Archive Report
Archive Report
Continuing Political Appeal of Peronism
Juan domingo peron—onetime general, President, and “first worker” of the Republic of Argentina—remains, after nearly eight years in exile, the dominant political figure of his native land. Fears raised by his continued hold on the political loyalties of one-third of the Argentine electorate have kept the second largest, and for a century the most prosperous and advanced, nation of Latin America in an almost uninterrupted state of crisis since 1955, when Peron was overthrown.
At that time, Peron lost the support of one pillar of his regime—the armed forces—but the other pillar, the descamisados or “shirtless ones” to whom he gave higher wages and a feeling of status and power, remained with him. Their 2.5 million votes and their potential ability ...