The Return That Wasn't

To the bored cluster of newsmen posted outside his lavish villa in suburban Madrid, it looked like any other day in the life of Juan Domingo Peron. There had been the usual trickle of callers in the afternoon and evening. At 8 p.m. the exiled dictator went to dinner with Isabelita, his pretty young wife, a Spanish police officer assigned to guard him. and a few Peronista visitors from Argentina. Later, as always, Peron went upstairs to watch television, which invariably occupies him until Spain's only channel goes off the air at 12:30 a.m. Instead, with The Untouchables turned up full blast inside, Peron suddenly embarked on a hugger-mugger exploit of his own that was to make world headlines, involve half a dozen governments, and end in a greater deflation for Peron than any event since his ouster from Argentina nine years ago.

Another Eva. Peron's great misadventure began shortly before midnight when a Mercedes sedan pulled out of his underground garage. Inside were Jorge Antonio, Peron's financial adviser, and Delia Parodi, a Peronista spitfire from Buenos Aires; the guard waved them briskly through the gate. Then, out of sight a few miles up the road, Jorge Antonio stopped the car and bustied around to the trunk. And who popped out? Of course. Even with a hat tugged over his eyebrows and a vicuna scarf pulled up tightly around his chin, the sportily dressed figure who took his place in the back seat was unmistakably Juan Peron, now 69. Secrecy and surprise were his watchwords--and his only hopes of success. When the Mercedes roared into Madrid Airport, Iberian Flight 991 to Rio was warming up on the takeoff strip. Shielded by a waiting cordon of police, Peron, Jorge Antonio and Delia Parodi scrambled aboard the DC-8, where six other Peronistas were waiting for them.

So, at last, began El Retorno, fulfilling the dictator's endlessly repeated vow to come back some day to the troubled country where the name of Peron still commands the almost religious adulation of 3,000,000 followers. His pledge to return was originally proposed by Peronista leaders as an expedient to help reunite their slowly splintering movement. At first, El Lider was lukewarm to the idea, but gradually, as Peron talked more and more about it, the vision of a triumphal recovery of power became an obsession. Isabelita, too, became infected, soon dreamed of replacing her old rival Eva. By last week, when several key Peron aides advised him against El Retorno, the mirage had gripped Peron's brain like a drug.

Rare Solidarity. What followed--and what Peron could not have anticipated --was a rare example of Latin American cooperation and solidarity. At first, Argentine President Arturo Illia had himself backed away from any counter-move that might offend the Peronistas, whose votes provided Illia's winning margin in last year's elections. "Peron's return is up to Peron," Illia repeated cryptically. But Interior Minister Juan Palermo figured that the ex-dictator would not return directly to his homeland but would mastermind the revolution in Argentina from one of the neighboring countries. Chile, Peru and Brazil all agreed to send Peron packing if he tried. Brazilian officials were particularly sympathetic, since their own deposed President Joao Goulart is threatening to mount a Brazilian revolution from exile in Montevideo. Only Paraguay, ruled by Peron's longtime friend, General Alfredo Stroessner, seemed ready to welcome Peron.

At 7:35 a.m. the red and white plane bearing Peron whistled down through the overcast into Rio's Galeao Airport. Immediately 30 white-helmeted, machine-gun-toting police surrounded the plane, and all passengers were ordered off. From the tourist section tumbled 43 grumbling travelers, but the nine up front held fast. Finally, the Foreign Ministry's chief of protocol bustled aboard. "Senor Peron," he said, "your trip has come to an end. You have been declared persona non grata." "I know international law well," snapped Peron. "I am aboard a plane with the Spanish flag and thus under the protection of the Spanish government, and you cannot interrupt my trip."

Brazil could, and did. Preceded by two Brazilian officials, Peron--who had dyed his sleek hair its pristine black--led his company down the steps. They were hustled to waiting cars and whisked across the field to Galeao Air Force Base as "guests of the airbase." Behind them in the plane they left six automatic pistols, a submachine gun, a Luger pistol and a suitcase full of ammunition. That night Peron and entourage were bundled back aboard the same Iberia jet--this time bound for Madrid. The vaunted return to Latin American soil had lasted just 16 hours.

As for his return to Spain, Peron had blatantly violated the conditions of his asylum by actively engaging in politics. Still, the Franco regime, which had gone out of its way to keep Peron's mission secret, felt sufficiently kindly toward him to divert the plane 240 miles south to Seville, to spare him the embarrassment of facing scores of reporters and photographers waiting in Madrid. And when newsmen besieged his Seville hotel, Spanish authorities hustled him out to another hideaway in Torremolinos.

Split Movement. At week's end many Latin Americans questioned the legality of Brazil's action. In Argentina a far livelier subject for debate was the future of Peronismo. In view of his ludicrous humiliation, even Peronistas now doubt that he will ever again try to return to Argentina; most agree that Peron has exploded the "Peron myth," once and for all.

As a result, the movement will probably split into two main factions--one a moderate group favoring "Peronismo without Peron," the other a hard-line Marxist faction that will now seek to foment revolution as the only road to its working-class goals. Nonetheless, as a result of its leader's failure and its own inability to carry through a threatened three-day strike when he landed in Rio, the Peronista movement became a butt for ridicule in Argentina--and in politics few things are as deadly as laughter.

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