peron

CHAPTER SEVENThe Roots of Charisma In June 1943, Juan Domingo Perón suddenly burst onto the Argentine political scene as the new "strongman" behind the military junta that took power. Previously unknown, save among a clique of army nationalists, he was to become thereafter the pivot around which Argentina's power struggles would revolve for the next three decades. He polarized the society as no man--neither Rosas, Mitre, nor Yrigoyen--had ever done. Even today, more than a …

…More than anything else, it was Perón's fostering of a powerful, united labor movement that divided the country. From the standpoint of the Argentine upper classes, Perón's great sin was the anticapitalist rhetoric that he and Evita, his spellbinding wife, used to rally labor's support and raise the political consciousness of the lower classes. Not only was that the source of his controversiality, but it was also his most lasting legacy to Argentina.