Juan Perón

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Juan Domingo Perón
President of Argentina
In office June 4, 1946 – September 21, 1955 October 12, 1972 - July 3, 1974
Vice President(s)	Hortensio Quijano Alberto Tessaire Isabel Perón
Preceded by	Edelmiro Farrell (1946) Raúl Lastiri (1973)
Succeeded by	Eduardo Lonardi (1955) Isabel Perón (1974)
Born	October 08, 1895 Lobos, Buenos Aires
Died	July 01, 1974 (aged 78) Olivos, Buenos Aires
Political party	Justicialist
Spouse	Aurelia Tizón (died 1938) María Eva Duarte de Perón (died 1952) María Estela Martínez de Perón (married 1961)
Profession	Military

Juan Domingo Perón (October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974) was an Argentine soldier and politician, elected three times as President of Argentina and serving from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974.

Perón and his second wife Eva were immensely popular among a portion of the Argentine people and still considered iconic figures by followers of the Peronist Party. Perón followers lauded his efforts to eliminate poverty and to dignify labor, while his detractors considered him a demagogue and a dictator. He started the political movement known as Peronism, still popular in Argentina to this day, which professed to be a third way between capitalism and socialism.

Contents 1 Childhood and youth 2 Military government of 1943-1946 3 Election as president and first term (1946-1952) 3.1 Protection to Nazi war criminals 4 The second term (1952-1955) 5 Exile (1955-1973) 6 The third term (1973-1974) 7 Perón's corpse 8 Footnotes 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Childhood and youth

Perón was born in a town near Lobos, Province of Buenos Aires. He was the son of Mario Tomás Perón, a farmer whose family was partially Scottish, and Juana Sosa, who is believed to have been of mixed Spanish and American Indian descent.

Further research undertaken by the Argentine journalist and writer Tomas Eloy Martinez, and reported in his books "Memoirs of the General" and "The Perón Novel", indicate that Perón was probably illegitimate. When his parents finally married, they acknowledged Juan and his brother. It is believed this information was kept hidden and denied for years because it would have likely ruined Perón's career had it been known.

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 a military school at age 16, and following graduation he made good progress through the ranks. In 1938 he was sent by the Army to Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Albania and Yugoslavia as a military observer, during which time he became familiar with the government of Benito Mussolini and other European governments of the time.

[edit] Military government of 1943-1946

In May 1943, as a colonel, he was a significant figure in the military coup by the GOU (United Officers' Group), a secret society, against the conservative civilian government of Ramón Castillo. Initially secretary 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 growing power and influence during the military government came from his alliance with a sector of the Argentine labor unions, mainly with the socialist and syndicalist movements. After the coup, one part of the workers' movement, mainly the socialist part from the labor union CGT Nº1, decided to make contact with Colonels Perón and Mercante through the mercantile labor leader Borlenghi and through the railroad union lawyer Bramuglia. Their conversations established an initial alliance to promote labor laws that had long been demanded by the workers' movement, strengthen the unions, and transform the Department of Labor into an important government office.

He became Vice President and Secretary of War under General Edelmiro Farrell (February 1944). Forced into resignation 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 (1919–1952), who became hugely popular. Known as Evita, she helped her husband develop support with labor and women's groups.

[edit] Election as president and first term (1946-1952)

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

Once in office, Perón pursued social policies aimed at empowering the working class. He greatly expanded the number of unionized workers, and helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labour (CGT), created in 1930. He called this the "third position", between capitalism and communism. Perón also pushed hard to industrialize the country; in 1947 he announced the first five-year plan to boost newly nationalized industries. Peronism became a central influence in Argentine political parties, and Perón continued to exert a strong influence after the 1955 Catholic nationalist coup which forced him into exile.

Among middle and upper class Argentines, the improvement of the laborers' situation was a source of resentment; negative feelings abounded towards the new industrial workers from rural areas, who had formerly been treated as servants. It was common for better-off Argentines to refer to these workers using negative epithets like "black heads" (cabecitas negras, the name of a like bird), "fats" ("grasas"), "un-shirted" ("descamisados", conveying the idea that they "took off their jackets and/or shirts"), and the radical deputy Ernesto Sammartino said that the people who vote for Perón were a "zoological flood" ("aluvión zoológico").^[1] In the 1940s the middle- and upper-class students were the first group to oppose Peronist workers, using the slogan: "peon-footwear [=espadrilles] dictatorship, NO!" ("No a la dictadura de las alpargatas"). Another famous graffito revealing the strong opposition between Peronists and anti-Peronists appeared in high-class districts in the 1950s saying, "Long live cancer!" (¡Viva el cáncer!), when Eva Perón was dying of cancer.^[2] She finally died of uterine cancer in 1952 at the age of thirty-three.^[3]

