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Early Life
October 8, 1895: Today Juan Peron is born in Argentina. As Juan Peron grew up at the age of 16 he entered military school. Juan in training got better than average on process through the officer ranks. -
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Military
Juan a strongly built six foot tall youth, became a champion fencer of the army and a fine skier and boxer. He served in Chile as a military attache and travelled to Italy to observe the rise of the Fascists and Nazis during 1938-40. He had bent for history and political philosophy and published in those fields. -
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Return
Juan returned to Argentina in 1941 and used his acquired knowledge to achieve the rank of colonel. He then joined the United Officers Group, a secret military lodge that engineered the 1943 coup that overthrew the ineffective civilian government of Argentina. -
Military Regimes
The military regimes of the following three years came increasingly under the influence of Juan. He who had shrewdly requested for himself only the minor post of secretary of labour and social welfare. In 1944, however, as a protege of Pres.Gen.Edelmiro J.Farrell, Juan became minister of war and then vice president. -
Addressment
In early October 1945, Juan was ousted from his positions by a coup of rival army and navy officers. But associates in the labour unions rallied the workers of greater Buenos Aires, and Juan was released from custody on Oct. 17, 1945. That night, from the balcony of the presidential palace, he addressed 300,000 people, and he address was broadcast to the country on radio. -
Marrige
He promised to lead the people to victory in the pending presidential election and to build with them a strong and just nation. A few days later he married actress Eva Duarte, or Evita. As she she became popularly called, who would help him rule Argentina in the years ahead. -
Election
After a campaign marked by repression of the liberal opposition by the federal police and by strong arm squads. Juan was elected president in February 1946 with 56 percent of the popular vote. Juan set Argentina on a course of industrialization and state intervention in the economy. -
System
This was calculated to provide greater economic and social benefits for the working class. He also adopted a strong anti-United States and anti-British position. He who began preaching the virtues of his so-called social justice and Third Position, an authoritarian and populist system between communism and capitalism. -
Funds
If Juan did not structurally revolutionize Argentina, he did though reshape the country, bringing needed benefits to industrial workers in the form of wage increases and fringe benefits. He nationalized the railroads and other utilities and financed public works on a large scale. The funds for those costly innovations and for the graft that early began to corrode his regime came from the foreign exchange accumulated by Argentine exports during World War II. -
Political Life
Also the funds came from the profits of the state agency that set the prices for agricultural products. Juan dictated the political life of the country by his command of the armed forces. He severely restricted and in some areas eliminated constitution liberties, and in 1949 he arranged a convention to write a new constitution that would permit his reelection.
