Isabel Martínez de Perón (born María Estela Martínez Cartas; 4 February 1931), simply known as Isabel Perón and also Isabelita, served as President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976, succeeding her husband Juan Domingo Perón after his death. She was one of the first female republican heads of state in the world, and the first woman to serve as president of a country.
Few details are known of Isabel's life before she met Perón, other than she was born in La Rioja, Argentina, and that after dropped out of school after fifth grade, she joined a dancing troupe that toured in nightclubs across Latin American, which is where she adoped the name Isabel after the Spanish form of the name of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, which she had chosen as a confirmation name. During her troupe's stay in Panama in late 1955-early 1956, she met Juan Domingo Perón, who was 35 years her senior, who at the time was exiled there after being overthrown in a coup in 1955. The two began a relationship, and from then on Isabel would follow Perón through his exile, ultimately ending in Madrid, Spain, in 1960. At the time, Spanish authorities during Francoist Spain did not approve of a twice-widowed former president cohabiting with a much-younger woman to whom he was not married, so in 1961 Perón reluctantly married for a third time.
As Perón resumed an active role in Argentine politics from exile, he would train Isabel to follow his steps in politics, and through the following decade Isabel acted as a go-between from Spain to Argentina, and with Perón being forbidden from returning to Argentina, his wife would travel in his stead. Eventually free elections with Peronism allowed to compete (although with a specific ban on Perón himself) were set to take place in March 1973, with Héctor Cámpora, nominated by Perón's Justicialist Party, winning handedly. Just seven weeks after being sworn in, however, and with Perón already having returned to Argentina, Cámpora resigned to allow Perón to run for president (after Cámpora lifted the ban on Perón specifically competing). He chose Isabel as his nominee for the Vice Presidency in a bid to pacify feuding Peronist factions, as these could agree on no other running mate.note This was largely due to a growing rift between the right-wing and left-wing factions of the Peronist movement; despite being considered by just about everyone a political neophyte, it appears that it was exactly that that helped her get support, as this made her the only figure apart from Perón himself who had not picked a side within the internal confrontation of Justicialism.
As expected, Perón won the snap election in September with a large majority and began his third term on October. Also as expected, however, his precarious health caught up with him, and after suffering a series of heart attacks on 28 June 1974, he died on 1 July, less than a year after his third election to office. As vice-president his widow formally ascended to the presidency, and although she was not the first woman to lead a country,note she became the first woman in the world to hold the title of "President", being known in Spanish as La Presidente.Context
The following two years would be marked by the activities of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A), a right-wing paramilitary force founded by José López Rega (a friend of Isabel and leader of the right-wing Peronism) in the name of combatting left-wing guerillas such as Montoneros and the Trotskyite group Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP, People's Revolutionary Army), but that the government also used to target and murder many law-abiding opponents of the regime. In economic matters, faced with record trade and budget deficits, her Economy Minister, Celestino Rodrigo, proceeded to apply economic shock therapy that doubled rates and fares and ordered a surprise halving of the peso's value. Consumer prices doubled between May and August 1975 alone, and though sharp, mandatory wage hikes had been negotiated between the government, labor and employers, the resulting shock (known as the Rodrigazo) ignited protest across Argentina, including a two-day general strike by the CGT (the first ever against a Peronist administration). The now hated José López Rega, following protests in front of his offices (he was also the Minister of Social Welfare), was hastily appointed Ambassador to Spain and boarded a flight into exile. However, by then the damage had been done, and on 24 March 1976, the military took over the government, starting the National Reorganization Process. Perón was then placed under house arrest for five years before she was exiled to Spain in 1981, where she has remained ever since, even after the return of democracy in Argetina, only making the occasional return such as attending the inauguration of the first democratic president after the dictatorship, Raúl Alfonsín, to simbolize the continuity of democratic rule.
In 2007 an Argentine judge ordered Perón's arrest over the forced disappearance of an activist in February 1976, on the grounds that the disappearance was authorized by her signing of decrees allowing Argentina's armed forces to take action against "subversives". She was arrested near her home in Spain on 12 January 2007, but Spanish courts subsequently refused her extradition to Argentina.
Isabel Perón's legacy is historically controversial in Argentina, even among the ranks of the Justicialist Party, who otherwise have both Juan Domingo and his previous wife Eva as Sacred Cows, with most of the debate surrounding her being on whether she was an ineffective, weak or disoriented president who remained influenced by various figures of power, or if she was consciously responsible for the political repression that occurred during her presidency. Even among those with a softer judgement on her here is a broad historical consensus that she lacked the necessary political experience to hold the position, and that this largely motivated the undue influence of other people in her political actions as well as precipitating her fall from power.
Works featuing Isabel Perón:
Films — Live-Action- In Puerta De Hierro, which chronicles Juan Domingo Perón's exile in Spain, Isabel is portrayed by Victoria Carreras.
Live-Action TV
- Juan Domingo and Isabel Perón are supporting characters in the Spanish miniseries Arde Madrid, about the period Ava Gardner (played by Debi Mazar) lived in said Spanish city (which coincided with Juan Domingo's exile in the country), where she is portrayed by Argentine actress Fabiana García Lago.
