Isabel Martínez de Perón
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Isabel Martínez de Perón | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|
| In office June 29, 1974 – March 24, 1976 |
|
| Preceded by | Juan Perón |
| Succeeded by | Jorge Videla |
|
|
|
| Born | February 4, 1931 La Rioja |
| Nationality | Argentinian |
| Political party | Justicialist |
| Spouse | Juan Perón |
María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón (born on February 4, 1931), better known as Isabel Martínez de Perón, was President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976 and the third wife of Argentine President Juan Perón. During her husband's third term as president, Isabel served as vice president. After her husband's death in office, Isabel served as president from July 1, 1974 to March 24, 1976.
In 2007 an Argentine judge ordered the arrest of Isabel Perón over the forced disappearance of an activist in February 1976, on the grounds that the disappearance was authorised by her signing of three decrees allowing Argentina's armed forces to take action against "subversives." [1] Perón was arrested in Spain, near her home, on 12 January 2007. [2]
Contents |
[edit] Isabel and Perón
María Estela Martínez Cartas was born in La Rioja, Argentina, into a lower middle-class family. She became a nightclub dancer in the early 1950s, adopting a non-Spanish variant of her saint's name, Isabela, or Isabel, as her stage name. She met her future husband during his exile in Panama. Perón, who was 35 years her senior, was attracted to her beauty and believed she could provide him with the female companionship he had been lacking since the death of his second wife, Eva (aka Evita). Isabel soon gave up her career in show business and became Perón's personal secretary.
Perón brought Isabel with him when he moved to Madrid, Spain, in 1960. Authorities in the Roman Catholic nation did not approve of Perón's living arrangements with this young woman, so on November 15, 1961 the former president reluctantly got married for a third time.
As Perón began to return to an active role in Argentine politics, Isabel would often be used as a go-between from Spain to South America. Having been deposed in a coup years prior, Perón was forbidden from returning to Argentina, so his new wife would travel in his stead and report back to him when she returned.
It was also around this time that Isabel met José López Rega, an occult "philosopher" and fortune teller, who later founded the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A), a death squad accused of 1,500 crimes in the 1970s. [3] Isabel was quite interested in occult matters,[citation needed] so the two quickly became friends. Under pressure from Isabel, Perón appointed López as his personal secretary.
Héctor Cámpora was nominated by Perón's Justicialist Party to run in the 1973 presidential elections, and won. However, it was generally understood that Perón held the real power; the popular phrase consacrating such view at the time was "Cámpora al gobierno, Perón al poder" (Cámpora to government, Perón to power). Later that year, Perón was persuaded to return to Argentina. Cámpora resigned to allow Perón to run for president. In a surprisingly uncontroversial move, he chose Isabel as his running mate. Perón's return from exile was marked by a growing rift between the right and left wings of the Peronist movement. Cámpora represented the left wing, while López Rega represented the right wing. Under López Rega's influence, Juan and Isabel Perón favored the right wing. Isabel had very little in the way of political experience or ambitions, and she was a very different personality from Evita, who was more into politics and who had been denied the post of vice president years earlier.
[edit] Isabel as President
Juan Perón died on July 1, 1974, less than a year after his third election to the presidency. Isabel assumed the position and became the first non-royal female head of state and head of government in the Western Hemisphere.
Unlike Evita, who was almost a demigoddess in Argentina, Isabel was very unpopular. One factor was that López Rega, by this time minister of social welfare, had so much influence over Isabel that he was a de facto prime minister. Despite his right-wing views, his status as the power behind the throne greatly frightened the military. Rodolfo Almirón, arrested in 2006 in Spain, was in charge of López Rega's and Isabel Perón's personal security.[4]
Isabel agreed to fire López, but the military concluded that with the prevailing climate of widespread strikes and political terrorism, a "weak-willed and inexperienced woman" would not be a suitable President. Her time in power resulted in a spike in the inflationary rate and this did not help her case.
On March 24, 1976, she was deposed in a bloodless coup. After remaining under house arrest for five years, she was sent into exile in Spain in 1981. She lived in Madrid, maintained close links with Franco's family, and sometimes went to Marbella on the coast.[4] Though she returned briefly to Argentina in 1984, shortly after democracy was restored, she then resumed residence in Spain under a very low profile.
[edit] Arrest in Spain
In November 2006, a judge in Mendoza, demanded testimony from Martínez de Perón, along with other Peronist politicians who served as ministers during her government, in a case involving forced disappearances during her presidency. On January 12, 2007, she was arrested in Madrid for the disappearance of people in Argentina during her term as president. In particular she was charged by the Argentine authorities with the disappearance of Héctor Aldo Fagetti Gallego on 25 February 1976, and the signature of decrees calling to "annihilate … subversive elements throughout the country". [2] The Nunca Mas ("Never Again") report released in 1984 by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons recorded 600 disappearances and 500 assassinations under the Peronist governments from 1973 to 1976, and it is today acknowledged that the Triple A alone murdered about 600 people. [5] Martínez de Perón is currently under house arrest in Madrid, pending extradition to Argentina.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Warrant for ex-Argentine leader, BBC, January 12, 2007
- ^ a b Isabel Peron's arrest signals shift in Argentina, Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2007
- ^ 'Argentinian death squad leader' arrested in Spain, The Guardian, December 30, 2006
- ^ a b Detienen en Valencia al ex dirigente de la Triple A argentina Almirón Sena, El Mundo, December 28, 2006 (Spanish)
- ^ L'ancienne présidente argentine Isabel Peron arrêtée à Madrid, à la demande de Buenos Aires, Le Monde, January 13, 2007 (French).
- Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend". New Straits Times, p. 21.
| Preceded by Vicente Solano Lima |
Vice-President of Argentina 1973–1974 |
Succeeded by Víctor Martínez |
| Preceded by Juan Perón |
President of Argentina 1974–1976 |
Succeeded by Jorge Videla |
[edit] External links
- First female president for Argentina
- Isabel Peron at the Notable Names Database
- Taking the oath of office to Miguel Unamuno as Labor Minister - In the background Italo Luder can be seen
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since July 2007 | 1931 births | Living people | Presidents of Argentina | First Ladies of Argentina | Actor-politicians | Female heads of state | Female heads of government | Argentine Justicialist Party politicians | People from La Rioja Province
