José López Rega
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José López Rega in the mid-1970s |
José López Rega (
17 October 1916 –
9 June 1989) was
Argentina's Minister of Social Welfare during the
Peronist government started in
1973 by
Juan Perón and continued after Perón's death in
1974 by his third wife and vice-president,
Isabel Martínez de Perón, until the
coup d'etat of
1976 that initiated the
National Reorganization Process. Founder of the
Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance ("Triple A"), he was also a member of
P2 masonry lodge, as discovered by Italian police in 1981. López Rega was also known by the nickname
El Brujo ("The Witch").
López Rega's mother died giving birth to him in
Buenos Aires. According to his
biography by Marcelo Larraquy (
2002), he was a respectful, introverted boy, who had a library covering an entire wall and a special interest in spiritual topics (which would later turn into a passion for
esoterism). He got married at the age of 27, and in
1944 he became a member of the Federal Police.
In
1951 he met Victoria Montero, a
divinator, who had been visited by
Eva Perón already. She initiated him in the "
spiritual path" and warned him that he had great powers and should use them with care, without abusing them. López Rega was a frequent visitor in Montero's home, where he met
freemasons and members of the
Umbanda sect. Twenty years later Montero expelled him, since he had abandoned the path to do politics beside Perón.
López Rega became the private secretary of Juan Perón when he was exiled in
Spain, after being deposed in
1955 by the
Revolución Libertadora and fled through several other countries. When Perón returned to Argentina in
1973, acclaimed by the masses, and was again elected president, López Rega became the Minister of Social Welfare and the Police Commissioner, which gave him access to wide powers. After Perón died in
1974, Vice-President Isabel Perón took charge, and soon came under the shadow of López Rega, who dictated the composition of the new cabinet and obtained new powers.
López Rega conducted an unpopular policy of fiscal conservatism. In
1975 his protegé
Celestino Rodrigo, Minister of Economy,
devalued the
Argentine peso by 50%, causing an
inflation spike. López Rega came under the attack of the
leftist factions of the Peronist Party, accused of being a counter-revolutionary and a
fascist, and in July 1975 he was also formally accused by the main party organ of instigating the action of the
Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (known as
Triple A), one of the first
death squads that formed in Argentina in the
1970s. On
11 July he resigned and, after being swiftly appointed
ambassador by Isabel Perón, he fled to
Spain.
On
24 March 1976 President Isabel Perón was deposed by the military. López Rega spent the following ten years fleeing justice abroad. In
1986, three years after the return to
democracy, he was arrested in the
United States and
extradited to Argentina, where he died awaiting trial.
*
Biography of José López Rega (in Spanish)
*
López Rega. La biografía. Marcelo Larraquy. Editorial Sudamericana. 473 pages. ISBN 9500724413.
