St. Peron
When, on October loth, Colonel Peron was forced to resign by an ultimatum from the commander of the Campo del Mayo garrison, considerable satisfaction was felt in the United States and in this country. It was thought that his defeat would bring to an end the authoritarian tendencies of the Argentine Government and conduce to the restoration of good relations with the democracies. Satisfac- tion has been shortlived. For Colonel Peron has now returned to power, is master of the Government and has every prospect of becoming the next President of the Argentine. The most alarming aspect of his triumph is that he owes it to vast and frenzied popular demonstrations in his favour, which exhibited that particular type of mass hysteria associated with the late regimes in Germany and Italy ; in Buenos Aires placards greeted him not as Colonel but as " Saint" Peron. The new saint owes this mass support to his enthusiasm for social reforms, to which he rededicated himself in
public with almost mystic fervour ; for besides being a very able politician he is also a demagogue of great power. It is in keeping with his type of demagogy that his other pillar of support is the police, whose chief in Buenos Aires has now returned to office, after being dismissed at the time of Colonel Peron's resignation. Add to his mass following and the police that peculiarly intense brand of Argentine nationalism which Colonel Pezon knows how to exploit, and it is clear that, for the moment at least, he occupies a formidably strong position. And, despite the Pact of Chapultepec, his nationalism, which is based on hatred for the political and economic domination of the United States, will win him consider- able sympathy in the other South American republics
Previous page
