perón, likewise, signed an important exploration contract with Standard Oil of California, in May 1955, consolidating his new policy of substituting the two largest sources of that era's chronic trade deficits (imported petroleum and motor vehicles) with local production brought in through foreign investment. The centrist Radical Civic Union's 1951 Vice-Presidential nominee, Arturo Frondizi, publically condemned what he considered to be an anti-patriotic decision; as president, three years later, however, he himself signed exploration contracts with foreign oil companies.

As 1954 drew to a close, Perón unveiled reforms far more controversial to the normally conservative Argentine public, the legalization of divorce and of prostitution. The Roman Catholic Church, whose support of Perón's government had been steadily waning, were now open antagonists of the man they called "the Dictator". Also, Argentina's media, they made sure lurid pieces on "the Dictator's" ongoing relationship with an underage girl filled the gossip pages, something Perón never denied. [Rock, David. "Authoritarian Argentina". University of California Press, 1993.] Pressed by reporters on whether his supposed new paramour was, as the magazines claimed, thirteen, the witty, fifty-nine year-old Perón responded that he was "not superstitious."

Before long, however, the president's humor on the subject ran out and, following the expulsion of two Catholic priests he believed to be behind his recent image problems, Perón was excommunicated by Pope Pius XII. A time-honored custom among Argentine presidents during a challenge, on June 16, 1955, Péron called for a rally of support on the Plaza de Mayo, gathering thousands. As he spoke, however, Navy fighter jets flew overhead, dropping their ordinance.

The incident, a coup attempt against Perón, killed 364 people and was, from a historical perspective, the only air assault ever on Argentine soil, as well as a portent of much of the mayhem Argentine society suffered in the 1970s. It, moreover, touched off a wave of reprisals on the part of Peronists. Reminiscent of the incidents in 1953, Peronist crowds ransacked a number of Buenos Aires churches, including the Metropolitan Cathedral, itself. On September 16, 1955, a nationalist Catholic group from both the Army and Navy, led by General Eduardo Lonardi, General Pedro E. Aramburu and Admiral Isaac Rojas, took power in a coup which they named "Revolución Libertadora" (the "Liberating Revolution"). Perón barely escaped with his life, three days later.

Leaving a country more politically polarized than it had been since 1880, Argentina's landowning elites and other conservatives pointed to an exchange rate that had plummeted from 4 to 30 pesos per dollar and consumer prices that had risen nearly five-fold [http://www.indec.mecon.ar/nuevaweb/cuadros/10/ipc-var-dde1943.xls] , employers and moderates generally agreed, qualifying that with the fact the economy had grown by over 40% (the best showing since the 1920s). [Statistical Abstract of Latin America. UCLA Press.] The underprivileged and humanitarians looked back upon the era as one in which real wages grew by over a third and better working conditions arrived alongside benefits like pensions, health care, paid vacations and the construction of over 4,200 health care facilities, [ [http://www.juventudperonista.obolog.com/biografia-ramon-carrillo-30512 Biografia De Ramon Carrillo ] ] over 1,000 kindergartens and over 8,000 schools, among an array of other public works. [http://militanciaperonistajoven.blogspot.com/2007/10/peron-y-la-educacionalpargatas-si.html]

Exile (1955-1973)

After the coup, Perón fled to Paraguay with the help of his friend President Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay, who sent a gunboat to anchor in the Rio de la Plata. Later, he lived in Panama, where he met the nightclub singer Isabel María Estela Martínez., he married Isabel in 1961. The military regime, for their part, went to great lengths to destroy both the President's and Eva Perón's reputation, putting up public exhibits of what they maintained was the Peróns' scandalously sumptous taste for antiques, jewelry, roadsters, yachts and other luxuries. They, likewise, accused other Peronist leaders of corruption; but, ultimately, though many were prosecuted, no one was convicted.

Throughout Argentina, Peronism and the very display of Peronist mementoes was banned. The new president, General Pedro Aramburu made, by decree, the mere mention of Juan Perón's name illegal. Partly in response to this and other excesses, Peronists and moderates in the army organized a counter-coup against Aramburu, in June, 1956. Possessing an efficient intelligence network, however, Aramburu foiled the plan, having the plot's leader, General Juan José Valle and scores of others executed. Aramburu turned to similarly drastic means in trying to rid the country of the spectre of the Peróns, themselves. Eva Perón's cadaver was removed from its display at CGT labor union headquarters and ordered hidden under another name in a modest grave in Milan, Italy. Perón himself, for the time residing in Caracas, Venezuela at the kindness of ill-fated President Marcos Perez Jimenez, suffered a number of attempted kidnappings and assassinations on Aramburu's orders. [http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=419522 La Nación] Continuing to exert considerable direct influence over Argentine politics despite the continuing ban of Peronism or the Justicialist Party as Argentina geared for the 1958 elections, Peròn instructed his supporters to cast their ballots for the moderate Arturo Frondizi, a splinter candidate within the Peronists' largest opposition party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR). Frondizi went on to defeat the better-known (but, more anti-Peronist) UCR leader, Ricardo Balbín. [Rock, David. Argentina: 1516-1987. University of California Press, 1989.]