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

As a young student in Buenos Aires in the early 1950s, I well remember the graffiti found in many an empty wall all over town: "Build the Fatherland. Kill a Student" (Haga patria, mate un estudiante). [Perón] was also against the universities, who questioned his methods and his goals. A well-remembered slogan runs, Alpargatas sí, libros no ("peon footwear [=espadrilles] 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 Argentinian 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 main test flights the planes were flown by Argentine Lieutenant Edmundo Osvaldo Weiss and Kurt Tank himself, reaching 1000 km/h with the Pulqui II. Argentina continued testing the Pulqui II until 1959; during that time two pilots lost their lives.^[4] The Pulqui project opened the door to develop two successful Argentinian planes: I.A.58"Pucara and the I.A.63'Pampa manufactured at the Aircraft Factory of Córdoba.^[5]

In 1951, Perón announced that the Huemul Project would produce nuclear fusion before any other country. In charge of the project was a swindling Austrian of German origin, Ronald Richter, who had been recommended by Kurt Tank who was expecting to power his aircraft with Richter's invention. Perón announced that the energy produced by Richter would be delivered in milk-bottle sized containers. Success of the project was announced in 1951, but no proof was shown. On 1952 Perón appointed a scientific team to investigate Richter's activities. The reports by José Antonio Balseiro, and Mario Báncora revealed that the project was a fraud. After that, the assets of the Huemul Project were 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 which was later named Instituto Balseiro (IB).

[edit] Protection to Nazi war criminals

Further information: Ratlines (history)

After World War II, Argentina became a leading haven for Nazi war criminals, with the explicit protection of Juan Perón. Historian Uki Goñi showed in his 1998 book that along with Nazis and French and Belgian Collaborationists, including Pierre Daye, Peron organized a meeting in the Casa Rosada during which a network was created, which benefitted from support by the Immigration Service and diplomatic civil servants. The Swiss chief of police Heinrich Rothmund and the Croatian Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović also helped organize the ratline ^[6]. According to Goñi, 1948 was the most active year, during which the SS Carlos Fuldner was in Switzerland with a special passport which described him as "special envoyee of the President of Argentina." In 1946, Antonio Cardinal Caggiano went to the Vatican to offer his country, in the name of the Argentine government, as a refuge for French Collaborationists which had fled to Rome ^[6].

The network was managed by Rodolfo Freude who had an office in the Casa Rosada and was close to Eva Peron's brother, Juan Duarte, as the DAIA found out in 1997 investigating 22.000 documents. According to the historian Ronald Newton, Ludwig Freude, father of the first, was the probable local representant of the Office Three secret service headed by Joachim von Ribbentrop, with probably more influence than the German embassador Edmund von Thermann. He had met Peron in the 1930s, and had contacts with Generals Juan Pistarini, Domingo Martínez and Molina. Ludwig Freude's house became the meeting center during the war for Nazis and Argentine military in favour of the Axis. In 1943, he went with Peron to Europe to try to set an arms deal with Germany. ^[7].

Examples include French Collaborationist Emile Dewoitine, who arrived in May 1946 and worked designing the Pulqui jet, Erich Priebke, who arrived in Argentina in 1947, Josef Mengele who arrived in 1949, Adolf Eichmann in 1950, his adjudant Franz Stangl, Austrian representative of Spitzy in Spain, Reinhard Spitzy, Charles Lescat, editor of Je Suis Partout in Vichy France, SS Ludwig Lienhardt, German industrialist Ludwig Freude, SS Klaus Barbie. As well, many members of the notorious Croatian Ustashe took refuge in Argentina, as did Milan Stojadinovich, Prime minister of occupied Yugoslavia ^[8]. As the United States (Operation Paperclip), Argentina also welcomed displaced German technicians such as Kurt Tank and Ronald Richter. Some of these refugees had important role in Peron's Argentina, such as French Collaborationist Jacques de Mahieu, who became ideologue of the Peronist movement, before becoming a mentor to Roman Catholic nationalist youth group in the 1960s. Belgian collaborationist Pierre Daye became editor of one of the official Peronist magazine. Rodolfo Freude, son of Ludwig, became Peron's chief of presidential intelligence during his first term. Stojadinovitch founded in 1951 El Economista, which still carries his name on its masthead. The Croatian Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović, organizer of the San Girolamo ratline, had been deputed by Peron to help escape Nazis to Argentina, including Barbie and Ante Pavelic ^[8].

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 extensively in The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina (2002), showed how ratlines escape routes were used by former NSDAP members and like-minded people to escape trial and judgment. ^[9] Uki Goñi places particular emphasis on the part played by the government of Juan Perón in organising the ratlines, as well as documenting the aid of Swiss and Vatican authorities in their flight. The Argentine consulate in Barcelona handed out false passports to fleeing Nazi war criminals and Collaborationists.

