JUAN DOMINGO PERÓN
" The greatest Latin
American Leader of the 20th century "
Osprey Press
Here are the twenty fundamental truths of the
Peronist Justicialist movement. I have wanted to put them in one place so that
each of you can engrave them in your mind and your heart; so that they are sent
out as a message of love and justice to all parts; so that they can be practiced
honorably and loyally; so that you live happily according to them, and also that
you die happily in their defense, if that is necessary.
Juan Perón
The Twenty Truths:
1. True
democracy is when the government does only what the people want and defends only
one interest: that of the people.
2. Peronism is essentially popular. Any
political circle is anti-popular and for that reason is not Peronist.
3. The Peronist works for the Movement.
Anyone who in name serves a circle or a caudillo, is only one in name.
4. There does not exist for Peronism more
than one class of men: those who work.
5. In the New Argentina, work is a right and
is a duty, because it is just that everyone produces at least as much as one
consumes.
6. For the Peronist there is nothing better
than another Peronist.
7. No Peronist should feel that he is more
than he is, nor less than he should be. When a Peronist begins to feel that he
is more than he is, he begins to change into an oligarch.
8. In political action the scale of value of
each Peronist is the following: first the Fatherland, later the movement and
later the men.
9. Politics for us is not the end, only the
means for the good of the Fatherland, that is the happiness of its children and
national greatness.
10. The two arms of Peronism are Social
Justice and Social Welfare. These embrace the people with justice and love.
11. Peronism desire national unity and not
strife. It desires heroes but not martyrs.
12. In the New Argentina the only privileged
ones are the children.
13. A government without doctrine is a body
without soul. For this reason peronism has a political, economic, and social
doctrine: Justicialism.
14. Justicialism is a new life philosophy,
simple, practical, popular, profoundly Christian, and profoundly humanist.
15. As a political doctrine, Justicialism
realizes the balance between the rights of the individual and the rights of the
community.
16. As an economic doctrine, Justicialism
makes real the social economy, putting capital to the service of the economy and
that to the service of social well being.
17. As a social doctrine Justicialism
achieves Social Justice, that which gives people their rights in the social
order.
18. We want an Argentina socially Just,
economically Free, and politically Sovereign.
19. We constitute a central government, an
organized state and a free people.
20. In this land the best that we have is
the people.
President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and again from 1973 to 1974, the greatest Latin American leader of the 20th century, who wrought long-lasting changes in the nation's politics and social services. A friend of the poor hardworking masses and unashamedly nationalistic.
Born in Lobos , which means Wolves, Buenos Aires Province, on October 08th, 1895. He was the son of a wealthy rancher. Perón was educated at the Colegio Militar from 1911 to 1913 and at the Escuela Superior de Guerra from 1926 to 1929. In 1930 he took part in a military uprising against President Hipólito Irigoyen and served as private secretary of the minister of war from 1930 to 1935. He later taught at the Escuela Superior de Guerra, with the rank of Colonel he spent a year in Chile as military attaché, published five books on military history, and traveled to Mussolini's Fascist Italy to study alpine military methods. and tactics. While there, he also studied Fascism and began to wonder if something like that could work in his country.
Upon his return to Argentina in 1941, Perón joined other officers in a secret military group that staged a coup d'état in June 1943. He took over the department of labor and proceeded to transform the labor movement by weakening the influence of left-wing parties on it, enacting new laws and implementing old ones, and creating new syndicates to replace the unions. Perón was made vice president and minister of war in 1944. As his power grew, opposition within the armed forces became widespread. On October 9, 1945, he was forced to resign from his three posts and was imprisoned. Perón's resignation triggered a government crisis that was resolved on October 17, when his labor supporters obtained his release. Four days later, Perón, a widower, married Mariá Eva Duarte, who became fondly known as Evita.
In 1945 a new political group emerged in Argentina, with its main support among the most depressed sections of the agricultural and industrial working class. Called the Peronistas, the group supported Perón as its candidate for the presidency. The Peronistas campaigned among members of the working class, which were popularly known as Los Descamisados (Spanish for "shirtless ones," implying that they did not wear suitcoats like the middle class). The elections, held in February 1946, resulted in a decisive victory for Perón. As president, Perón pursued pro-Labor, pro-Nationalist policies, helped by Evita, who became an influential, although informal, member of his government.
Peron halted Jewish immigration to Argentina, introduced Catholic religious instruction in public schools and unfortunately allowed Argentina to become a haven for fleeing Nazis. On the other hand, Peron also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949. In the early 1950s, benefits to labor began to diminish through no fault of Perón's. The death of Evita in 1952, economic difficulties, increasing labor unrest, and his excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church, there are stories he later reconciled with the church, further weakened Perón's position; in 1955 the military again ousted his government. Throughout 18 years of exile, however, Perón retained his labor support and influence in Argentine politics. He was finally allowed to return to Argentina in 1973 and was again elected president, with his third wife, Isabel de Perón, as vice president. He died in office on July 1, 1974. Though he died over 30 years ago his movement lives on in Argentina and he will always live on in the hearts of his people as the greatest leader their country ever had.