Perón was admitted back into the church in 1963. Perón sent his wife, Isabel, to Argentina in 1965, to meet political dissidents there. She organized a meeting in the house of mayor Bernardo Alberte, Perón's delegate and sponsor of various left-wing Peronist movements such as the CGT de los Argentinos (CGTA), an offshoot of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), then headed by Augusto Vandor, who opposed for a time Perón with the motto "Peronism without Perón" and "to save Perón, one has to be against Perón". Between 1968 and 1972, the CGTA organized opponents to Juan Carlos Onganía's dictatorship, and it would have an important role in the May-June 1969 "Cordobazo" insurrection.

During Isabel's visit, José López Rega, future founder of the Triple A death squad, won Isabel's trust, and then went to Spain see Perón. There, he worked for Perón's security before becoming the couple's personal secretary.

In his book "La Hora de los Pueblos" (1968), Perón enounced the main principles of his Tricontinental political vision: cquote|Mao is at the head of Asia, Nasser of Africa, De Gaulle of the old Europe and Castro of Latin America. [ Silvia Sigal, "Le rôle politique des intellectuels en Amérique latine", Paris, L’Harmattan, 1996, p.268, quoted by Carmen Bernand, « D’une rive à l’autre », "Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, Materiales de seminarios", 2008 (Latin-Americanist Review published by the EHESS), Put on line on 15 June 2008. URL : http://nuevomundo.revues.org//index35983.html Accessed on 28 July 2008. fr icon]

Perón supported the more active unions and maintained close links with the Montoneros, a left-wing Catholic Peronist group. On June 1, 1970, the Montoneros kidnapped and assassinated former anti-Peronist president Pedro Eugenio Aramburu in retaliation for the June 1956 Leon Suarez massacre and the execution of Juan José Valle, who had headed a Peronist uprising against the junta.

Following Onganía's replacement in June 1970 by General Roberto M. Levingston, former military attachée at the Argentine Embassy in Washington D.C., who decided to go ahead with the "Revolución Argentina", governing against the will of the different political parties, the Opposition signed a conjoint declaration of 11 November 1970, named "la Hora del Pueblo" (The Hour of the People), which called for free and immediate democratic elections to put an end to the political crisis. The declaration was signed by the Radical Civic Union of the People (UCRP), the Justicialist Party (Peronist Party), the Argentine Socialist Party (PSA), the Popular Conservative Party (PCP) and the "Partido Bloquista" (PB).

The Opposition's call for elections led to Levingston's replacement by General Alejandro Lanusse, in March 1971. Faced with strong opposition and social conflicts, General Lanusse declared his intention to restore constitutional democracy by 1973, and called for elections but excluded the Peronist Party from participating to it. Lanusse tried to implement starting in July 1971 the "Gran Acuerdo Nacional" (Great National Agreement), which was to find an honorable exit for the military junta without allowing Peronism participation to the elections. The proposal was rejected by Perón, exiled in Spain, who formed the FRECILINA ("Frente Cívico de Liberación Nacional", Civic Front of National Liberation), headed by his delegate Héctor José Cámpora (a member of the Peronist Left) and which gathered the Justicialist Party and the "Movimiento de Integración y Desarrollo" (MID), headed by Arturo Frondizi. The FRECILINA requested free and unrestricted elections, which took place on March 11, 1973.

From exile, Perón supported both left-wing Peronists and right-wing Peronists. He supported conservative radicals such as Ricardo Balbín, member of the Radical Civic Union and an old opponent of Perón's. In 1971, he sent two letters to the film director Octavio Getino, one congratulating him for his work with Fernando Solanas and Gerardo Vallejo, in the "Grupo Cine Liberación", and another concerning two film documentaries, "La Revolución Justicialista" and "Actualización política y doctrinaria" Oscar Ranzani, [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/cultura/7-42538-2004-10-20.html La revolución es un sueño eterno] , "Pagina 12", 20 October 2004 es icon] .

