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 News from Around the Americas | October 2006 
Violent Protests Marred Reburial of Peron
 Mayra Pertossi - Associated Press
| | Argentina's top labor leader, Hugo Moyano, talks to reporters Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006 in Buenos Aires, about the violence during the third reburial of Argentina's former President Juan Domingo Peron, Tuesday, whose body was hastily laid in a new mausoleum after a long-planned ceremony went awry. The violence was sparked by members of rival labor factions of the Peronist party angry about not being able to gain entrance to the ceremony. (AP/Jos Casal) |
Former Argentine strongman Juan Domingo Peron was reburied in a lavish ceremony last week marred by violence, as rival factions hurled rocks at one another and riot police dispersed them with rubber bullets and tear gas.
The fighting between club-wielding groups of men on the fringes of a mostly peaceful crowd of thousands resulted in at least 40 injuries, local media reported. Televised footage also showed one man who appeared to fire a black handgun four times, the barrel smoking.
The violence was reportedly sparked by members of rival labor factions of the Peronist party angry after being refused entry to the ceremony. However, authorities had no immediate confirmation on the motives for the battles and labor leaders later denounced the violence.
Riot police tightly ringed the flag-draped coffin topped by a military cap and saber, as it neared the new $1.1 million mausoleum built to house Peron's remains on his former estate in San Vicente, a farming community 30 miles southwest of the capital.
It was the third reburial for Peron since his death in 1974 at age 78. His supporters felt he deserved a more dignified resting place than the crowded urban cemetery where grave robbers broke in and stole his hands in 1987. Some supporters hope one day to put his wife Eva Peron's remains by his side in the gleaming, cement-and-marble crypt.
Peron was elected president three times and radically reshaped Argentina by redirecting farm wealth to poor urban workers. He and the glamorous, blond wife Eva, known as Evita, were Argentina's dominant political figures in the 20th century, and still inspire passionate responses from Argentines.
The hastily re-scripted ceremony came 11 hours after Peron's remains were removed from the crypt in a humble Buenos Aires cemetery where they had lain for most of the past 32 years. Throngs of people fought to touch his coffin as bugles sounded and pallbearers loaded it onto a motorized caravan.
As Peron's body was laid into the mausoleum, hundreds of supporters clapped, raised arms in a "V-for-victory" salute and yelled "Viva! Long live Peron!"
Before Peron's body arrived, rival labor groups appeared to begin competing for viewing positions for the ceremony. Scuffles escalated into barrages of rocks, flying bottles, sticks and bricks, and the rival bands drifted to one of the compound's entrances.
Scores of police, firing tear gas and rubber bullets, restored a tense calm for nearly three hours until a second bout of violence erupted just after Peron's coffin arrived.
"This was supposed to be a celebration, a historic day," said one woman fleeing with her family. "Instead it is a great shame."
One man left in a car with windows shattered by rocks.
Earlier Tuesday, hundreds of labor activists waved large photographs of the Perons, who in life cultivated an enormous working-class following. The workers waved banners reading "Peron, Immortal! Evita, Immortal!" as Peron's coffin was taken to a midday tribute at a union hall.
"We are paying homage to our Peronist party, to the political party of our grandfathers and our fathers!" said 24-year-old Daniel Ferreri.
Nonetheless, the ceremonies and unrest underscored how the movement that bears Peron's name has suffered deep fissures since his death: Former presidents Carlos Menem and Eduardo Duhalde, rivals of current President Nestor Kirchner, and all Peronists, said they would not take part.
Kirchner canceled plans to attend after the violence broke out.
An authoritarian leader who also had enemies, Peron nationalized railroads and other industries to bankroll state programs for the working classes.
The young Evita became a national icon, and after her death at age 33 in 1952, her body lay in state in Congress for weeks as hundreds of thousands of mourners thronged to her coffin's open viewing.
When military leaders overthrew Juan Peron in 1955, they were apparently so worried about a death cult that they secretly moved Evita's body to an unmarked grave in Italy. In 1971 it was delivered to Juan Peron's home in exile in Spain.
Peron returned to Argentina soon after and ruled briefly until his death. He was succeeded by his third wife, Isabel, who brought Evita's body to rest by his in the presidential residence in Buenos Aires. But after she, too, was ousted in a 1976 coup, the military quietly dispatched both bodies to their families' respective crypts.
Relatives of Evita, who died from cancer in 1952 at age 33, have opposed moving her coffin from her family's tomb in the Recoleta cemetery in downtown Buenos Aires to rest beside her husband — a move urged by some Peronist leaders.
Associated Press writer Bill Cormier contributed to this report from Buenos Aires. |
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