Isabel Martínez de Perón
María Estela Martínez de Perón (born on
February 4,
1931) better known as
Isabel Martínez de Perón was the third wife of
Argentine President
Juan Perón and served as
President of Argentina in her own right from
July 1 1974 to
March 24 1976.
She met her future husband during his exile in
Panama. At the time Isabel was a nightclub dancer. Perón, who was nearly 35 years her senior, was attracted to her beauty and believed she could provide him with the female companionship he had been lacking since the death of his second wife,
Eva.
Perón brought Isabel with him when he moved to
Madrid,
Spain in 1960. Authorities in the strongly
Roman Catholic nation did not approve of Perón's living arrangements with this young woman, so
November 15,
1961 the former president reluctantly got married for a third time.
As Perón began to return to an active role in Argentine politics, Isabel would often be used as a go-between from Spain to South America. Having been deposed in a coup years prior, Perón was forbidden from returning to Argentina, so his new wife would travel in his stead and report back to him when she returned.
It was also around this time that Isabel met
José López Rega, an
occult "philosopher" and
fortune teller. Isabel was quite interested in such matters, so the two quickly became friends. Under pressure from Isabel, Perón appointed López as his personal secretary.
In
1973 Perón was persuaded to return to Argentina and run for president. He agreed and, in a surprisingly uncontroversial move, chose Isabel as his
running mate. Isabel had very little in the way of political experience or ambitions, and she was a very different personality from
Evita, who had been denied the post of vice president years earlier.
Juan Perón died on
July 1,
1974, less than a year after being elected. Isabel assumed the position and became only the second
female head of state (other than female
monarchs) in history, after
Sühbaataryn Yanjmaa of
Mongolia.
By this time,
José López Rega, who had been slowly consolidating his power over the years by controlling Isabel, emerged as the
power behind the throne—a tool which greatly frightened the military. Isabel agreed to fire López, but the military concluded that with the prevailing climate of widespread strikes and
political terrorism, a "weak-willed and inexperienced woman" would not be a suitable President.
On
March 24,
1976, she was
kidnapped and deposed in a bloodless coup. After remaining under house arrest for five years, she was sent into exile in
Spain in
1981.
*
Dirty War*
Proceso de Reorganización Nacional*Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend".
New Straits Times, p. 21.
*
First female president for Argentina