[edit] The second term (1952-1955)

Perón won re-election in 1951. During his second term Perón's administration faced serious economic problems. Perón called employers and unions to a Productivity Congress with the aim of regulating social conflict through social dialogue, but the congress failed and a deal was not possible.

At the same time Perón signed a contract with an American oil company, Standard Oil of California, on May 1955, opening an economic policy of development with the help of foreign industrial investments. The radical party leader, Arturo Frondizi, considered it to be an anti-patriotic decision, but three years later he himself signed several contracts with foreign oil companies.

During the second term several terrorist acts were committed against civilian targets. On April 15, 1953, a terrorist group detonated two bombs in a public rally at Plaza de Mayo, killing 7 citizens and injuring 95. On June 15, 1955, a failed coup d'état by anti-Peronists used navy aircraft to bomb Peronists at Plaza de Mayo, killing 364 citizens. This barbaric act is considered a prelude to the dirty war in Argentina between 1976 and 1983.

In 1954, the Roman Catholic Church, which supported Perón's government up to that year, confronted Perón because of the enactment of the divorce law, among other reasons. On September 16, 1955, a nationalist Catholic group of 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"). The military regime accused Peronist leaders of corruption, but no one was prosecuted.

[edit] Exile (1955-1973)

After the military coup, Perón went into exile in Paraguay. His escape was facilitated by his friend President Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay, who placed a gunboat at his disposal in the River Plate. Later he lived in Panama, where he met nightclub bolero singer María Estela Martínez (aka Isabel Perón). Eventually settling in Madrid in Franquist Spain he married her there in 1961. Back in Argentina, Peronism was banned and Peronists were persecuted. In 1963, the Aramburu decree made illegal the simple naming of Juan Perón.

In Argentina, the 1950s and 1960s were marked by frequent coups d'état in addition to low economic growth in the 1950s and some of the highest growth rates in the world in the 1960s (Gerchunoff et al, 309-321). Argentina also faced problems of continued social and labour demands. During those years poverty highly decreased, with rates between 2% and 5%^{[citation needed]} in the first years of the 1960s (INDEC). Argentine painter Antonio Berni's works reflected the social tragedies of these times. In particular, Berni dealt with life hardships in the villas miseria (shanty towns) through his series Juanito Laguna, a slum child, and Ramona Montiel, a prostitute.

Perón sent his wife, Isabel, to Argentina in 1965, to meet political dissidents there. She organized a reunion 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, a labor union federation. Between 1968 and 1972, the CGT of the Argentines gathered opponents to Juan Carlos Onganía's dictatorship, and would have an important role in the 1969 Cordobazo insurrection. During this travel, José López Rega, future founder of the Triple A death squad, managed to win Isabel's trust, and then traveled to Spain. There, he worked first for Perón's security before becoming the couple's personal secretary.

On the other hand, 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 dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, in retaliation against the June 1956 Leon Suarez massacre and the execution of Juan José Valle, who had headed a Peronist uprising against the junta.

General Alejandro Lanusse took power in March 1971 and, faced with strong opposition and social conflicts, declared his intention to restore constitutional democracy by 1973. From exile Perón supported both left-wing Peronists and right-wing Peronists. He supported as well conservative radicals such as Ricardo Balbín, member of the Radical Civic Union and an old opponent to Perón, but also people such as left-wing Peronist Héctor José Cámpora, who also became his "personal secretary." Finally, several members of the right-wing Tacuara Nationalist Movement, considered as the first Argentine guerrilla group, turned towards him. Founded in the beginning of the 1960s, the Tacuaras were a fascist, anti-Semitic and anti-conformist group founded on the model of Primo de Rivera's Falange, who at first strongly opposed Peronism. However, they split after the 1959 Cuban Revolution into three main different groups. Opposed to the alliance with Peronism, Catholic priest Meinvielle retained the original ideological, and anti-Peronist, hard-line stance. Dardo Cabo, to the contrary, founded the Movimiento Nueva Argentina (MNA, Movement New Argentina), officially launched on June 9, 1961, in commemoration of 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 decided to join the Peronism movement, believing in its revolutionary capacities. They created the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario Tacuara (MNRT, Revolutionary Nationalist Tacuara Movement) which, without forsaking nationalism, cut away from the Church, the right-wing and anti-Semitism. Baxter’s MNRT became progressively more left-wing and attracted by Marxism. Many of the Montoneros and of the ERP’s leaders would come from this party.

