The future head of Argentina, Juan Peron, was born on October 8, 1895 in Buenos Airos in a middle-income family. In his youth, he entered the military academy. It was thanks to the army that Peron began his political career.
early years
Juan Peron went a very thorny path to fame. In 1936-1938 he was a military attache at the embassy of Argentina in Chile. Then followed a move to Italy. There, Peron began to study military affairs in the mountains. The Argentinean spent the semester at the University of Turin. Peron Juan Domingo returned to his homeland in 1941.
At that time, Argentina was experiencing a severe economic crisis. Social tension reigned in the country ; society lost the levers of power management. Under these conditions, a military coup became inevitable. On June 4, 1943, the awakened residents of Buenos Aires found out that the soldiers of the capital's garrison surrounded the residence of the government, and the former president Ramon Castillo fled in an unknown direction.
On the way to power
Peron was one of the organizers of the 1943 military coup. By that time he was already a colonel, although he was not widely known among the masses. After the overthrow of past power, Juan Peron became Minister of Labor. At his post, he actively interacted with existing trade unions and created new ones in those sectors where they did not exist. This person initiated the law on “just work” and other popular innovations.
The main pillars of Peron's support were the radicals, Labor and the church. Some of the nationalists also sympathized with him. At the end of 1945, Peron Juan Domingo entered the presidential race. His victory was promoted by the inept social policy of the opposition to him. Peron himself shone with bright speeches without a jacket, in which he called for the construction of a state that helps the poor and actively intervenes in the economy. He embodied the hopes of a new Argentina - a country that did not suffer in World War II and became a haven for many European migrants.
New national leader
Juan Peron took office as president on June 4, 1946, and in 1952 he was re-elected for a second term. The new president built an autarky-prone economic system. Under him, the nationalization of foreign-owned enterprises began. At this time, Argentina actively exported goods (mainly oilseeds and grains) to Europe destroyed by the war.
As promised by Juan Peron, the national hero-dictator did much so that the state began to intervene in the economy, in which it had previously played a rather secondary role. First of all, the government took control of all the railways, gas and electricity. The number of civil servants has increased significantly. Campaigns for regulating prices began (businessmen raising prices were punished, and individual industries were subsidized). The economic and political course of Argentina under Peron was called "peronism."
Unfulfilled hopes
Having come to power, Peron believed that soon the United States and the USSR would unleash the third world war. Such a conflict would again benefit Argentina, whose demand for goods would only increase. The Korean War began in 1950 , and Peron, in his articles published in the Democracy newspaper, prophesied that it would develop into a world war . The president was wrong.
The problem was that Peron’s tough economic policies could not bear fruit indefinitely. Autarky was effective only as a transitional measure. Argentina now needed something new. The second hope of Peron, in addition to World War II, was the emergence of an influential national bourgeoisie. It was she who could create new industry and jobs that did not need government subsidies. Such a strong bourgeoisie did not appear in Argentina. Entrepreneurs were cautious, they were afraid to invest in new production and tried to stay in the traditional sectors of the economy.
Second term
The failure of Peron’s hopes for the situation led to the fact that the whole of his first presidential term, the country simply consumed the money accumulated and earned during the difficult post-war years for her. Following his re-election for a new six-year term, the head of state decided to change his political course. By that time the first signs of an economic crisis had already appeared, for example, the peso began to depreciate. In addition, in 1951-1952. the country was drought, which destroyed most of the grain crop.
During his first presidency, Juan Domingo Perón - the Argentinean hope for the vast majority of the country's population and national leader - was not shy about being an authoritarian ruler who fought against dissent. The first step in this direction in 1948 was the trial of judges of the Supreme Court, who were charged with political charges. Then Peron initiated a constitutional reform. The new main law of the country, adopted in 1949, allowed the president to be re-elected for a second term.
