NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello,

I was a wondering if there are any Argentines here at NS?
I would like to know what your opinion of ex-argentine leader Juan Domingo Peron is?
Was he good for Argentine or not?
Did his policies work or was it all down to his wife Evita?

I am not an Argentinian, but I live pretty close to Argentina (South Brazil). My opinion of Peron is that he was the root cause of the current economic crisis that Argentina is suffering. He was an out and out popularist. i.e. whatever the people wanted, he suppoerted. No financial plan or responsibility at all. He is the main cause of the conditions being right for a military coup. There is no way that his leadership can be described, with hindsight, as having been good for Argentina, and Eva was even worse.

The recent leaders of Argentina have described themselves as Peronistas, and have followed his disasterous lead. The end result has been an economic meltdown of enormous proportions. The middle and upper middle classes have become poor, and the poor have become poorer. The only people who have not been affected are the very rich (less than 1% of the population).

Edit: The 'Hell Bovines' bit above is mine. I recently switched nations, but the forum keeps logging me with the old name. Sorry.
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I'm argentinian and did a research work on the first and second peronist governments (1946-1955) so I think I could give you a balanced opinion...

I think Peron was, overall, a president that did some positive things for the country. His economic policies (nationalization of railways, strenghtening of industries, industrialization through five-year plans) greatly helped to industrialize argentina, and turned us, at the time, into probably South America's main regional power. (Though later, thanks to the work of neo-liberal economic policies from the right-wing governments that came after, we lost that title to Brazil)

The Peronist constitution of 1949 (which was later overruled by the dictatorial military coup of 1955) was probably one of the most advanced constitutions of its time, covering worker's rights to association, to a fair wage, right to work, rights of the elderly, rights of the community, etc.

On the other side, it's true that Peronism also became increasingly authoritarian (not dictatorial, authoritarian!), specially on the last part of its mandate. Subsidies would not be granted to corporations that openly opposed the government, some communist groups were persecuted (others openly worked with peron) and there were some conflicts with the media.
But still, free elections were always respected during the first and second peronist governments.

As for the third peron govenrment (1973-74), it was a total disaster, with no concrete economic policy and increasingly dictatorial. But I like to think that it was due to the fact that Peron was a very old man at the time (79 years old!), and had little idea of what was really going on. (his aides were the ones that were really in charge)
In conclusion, yes, I think Peron's 1st and 2nd governments (not the third) were positive for the country; its economic policies were excellent, as well as the social redistribution that it encouraged.
On the other side, it is true that Peron was quite authoritarian, and I obviously don't agree with that. That's why I'm not a peronist, and my opinion about him is neutral.


The recent leaders of Argentina have described themselves as Peronistas, and have followed his disasterous lead. The end result has been an economic meltdown of enormous proportions. The middle and upper middle classes have become poor, and the poor have become poorer. The only people who have not been affected are the very rich (less than 1% of the population).

The recent leaders, like Menem, that have screwed up Argentina with "free market" economic policies certanly described themselves as Peronists, but, in reality, their policies have nothing to do with the real peronism of 1946-55.
To give an example, what happened to the Justicialist Party in Argentina is extremely similar to what happened in Britain with the Labour Party; In both cases, the parties were taken over by a bunch of 'new economics' theorists and the platform was completely changed to advocate liberalizing economic policies, shifting to the right.
I don't believe that we are screwed up because of Peron's fault, but because of the fault of the leaders that came after him, the leaders that, using his name or not, imposed terrible policies that only benefited the rich and undid all the industrialization achieved under Peron.

Hi Lobisonia!

Thank you for the contribution to this thread! It's always better to get information from someone like yourself who is Argentine and had relatives who lived there when Peron was in power.
I think part of the problem with the 'Peronist Legacy' is that most of the time the Peron story istold by people in the USA or somewhere else that have biases and 'agenda's' to promote the Peronist story incorrectly, to the point where he is presented as a as a fool and Evita the person who was soley responsible for his success.

Is it true that the reason Peron was kicked out of power in 1955 because of American and UK hostility towards him because of his support for Mussolini and Hitler in the War time and also because when he came to power he Nationalised the industries that were owned by the UK and America in Argentina?