[edit] The third term (1973-1974)

On March 11, 1973, general elections were held. Perón was banned from running, but a stand-in candidate, 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 an 18-year exile. A crowd of left-wing Peronists (estimated at 3.5 million) had gathered at the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires to welcome and support him. Perón came accompanied by Cámpora, whose first measure had been to grant amnesty to all political prisoners and to reestablish relations with Cuba, helping Castro break the US embargo. This, and his social policies, had also earned him the opposition of the right-wing Peronists, including the trade-unionist bureaucracy.

From Perón's tribune, camouflaged snipers, including members of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (aka Triple A), opened fire on the crowd. The left-wing Peronist Youth and the Montoneros had been trapped. At least 13 people were killed (who have been identified), and 365 injured during this episode, which became known as the Ezeiza massacre.^[10]

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

UCR's leader Ricardo Balbín and Perón considered a Peronist-Radical joint government, but internal opposition in both parties made this impossible. Perón's overwhelming victory (62% of the vote), returned 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 with conservative Radical Party leader Ricardo Balbín, who the opposition led by Raúl Alfonsín considered a right-wing radical. The Montoneros began to become marginalized in the Peronist movement, mocked by Perón himself after the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre. Another guerrilla group, the Guevarist ERP, also opposed itself to the Peronist right-wing, and started engaging itself in armed struggle, trying to create a foco in the province of 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 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 thoroughly incapable of managing the country's mounting political and economic problems, the left-wing insurgency and the reaction of the extreme right. Ignoring her late husband's advice, Isabel granted Balbín no role in her new government, instead granting broad powers to López Rega, who started engaging in a "dirty war" against political opponents.

Isabel Perón's term was ended abruptly on March 24, 1976 by a military coup d'état. A military junta, headed by General Jorge Videla took control of the country, starting the self-styled National Reorganization Process. The junta combined a widespread persecution of political dissidents with the use of state terrorism. The final death toll rose to thousands (no less than 9,000, with human rights organizations claiming it was closer to 30,000). Most of this number is accounted for by "the disappeared" (desaparecidos), people kidnapped and executed without trial and without record.

[edit] Perón's corpse

Perón was buried in La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires. In 1987, his tomb was defaced, and the hands (and some personal effects, such as his sword) of his corpse were stolen. Those responsible have never been found, but some say it was the responsibility of Licio Gelli, leader of the P2 Propaganda Due Italian Freemasonic lodge.^{[citation needed]}

On 17 October 2006 his body was moved to a new mausoleum in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Vicente, his former summer residence, which was rebuilt as a museum. A few people were injured in riots, as trade unions affiliated to the Peronist movement fought over access to the ceremony. The police were able to contain the violence enough for the procession to move to the mausoleum. The move of Perón's body offered the self-proclaimed illegitimate daughter of Perón the opportunity to obtain a DNA sample from his corpse which, she hoped, would prove that she was indeed his daughter. The woman, Martha Holgado, 72, had been trying for 15 years to do this DNA analysis, which, in November 2006, proved negative - she is not his daughter.^[11][12]

[edit] Footnotes

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

[edit] See also

• History of Argentina
• Peronism

[edit] External links

• Article on Peron's reburial
• Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend". New Straits Times, p. 21.
• Tobar, Hector (Los Angeles Times, 2003)]
• Heath, Nick (People's History, UK)
• Benitez, Marcelo Manuel (Icarodigital, AR)
• 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)
• casahistoria pages on Perón Les Fearns site, also links to Eva Perón pages
• Extracts (in English) from Juan Domingo Perón, Peronist Doctrine Edited by the Peronist Party. (Buenos Aires, 1952). Modern History Sourcebook
• The Twenty Truths of the Peronist Movement (1940s) The Justicialist movement’s core tenets.
• 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.
• Perón y el peronismo: un ensayo bibliográfico by Mariano Ben Plotkin.
• Mañana Es San Peron: A Cultural History of Peron's Argentina (Latin American Silhouettes) (Paperback) by Mariano Ben Plotkin, Keith Zahniser (Translator)
• Hugo Gambini (1999). Historia del Peronismo, Editorial Planeta. F2849 .G325 1999
• Photo (1948) of Juana Sosa de Perón, Gral. Peron'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) "donde naciò Peron? 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 Martinez, 'La Novela de Peron' (The Peron Novel), 'Memorias del General', (Memoirs of the General)'
• Webpage of author Uki Goñi with extensive documentation on Peron's involvement in harboring Nazi fugitives

Preceded by Edelmiro Farrell	Vice-President of Argentina 1944–1945	Succeeded by Juan Pistarini
Preceded by Edelmiro Farrell	President of Argentina First and Second Terms 1946–1952, 1952–1955	Succeeded by Eduardo Lonardi
Preceded by Raúl Lastiri	President of Argentina Third Term 1973–1974	Succeeded by Isabel Perón