Per�n, Juan Domingo 1895-1974
Argentine soldier and statesman

Juan Per�n was born in Lobos, in the province of southern Buenos Aires. He joined the army in 1913, and took a leading part in the army revolt of 1943 which toppled the pro-Axis President, Ram�n Castillo. He was well-read, a hypnotic public speaker and a close student of Benito Mussolini; he developed a broad base of popular support, augmenting his rule with force.

He used his position as Secretary of Labour to gain union support, while using his other position as Under-Secretary of War to cultivate junior officers. He organized the descamisados, a civilian paramilitary organization which, like both Hitler's Brownshirts and Mussolini's Blackshirts, was drawn from the lower classes. Their affections were secured by his politically astute wife, Eva Per�n, and when she died in 1952 they greatly mourned her. In 1945, senior army and navy officers, alarmed at Per�n's mobilization of the masses, imprisoned Per�n, but released him after thousands gathered in the public squares demanding his return.

In 1946 after a populist campaign laced with strong nationalist and anti-American rhetoric, 'El L�der' was elected President and set about building a corporatist state. He reduced the legislature and the judiciary to rubber-stamps, tried to crush all opposition by any means including torture, and sought to modernize and industrialize the economy through large-scale government intervention and by nationalizing foreign-owned enterprises (including the railways). In 1955, with the economy in a shambles and having alienated the church, the military, the middle-class and some of the labour movement, he was deposed by the army and fled to Spain.

But his movement lived on. Failing to crush the Per�nists, the military returned the government to civilian rule until 1966 when it again took over to prevent a Per�nist party electoral victory. It again failed to destroy the Per�nists by force, and again allowed elections, which were won by the Per�nist candidate who resigned in favour of 'El L�der'. Per�n died a year after his triumphal return in 1973, leaving his office to the vice-president, his third wife, Isabelita Per�n.

Bibliography: Robert Crossweller, Per�n (1987); Joseph A Page, Per�n (1983); Robert J Alexander, Per�n (1979).