The Slipping Strongman

Smoldering grievances burst into flame again in Argentina last week as military units rebelled in the nation's hottest blaze of violence since President Juan Peron seized power in 1945. As a tough dictator, a maker and user of violence, Juan Peron gave many Argentines cause for hatred and anger. Among the revolt's leaders were Roman Catholics outraged by Peron's attacks on the church, ardent nationalists opposed to his oil-exploitation contract with a Yanqui company, sincere patriots sick of the corrosion of liberty, dissident officers who lost their commands in his purges.

As they did in the brief, bloody rebellion of June 16, the top army generals again rushed to Peron's rescue (or rather to the rescue of the offices, privileges and rackets they stood to lose if the rebels won). Peron's old crony and army minister, balding General Franklin Lucero, again took command of all loyalist military and police units--the "forces of repression" as the government baldly labeled them. But it was not as underlings carrying out Peron's orders that Lucero & Co. acted. Whether he was shoved or merely nudged, Peron hurried offstage and remained in seclusion. The government radio rarely mentioned his name.

After Lucero and other inner-circle generals propped Peron on his feet last June, they let him take control again, hoping that they could go back to privileged prosperity as usual. But during the post-revolt interlude of "pacification," Peron utterly failed to pacify his opponents: he offered too little freedom, too late. Three weeks ago, dropping the mask of pacification, he summoned his hardcore of labor followers to the Plaza de Mayo, ferociously called for his enemies' annihilation; that may have triggered a revolt that showed signs of long planning.

At week's end the military issue was still in doubt, but there was no doubt whatever that Peron's power and prestige had suffered a shattering blow. If the government commanders could beat down the rebellion, they might let Peron come back on stage, but scarcely as the strongman of old. Even if he manages to hang on to the title of President for a while, Sept. 16 is likely to go down in history as the day Juan Peron's luck ran out as dictator of Argentina.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.