PRESIDENT JUAN D. PERON (ARGENTINA) - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH 10/30/1972 - HFSID 155155

JUAN PERÓN
Color image, seated at his desk, inscribed in Spanish "with all affection" (probably to a Peronist legislator), a year before he returned from exile (and to power)
Photograph inscribed and signed (in Spanish, loosely translated): "To Cong. Maria del Carmela Valenzuela with all affection/Juan Perón/30 Oct. 1972". Color, 5½x9. Juan Perón (1895-1974) was part of a military junta, which seized power in 1943 and made him secretary of labor and social welfare. Promoted to Vice President and Minister of War in 1944 but purged by suspicious fellow officers in 1945, Perón was released after massive protests by the labor unions whose support he had cultivated. Perón was elected President in 1946, serving until overthrown in a military coup (1956). He ruled with authoritarian methods, but his program of nationalism and economic justice appealed to many of his countrymen. While Perón lived in exile in Spain, his Peronista movement remained a powerful force in Argentine politics. He once again served as President from 1973 until his death, his final term marked by bitter conflict between the left and right wings of the Peronist movement. His first wife, Maria Eva Duarte (1919-1952), affectionately called Evita, helped him as de facto Minister of Health and Labor, acquiring a mass following of her own. His second wife, Maria Estella "Isabelita" Perón, succeeded him as President, but was ousted in a coup in 1976. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.