Also is it true that the Peronist Party in Argentina moved away from their Pro-Labour stance! If so wasnt that the reason of founding the party in the first place to improve the conditions of the poorer-classes in Argentina?
How can they justify this?

Hi Lobisonia!

Thank you for the contribution to this thread! It's always better to get information from someone like yourself who is Argentine and had relatives who lived there when Peron was in power.

Don't worry...It's great to be useful. :)


I think part of the problem with the 'Peronist Legacy' is that most of the time the Peron story istold by people in the USA or somewhere else that have biases and 'agenda's' to promote the Peronist story incorrectly, to the point where he is presented as a as a fool and Evita the person who was soley responsible for his success.

Indeed, I agree. Evita was very charismatic, and greatly encouraged to achieve the female vote, divorce, worker's rights, helping the poor, etc., but, in the end, the one that drafted economic policy and passed the laws was Juan Peron.

Is it true that the reason Peron was kicked out of power in 1955 because of American and UK hostility towards him because of his support for Mussolini and Hitler in the War time and also because when he came to power he Nationalised the industries that were owned by the UK and America in Argentina?

Peron was a nationalist leader, in the sense that he wanted to achieve total economic independence for the country.
At the time, the Argentine economy was very dependant on British and US foreign capital - The British controlled railways and banking, while the Americans also were shareholders to major corporations in the country.
Also, the country was very dependant on its exports - cattle, meat and agricultural products.
Peron tried to solve these problems by pushing for industrialization, and for nationalization of those industries that were considered critical (railways, phone company, creation of a national mercant marine, etc.).

Since peronism was an ideology opposed to imperialism (and, in consequence, to the presence of US and British capital in the country), relations with Britain and specially with the US, became strained.
Silimar to the current situation with Chavez in Venezuela, the US had always opposed Peron right from the beginning (US ambassador in argentina making anti-peronist statements, attempts to leave argentina out of internation conferences, etc.), to defend its bussiness interests, but specially after 1953, this opposition grew up incredibly.
A clausule of the Marshall Plan, in fact, barred European countries from importing agricultural products from any other country other than the US or Commonwealth members (Canada, Australia, etc.). Since Argentina's economy at the time was mainly based on exports of cattle and agricultual products to Europe, this dealt a terrible blow to argentine economy and to the peronist government.
There is evidence of contacts between the CIA and the argentine army, as well.
So yes, the US and to a lesser extent Britain, opposed Peron to defend their bussiness interests and, while there is no evidence that they planned the coup, it is known that, the US, at least, actively supported it.

As for Peron being pro-nazi, it's still a controversial topic. It is true that Peron harbored many german scientists and engineers (Kurt Tank, for example, who helped to develop the "Pulqui II", the first Jet Fighter in Latin America), but, on the other side, many other countries, including the Soviet Union, France and the US, did this as well.
Most of the post-war first jet aircrafts and nuclear research in the US and the USSR were done by german scientists, for example.
Besides, during WWII Peron had belonged to the neutralist faction of the argentine army, he was never pro-axis. In fact, if it weren't for its strong opposition to the US, he was more allied-leaning than anything.

Also is it true that the Peronist Party in Argentina moved away from their Pro-Labour stance! If so wasnt that the reason of founding the party in the first place to improve the conditions of the poorer-classes in Argentina?
How can they justify this?

Well, what happened to the Justicialist Party is similar to what many other social-democratic parties of the world are suffering today.
After making populist declarations, Menem and his band of crooks achieved the leadership of the party, and suddenly changed their policies completely.
They justified this by claiming that modern economists backed up their ideas, and that "economic liberalization" would bring prosperity and development to argentina.
The results are clear: after ten years of these policies, carried out with the support of the IMF, the US, and the world bank, the national industry of argentina was greatly destroyed, forty percent of the population now lives in poverty (in the 50's, Argentina's living standard rivalred with those of Europe), and the economy greatly collapsed. (it's recovering now, though)

But don't worry, Menem's views are widely discredited nowadays in Argentina, thanks to the terrible consequences of his policies, and polls say that at least 85% of argentinians hate his guts.

Thank you very much for such an informative and well written history lesson Lobisonia.

Thanks again Lobisonia for the information.

Do you know if there are any political groups in Argentina that follow the original Peronist ideals?