Peronist years
Main article: Peronism
Juan Perón and his wife Eva Perón, 1947
The Labour Party (later renamed Justicialist Party), the most powerful and influential
party in Argentine history, came into power with the rise of Juan Perón to the presidency
in 1946. He nationalized strategic industries and services, improved wages and working
conditions, paid the full external debt and claimed he achieved nearly full employment.
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He pushed Congress to enact women's suffrage in 1947, and developed a system of
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social assistance for the most vulnerable sectors of society. The economy began to
decline in 1950 due in part to government expenditures and the protectionist economic
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policies.
He also engaged in a campaign of political suppression. Anyone who was perceived to
be a political dissident or potential rival was subject to threats, physical violence and
harassment. The Argentine intelligentsia, the middle-class, university students, and
professors were seen as particularly troublesome. Perón fired over 2,000 university
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professors and faculty members from all major public education institutions.
Perón tried to bring most trade and labour unions under his thumb, regularly resorting to
violence when needed. For instance, the meat-packers union leader, Cipriano Reyes,
organized strikes in protest against the government after elected labour movement
officials were forcefully replaced by Peronist puppets from the Peronist Party. Reyes
was soon arrested on charges of terrorism, though the allegations were never
substantiated. Reyes, who was never formally charged, was tortured in prison for five
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years and only released after the regime's downfall in 1955.
Perón managed to get re-elected in 1951. His wife Eva Perón, who played a critical role
in the party, died of cancer in 1952. As the economy continued to tank, Perón started
losing popular support, and came to be seen as a threat to the national process. The
Navy took advantage of Perón's withering political power, and bombed the Plaza de
Mayo in 1955. Perón survived the attack, but a few months later, during the Liberating
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Revolution coup, he was deposed and went into exile in Spain.
