Isabel Perón
Isabel Martínez de Perón (Spanish pronunciation: [isaˈβel maɾˈtines ðe peˈɾon] , born María Estela Martínez Cartas; 4 February 1931) is an Argentine former politician who served as the 46th President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the first female republican heads of state in the world, and the first woman to serve as president of a country. Perón was the third wife of President Juan Perón. During her husband's third term as president from 1973 to 1974, she served as both the 29th Vice President and First Lady of Argentina. From 1974 until her resignation in 1985, she was also the 2nd President of the Justicialist Party.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Martínez and the second or maternal family name is Cartas.
Isabel Perón
Vacant
Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Víctor Hipólito Martínez (1983)
Juan Perón
Norma Beatriz López Rega
Alicia Raquel Hartridge (1976)
Following her husband's death in office in 1974, she served as President for almost two years before the military took over the government with the 1976 coup. Perón was then placed under house arrest for five years before she was exiled to Spain in 1981.[1][2] After democracy was restored in Argentina in 1983, she was a guest of honor at President Raúl Alfonsín's inauguration. For several years, she was a nominal head of Juan Perón's Justicialist Party and played a constructive role in reconciliation discussion, but has never played any important political role afterwards.
Isabel Perón is one of the greatest expressions of the right-wing peronism and mainly of the Orthodox Peronism.[3] Ideologically, she was considered close to corporate neo-fascism.[n. 1][5][6][7] During her short tenure in office, she relied, at different points in time, on pro-neoliberal capitalism politicians, politicized military, and trade unions.[8]
In 2007, an Argentine judge ordered Perón's arrest over the forced disappearance of an activist in February 1976, on the grounds that the disappearance was authorised by her signing of decrees allowing Argentina's armed forces to take action against "subversives".[9] She was arrested near her home in Spain on 12 January 2007.[10] Spanish courts subsequently refused her extradition to Argentina.[11]
Since the death of Carlos Menem on 14 February 2021, Perón is the oldest living former Argentine president.[note 1]
Detention and exile[edit]
The majority of Peronist officials in the national, provincial, and municipal governments were promptly arrested, brutally beaten, starved, tortured, and interrogated by military police. Many "disappeared" permanently during the subsequent Dirty War, including numerous right-wing Peronists.[23] Isabel Perón herself remained under house arrest in Villa La Angostura and other secluded locations for five years, and was eventually sent into exile in Spain in July 1981. She continued to serve as official head of her husband's Justicialist Party until her resignation in February 1985, nearly a decade after her fall from power. Though there were some who desired her return and wished for her return to power, she refused to stand for election to the presidency when elections were ultimately called in 1983. She lived in Madrid, maintained close links with Francisco Franco's family, and sometimes went to Marbella.[38] She sold Perón's Puerta de Hierro estate in 2001,[39] and relocated to a townhouse in the western suburb of Villafranca del Castillo.[40]
Following the restoration of democracy in Argentina, Perón was pardoned from charges of corruption during her presidency and returned in December 1983 as a guest of honor at President Raúl Alfonsín's inauguration, and in May 1984 to participate in policy talks arranged by Alfonsín and opposition leaders. Still nominally head of Juan Perón's Justicialist Party, she played a constructive role in the talks, supporting cooperation between the restive CGT labor union (her party's political base) and Alfonsín. The talks concluded with a weak agreement, and she resigned from her post as titular head of the party.[41] She returned to Argentina in 1988 to resolve probate disputes concerning the Perón estate,[42] then resumed residence in Spain under a very low profile.
Arrest in Spain[edit]
A judge in Mendoza, Argentina in November 2006 demanded testimony from Isabel Perón, along with other Peronist ministers of her government, in a case involving forced disappearances during her presidency; on 12 January 2007, she was arrested by police in Madrid. She was charged by the Argentine authorities with the disappearance of Héctor Aldo Fagetti Gallego on 25 February 1976, and for crimes related to her issuance of 6 October 1975 decree calling the Armed Forces to "annihilate subversive elements."[10] The Nunca Más ("Never Again") report released in 1984 by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons recorded 600 disappearances and 500 assassinations under the Peronist governments from 1973 to 1976, and it is acknowledged that the Triple A alone murdered some 600 people.[43]
The 2006 capture in Spain of Triple A death-squad overseer Rodolfo Almirón, who had also been in charge of López Rega's and Isabel Perón's personal security, shed further light on the extent of Triple A involvement in the early stages of the Dirty War.[38] Isabel Perón's extradition to Argentina was refused by Spain on 28 March 2008. Spain's National Court ruled twice that the charges against her did not constitute crimes against humanity, adding that the statute of limitations on the charges expired after 20 years.[11]
The Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina unanimously dismissed on 21 June 2017 the petitions to interrogate Isabel Perón either as a witness or as a defendant.[44]