National hero-dictator Juan Peron: biography, activities and interesting facts

The future head of Argentina Juan Peron was born October 8, 1895 in Buenos Aires in a family with an average income. In his youth he entered the military academy. It was thanks to the army that Perón began his political career.

early years

Juan Peron passed a very thorny path to fame. In the years 1936-1938. He was a military attaché at the Argentine Embassy in Chile. Then he moved to Italy. There Peron began to study military affairs in mountainous conditions. He spent a semester in the University of Turin. Peron Juan Domingo returned to his homeland in 1941.

At that time, Argentina was experiencing a serious economic crisis. There was social tension in the country , the society lost control levers of power. Under these conditions, a military coup was inevitable. June 4, 1943, the awakened residents of Buenos Aires learned that the soldiers of the Moscow garrison surrounded the residence of the government, and 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 the past, Juan Perón became Minister of Labor. At his post he actively interacted with already existing trade unions and created new ones in those industries where they did not yet exist. This man initiated the law on "fair labor" and other popular innovations.

The main pillars of Peron's support were radicals, Labor and the church. He also sympathized with some of the nationalists. In late 1945, Perón Juan Domingo joined the presidential race. His victory was promoted by the inept social policy of the authorities opposing him. Perón himself shone with bright speeches without a jacket, in which he called for the building of a helping state for the poor and actively interfering in the economy. He embodied in himself hopes for a new Argentina - a country that did not suffer in the Second World War and became a haven for many European migrants.

New National Leader

In the post of President Juan Peron joined June 4, 1946, and in 1952 he was re-elected for a second term. The new president built an autarky-prone economic system. With him began the nationalization of foreign-owned enterprises. At that time, Argentina actively exported goods (mainly oilseeds and grains) to the war-ravaged Europe.

As promised by Juan Peron, the national hero-dictator has done much to enable the state to intervene in an economy in which it had previously played a rather minor role. First of all, the government took control of all the railways, gas and electricity. Significantly increased the number of civil servants. Campaigns were launched to regulate prices (punished price-raising businessmen, subsidized individual industries). The economic and political course of Argentina under Peron was called "Peronism".

Unfulfilled hopes

Having come to power, Peron believed that soon the US and the USSR would unleash the third world war. Such a conflict would once again benefit Argentina, whose demand for goods would only have grown. In 1950, the Korean War began, and Peron in his articles published in the newspaper "Democracy", predicted that it will grow into the world. The president was wrong.

The problem was that Perón's rigid economic policy could not bear fruit infinitely. Autarky was effective only as a transitional measure. Now Argentina needed something new. The second hope of Peron, apart from the world war, was the emergence of an influential national bourgeoisie. It was she who could create a new industry and jobs that did not need state 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 areas of the economy.

The second term

The failure of Peron's hopes for the conjuncture led to the fact that his entire first presidential term the country simply squandered the money accumulated and earned for the difficult post-war years for it. Following his re-election for a new six-year term, the head of state decided to change the 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 affected by a drought, which destroyed most of the grain crop.

During the first presidential term, Juan Domingo Peron - the Argentine hope for the overwhelming majority of the population of the country and the national leader - was not shy to be an authoritarian ruler who fought with 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 the reform of the constitution. The new main law of the country, adopted in 1949, allowed the president to be reelected for a second term.

Foreign policy

On the international scene, the President of Argentina was torn between two superpowers - the US and the USSR. Today it is believed that the forerunner of the modern non-alignment movement was the "third way" that Juan Peron chose. Biography of the national leader, as noted above, was associated with Europe. He wanted on an equal footing with the US (in the first 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 in the UN almost always voted in the same way as the US. In many ways, the "third way" was only rhetoric, and 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 advantage of this opportunity to crack down on the opposition (Conservative, Socialist and other parties). Soon the country started strikes workers. Peronists tried to keep silent about the facts about the unrest. The controlled newspapers did not issue notes on the riots that took place throughout the country.

Conflict with the Church

At the end of 1954 Peron made, probably his main mistake. He delivered a speech in which he accused the Argentine Catholic Church that it had become the hotbed of the opposition's influence, which it is necessary to fight. The first religious persecution began.

At first the church tried not to respond to Peron's attacks. However, after his speech in the press unfolded an unprecedented anticlerical campaign. As a result, the church really began to unite the opposition. Peaceful religious processions turned into noisy political manifestations. The authorities began to adopt anti-church laws (abolished compulsory Catholic lessons in schools, etc.).

The coup

In the heated atmosphere, the military decided to say their word. They did not like the policy that led Juan Domingo Peron. The president's biography, no matter how legendary she was before, could not excuse his new mistakes. The first attempt occurred on June 16, 1955. The Navy planes bombed the May Square, where, supposedly, Peron was supposed to be. The organizers of the attack were mistaken. From the bombing hundreds of innocent people were killed. On that day, Buenos Aires experienced a new wave of church pogroms.

On 16 September, a rebellion was raised in Cordoba. Frightened (or not wanting bloodshed) Peron took refuge in the embassy of Paraguay. The regime seemed indestructible and collapsed in a few days. Those events were named in Argentina as the "Liberation Revolution". The President was General Eduardo Lonardi.

Return to power

After the coup, Peron managed to get over the border. He settled in Spain, where he lived for nearly two decades. During this time, Argentina changed the political course several times. One government came to replace another, and meanwhile every year in the masses grew nostalgia for the old Peron times. The country suffered from partisan movements and even found itself on the verge of collapse.

Acting from abroad, Peron in the early 1970s established the "Khustisialist Liberation Front" - a movement in which the peronists themselves joined, as well as nationalists, conservatives and part of the supporters of socialism. In the new presidential elections of 1973, the old national hero won a confident victory. He returned home the day before - when his supporters had already controlled the government and the danger of repression or political persecution had disappeared. Juan Peron, whose brief biography was distinguished by numerous dramatic turns, died on July 1, 1974. His third term did not last even a year.

Personal life and interesting facts

In the 1940s, his wife Eva (or Evita) was equally popular among the people, compared with the national leader. She headed the Women's Peronist Party. In 1949, Argentine women received the right to vote. Juan and Evita Peron were able to pronounce ardent speeches, which led proponents of Peronism into almost religious ecstasy. The First Lady's charitable foundation actually performed the functions of the Ministry of Social Development. Eva Peron died in 1952 at the age of 33. The cause of her death was cancer of the uterus.

Eva was the second wife of Peron. His first wife Aurelia died in 1938. The third time Peron played a wedding in 1961-m. Izabel became the chosen emigrant. When the old politician again ran for president in 1973, his wife went to the polls as vice president. After the death of Peron, she took up a vacated post. The woman did not last long. Less than two years later, on March 24, 1976, the army committed another military coup that overthrew Isabel. The generals sent her to Spain. There the 85-year-old woman lives to this day.