LETTER FROM ARGENTINA

Buenos Aires is a city on the go. Its excellent restaurants are jammed; its boutiques outdo Paris; its bookstores outdo New York; and its art galleries certainly outdo the rest of Latin America. The world’s top films run here before they run in London; the theater is better than in Madrid; the night life is hectic. Wines are nearing European standards; and, when available, Argentinian steaks are still the best. The Argentinians, a sophisticated, very good-looking people, know that Buenos Aires, with its French architecture, is one of the most attractive cities in the Western world. Today it forms the backdrop for a chaotic political drama.

Present or in exile, Juan Perón was Argentina’s center of gravity, a sun that dwarfed all other stars during thirty years. When Perón fell ill and knew he would die, he put together a packaged government in which he assembled nearly all Argentinian political forces: labor, industry, Peronists, the military, even political opponents. Only the Marxist extremists on the left and the anarchical extremists on the right were excluded. And during Perón’s funeral obsequies, under the dome of the Senate, this heterogeneous cluster of supporters gathered to consecrate themselves to the dead leader’s dream. As in feudal times, the liegemen of the dead leader pledged their support to the chosen heir as they came forward one by one to vow loyalty to President Isabelita Perón: General Anaya, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, pledged their support; the president of the CGT (Confederación General de Trabajadores) took the pledge for the workers of the nation; Senate president José Antonio Allende pledged the allegiance of the lawmakers; and pledges were given by the heads of various political parties, Peronist and non-Peronist.

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Nena Ossa

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Buenos Aires is a city on the go. Its excellent restaurants are jammed; its boutiques outdo Paris; its bookstores outdo New York; and its art galleries certainly outdo the rest of Latin America. The world’s top films run here before they run in London; the theater is better than in Madrid; the night life is hectic. Wines are nearing European standards; and, when available, Argentinian steaks are still the best. The Argentinians, a sophisticated, very good-looking people, know that Buenos Aires, with its French architecture, is one of the most attractive cities in the Western world. Today it forms the backdrop for a chaotic political drama.

Present or in exile, Juan Perón was Argentina’s center of gravity, a sun that dwarfed all other stars during thirty years. When Perón fell ill and knew he would die, he put together a packaged government in which he assembled nearly all Argentinian political forces: labor, industry, Peronists, the military, even political opponents. Only the Marxist extremists on the left and the anarchical extremists on the right were excluded. And during Perón’s funeral obsequies, under the dome of the Senate, this heterogeneous cluster of supporters gathered to consecrate themselves to the dead leader’s dream. As in feudal times, the liegemen of the dead leader pledged their support to the chosen heir as they came forward one by one to vow loyalty to President Isabelita Perón: General Anaya, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, pledged their support; the president of the CGT (Confederación General de Trabajadores) took the pledge for the workers of the nation; Senate president José Antonio Allende pledged the allegiance of the lawmakers; and pledges were given by the heads of various political parties, Peronist and non-Peronist.