Finally, members of the right-wing Tacuara Nationalist Movement, considered the first Argentine guerrilla group, turned towards him. Founded in the early 1960s, the Tacuaras were a fascist, anti-Semitic and anti-conformist group founded on the model of Primo de Rivera's Falange, who first strongly opposed Peronism. However, they split after the 1959 Cuban Revolution into three groups. Opposed to the Peronist alliance, the Catholic priest Meinvielle retained the original hard-line stance. Dardo Cabo founded the Movimiento Nueva Argentina (MNA, New Argentina Movement), officially launched on June 9, 1961, to commemorate General Juan José Valle’s Peronist uprising in 1956. The MNA became the ancestor of all modern Catholic nationalist groups in Argentina. Finally, Joe Baxter and José Luis Nell joined the Peronists, believing in its revolutionary capacities. They created the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario Tacuara (MNRT, Revolutionary Nationalist Tacuara Movement) which, without forsaking nationalism, broke from the Church, and abandoned anti-Semitism. Baxter’s MNRT became progressively Marxist. Many of the Montoneros and of the ERP’s leaders came from this group.

The third term (1973-1974)

General elections were held on March 11, 1973. Perón was banned from running, but a stand-in, Héctor Cámpora, a left-wing Peronist and his personal secretary, was elected and took office on May 25. On June 20, 1973, Perón returned from Spain to end his 18-year exile. According to "Pagina 12" newspaper, Licio Gelli, headmaster of Propaganda Due, had provided an Alitalia plane to return to his native country Susana Viau and Eduardo Tagliaferro, [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/1998/98-12/98-12-14/pag03.htm Carlos Bartffeld, Mason y Amigo de Massera, Fue Embajador en Yugoslavia Cuando Se Vendieron Armas a Croacia - En el mismo barco] , "Pagina 12", December 14, 1998 es icon] . Gelli was part of a committee supporting Perón, along with Carlos Saúl Menem (future President of Argentina in the 1980s-90s) . The former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti recalled an encounter between Perón, his wife Isabel Martínez and Gelli, saying that Perón knelt before Licio Gelli to salute him .On the day of Perón's return, a crowd of left-wing Peronists (estimated at 3.5 million) gathered at the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires to welcome him. Perón was accompanied by Cámpora, whose first measures were to grant amnesty to all political prisoners and reestablish relations with Cuba, helping Castro break the US embargo. This, along with his social policies, had earned him the opposition of right-wing Peronists, including the trade-unionist bureaucracy.

Camouflaged snipers, including members of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (aka Triple A), opened fire on the crowd at the airport. The left-wing Peronist Youth Organization and the Montoneros had been trapped. At least 13 people were killed and 365 injured in this episode, which became known as the Ezeiza massacre. [es icon Horacio Verbitsky, "Ezeiza", Contrapunto, Buenos Aires, 1985. Available at [http://www.elortiba.org/ezeiza.html ElOrtiba] .]

Cámpora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections, this time with Perón's participation. Argentina had reached a peak of instability, and Perón was viewed by many as the country's only hope for prosperity and safety.

UCR leader Ricardo Balbín and Perón contemplated a Peronist-Radical joint government, but opposition in both parties made this impossible. Perón received 62% of the vote, returning him to the presidency. In October 1973 he began his third term, with Isabel, his wife, as Vice President.Perón's third term was marked by an escalating conflict between the Peronist left- and right-wing factions. This turmoil was fueled primarily by Perón's growing ties to conservative Radical Party leader Ricardo Balbín, who the opposition, led by Raúl Alfonsín, considered a right-wing radical. The Montoneros became marginalized in the Peronist movement and were mocked by Perón himself after the Ezeiza massacre. In his speech to the governors on 2 August 1973, Perón openly criticized radical Argentine youth for a lack of political maturity. Shortly after Perón's attack on left-wing Peronism, the Montoneros went underground. Another guerrilla group, the Guevarists ERP, also opposed the right-wing Peronists, and started engaging in armed struggle, attempting to create a "foco" in Tucuman, the smallest province of Argentina located in the Northwest. Meanwhile, José Lopez Rega, personal secretary of Juan Perón and then of Isabel Perón, began targeting left-wing opponents.

Perón died of a heart attack on July 1, 1974 recommending that his wife, Isabel, rely on Balbín for support. At the president's burial Balbín uttered a historic phrase, "This old adversary bids farewell to a friend".

Isabel Perón succeeded her husband to the presidency, but proved incapable of managing the country's political and economic problems, including the left-wing insurgency and the reactions of the extreme right. Ignoring her late husband's advice, Isabel gave Balbín no role in her new government, instead granting broad powers to López Rega, who started a "dirty war" against political opponents.

" ("desaparecidos"), people kidnapped and executed without trial or record.

Peron's Mausoleum

Perón was buried in La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires. In 1987, his tomb was desecrated, and his hands and some personal effects, such as his sword, were stolen.Fact|date=March 2008 In the year 2007, journalist David Cox and Damian Nabot in their book "La Segunda Muerte" reported that the robbery of his hands was connected to Licio Gelli, and military officers that were involved during Argentina's Dirty War.