Foreign policy
On the international stage, the president of Argentina was torn between two superpowers - the United States and the USSR. Today it is believed that the forerunner of the modern non-aligned movement was the “third path” that Juan Peron chose. The biography of the national leader, as noted above, was associated with Europe. He wanted to speak on equal terms with the United States (in the early post-war years, Argentina was considered one of the largest economies in the world). As a result, Peron publicly distanced himself from both superpowers.
Argentina did not join the International Monetary Fund and other similar organizations. At the same time, her diplomats at the UN almost always voted in the same way as the United States. In many ways, the “third way” was only rhetoric, not a full-fledged policy.
Beginning of the End
In 1953, during one of Peron’s public appearances in Buenos Aires, several explosions occurred. In response to the attack, police raids began. The authorities took this opportunity to crack down on the opposition (Conservative, Socialist and other parties). Soon, strikes began in the country. The Peronists tried to ignore the facts about the unrest. The controlled newspapers did not release notes on the unrest throughout the country.
Conflict with the church
At the end of 1954, Peron probably made his main mistake. He delivered a speech in which he accused the Argentine Catholic Church of having become a hotbed of opposition influence, which must be fought. The first religious persecution began.
At first, the church tried not to respond to Peron’s attacks. However, after his speech in the press, an unprecedented anti-clerical campaign unfolded. As a result, the church really began to unite the opposition. Peaceful religious processions turned into noisy political demonstrations. The authorities began to adopt anti-church laws (they abolished compulsory Catholic lessons in schools, etc.).
Coup
In a tense atmosphere, the military decided to say their word. They did not like the policy that Juan Domingo Peron led. The biography of the president, no matter how legendary she was before, could not excuse his new mistakes. The first assassination attempt occurred on June 16, 1955. Navy planes bombed May Square, where Peron was supposed to be. The organizers of the attack were mistaken. Hundreds of innocent people died from the bombing. Buenos Aires survived a new wave of church pogroms that day.
September 16, a rebellion was launched in Cordoba. Frightened (or unwilling to bloodshed) Peron took refuge in the embassy of Paraguay. The seemingly indestructible regime fell apart in a few days. Those events were called the Liberation Revolution in Argentina. The president was General Eduardo Lonardi.
Return to power
After the coup, Peron managed to cross overseas. He settled in Spain, where he lived for almost two more decades. During this time, Argentina changed its political course several times. One government replaced another, but meanwhile nostalgia for the old Peron times grew among the masses. The country suffered from guerrilla movements and even found itself on the verge of collapse.
Acting from abroad, Peron in the early 1970s established the “Hustisialist Liberation Front” - a movement that the Peronists themselves, as well as nationalists, conservatives and part of the supporters of socialism, joined. In the new presidential election of 1973, the long-standing national hero won a landslide victory. He returned to his homeland on the eve - when his supporters already controlled the government and the danger of reprisals or political persecution disappeared. Juan Peron, whose brief biography was distinguished by numerous dramatic twists, died on July 1, 1974. His third term did not last even a year.
Personal life and interesting facts
In the 40s, his wife Eva (or Evita) enjoyed no less popularity among the people, compared with the national leader. She led the Women's Peronist Party. In 1949, Argentine women were given the right to vote. Juan and Evita Peron knew how to make fiery speeches that led proponents of peronism into almost religious ecstasy. The First Lady's Charitable Foundation actually served as the Ministry of Social Development. Eva Peron died in 1952 at the age of 33 years. The cause of her death was cancer of the uterus.
Eva was the second wife of Peron. His first wife Aurelia died in 1938. For the third time, Peron played a wedding in 1961. Isabel became the chosen one of the emigrant. When the old politician ran for president again in 1973, his wife went to the polls as vice president. After the death of Peron, she took up a vacant post. The woman did not last long in power. Less than two years later, on March 24, 1976, the army carried out another military coup that overthrew Isabel. The generals sent her to Spain. There, an 85-year-old woman lives to this day.