On 17 October 2006 his body was moved to a mausoleum at his former summer residence, rebuilt as a museum, in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Vicente. A few people were injured in riots, as Peronist trade unions fought over access to the ceremony. The police contained the violence enough for the procession to move to the mausoleum. This move of Perón's body offered his self-proclaimed illegitimate daughter the opportunity to obtain a DNA sample from his corpse. The woman, Martha Holgado, 72, had been trying for 15 years to do this DNA analysis, which, in November 2006, proved she was not his daughter. [CNN. 17 October 2006. [http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/10/17/peron.rebury.ap/index.html Body of Argentina's Perón to move to $1.1 million crypt] ] [BBC News. 17 October 2006. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6060388.stm Violence mars reburial of Perón] ]

Footnotes

Further reading

*David Cox and Damian Nabot, "La Segunda Muerte" (Planeta 2007)

See also

*History of Argentina
*Peronism

External links

* [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/argentina_peron_reburial Article on Perón's reburial]
*Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend". "New Straits Times", p. 21.
* [http://www.pjalmirantebrown.com.ar Historia del Peronismo] (seccion historia)
* [http://ukinet.com/la-times.htm Tobar, Hector] (Los Angeles Times, 2003)
* [http://libcom.org/history/articles/1919-eva-evita-peron/ Heath, Nick] (People's History, UK)
* [http://www.icarodigital.com.ar/numero11/eldamero/tortura2/tortenarg.htm Benitez, Marcelo Manuel] (Icarodigital, AR)
* [http://www.pjalmirantebrown.com.ar Perón history]
* [http://sabio.arizona.edu/search/X?(nudelman)+and+(era)+and+(terror)&l=&b=&SORT=A&m=&p=&Da=&Db= Nudelman, Santiago] (Buenos Aires, 1960; Chiefly draft resolutions and declarations presented by Nudelman as a member of the Cámara de Diputados of the Argentine Republic during the Perón administration)
* [http://www.casahistoria.net/peron.htm Casahistoria pages on Perón] Les Fearns site, also links to Eva Perón pages
* [http://remember.org/guide/Facts.root.nazi.html Extracts (in English) from Juan Domingo Perón, Peronist Doctrine] Edited by the Peronist Party. (Buenos Aires, 1952). Modern History Sourcebook
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040410153117/http://edsall-historypage.org/html/20_truths_peron.html The Twenty Truths of the Peronist Movement (1940s)] The Justicialist movement’s core tenets.
* [http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/arl/pm/sample2/argentin/peron/ Juan Domingo Perón Argentine Presidential Messages] Well indexed dating from 1946 onwards. The actual documents are shown as photocopied images. Note: Downloading can be slow! University of Texas.
* [http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/II_1/plotkin.htm#foot0 Perón y el peronismo: un ensayo bibliográfico] by Mariano Ben Plotkin.
*Hugo Gambini (1999). "Historia del peronismo", Editorial Planeta. F2849 .G325 1999
* [http://electroneubio.secyt.gov.ar/Pimentel-Recuerdos_de_Ramon_Carrillo.htm Photo (1948)] of Juana Sosa de Perón, Gral. Perón's mother, with his daughter, as Mrs. Sosa de Perón referred to the child. This paternity is currently disputed. Image is included in an article on Minister Carrillo.
* Gabriele Casula (2004) "Dove naciò Perón? un enigma sardo nella storia dell'Argentina" http://www.editorisardi.it/catalogo/shopping/book_enlarge.php?id=2470 - http://www.condaghes.com/scheda.asp?id=88-7356-028-8
* Gerchunoff, Pablo; Llach, Lucas (1998) "El ciclo de la ilusión y el desencanto: un siglo de políticas económicas argentinas", Buenos Aires, Ariel Sociedad Económica.
* Weiss, Herold (2005). "Paul's journey to the River Plate." In Cosgrove et al. (2005).
* Cosgrove, Charles H. , Herold Weiss, & K.K. (Khiok-khing) Yeo (2005). "Cross-cultural Paul: journeys to others, journeys to ourselves." Grand Rapids, Mich. : W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 293 p. BS2506.3 .C67 2005, ISBN 0802828434
* Tomas Eloy Martínez, 'La novela de Perón' (The Perón Novel), 'Memorias del General', (Memoirs of the General)'
* [http://ukinet.com/english.htm Webpage of author Uki Goñi] with extensive documentation on Perón's involvement in harboring Nazi fugitives

Persondata
NAME = Perón, Juan Domingo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Argentine politician
DATE OF BIRTH = October 8, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH = Lobos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
DATE OF DEATH = July 1, 1974
PLACE OF DEATH = Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina