Frailty is a common geriatric syndrome that embodies an elevated risk of catastrophic declines in health and function among older adults. Frailty is a condition associated with ageing, and it has been recognized for centuries. As described by Shakespeare in As You Like It,
"the sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with
spectacles on nose and pouch on side, his youthful hose well sav’d, a
world too wide, for his shrunk shank…". The shrunk shank is a result of
loss of muscle with aging. It is also a marker of a more widespread
syndrome of frailty, with associated weakness, slowing, decreased
energy, lower activity, and, when severe, unintended weight loss.
As a population ages, a central focus of geriatricians and public
health practitioners is to understand, and then beneficially intervene
on, the factors and processes that put elders at such risk, especially
the increased vulnerability to stressors (e.g. extremes of heat and
cold, infection, injury, or even changes in medication) that
characterizes many older adults.
Epidemiology
Frailty
is a common geriatric syndrome. Estimates of frailty's prevalence in
older populations may vary according to a number of factors, including
the setting in which the prevalence is being estimated – e.g., nursing
home (higher prevalence) vs. community (lower prevalence), and the
operational definition used for defining frailty. Using the widely used
frailty phenotype framework proposed by Fried et al. (2001), prevalence estimates of 7–16% have been reported in non-institutionalized, community-dwelling older adults.
The occurrence of frailty increases incrementally with advancing
age, and is more common in older women than men, and among those of
lower socio-economic status. Frail older adults are at high risk for
major adverse health outcomes, including disability, falls,
institutionalization, hospitalization, and mortality.
Epidemiologic research to date has led to the identification of a
number of risk factors for frailty, including: (a) chronic diseases,
such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease,
depression, and cognitive impairment; (b) physiologic impairments, such as activation of inflammation and coagulation systems, anemia, atherosclerosis, autonomic dysfunction, hormonal abnormalities, obesity, hypovitaminosis D in men, and environment-related factors such as life space and neighborhood characteristics.
Advances about potentially modifiable risk factors for frailty now
offer the basis for translational research effort aimed at prevention
and treatment of frailty in older adults. A recent systematic review
found that exercise interventions can increase muscle strength and
improve physical function; however, results are inconsistent in frail
older adults living in the community.
Theoretical understanding
Recent
work on frailty has sought to characterize both the underlying changes
in the body and the manifestations that make frailty recognizable. It
is well-agreed upon that declines in physiologic reserves and resilience
is the essence of being frail.
Similarly, scientists agree that the risk of frailty increases with
age and with the incidence of diseases. Beyond that, there is now strong
evidence to support the theory that the development of frailty involves
declines in energy production, energy utilization and repair systems in
the body, resulting in declines in the function of many different
physiological systems. This decline in multiple systems affects the
normal complex adaptive behavior that is essential to health
and eventually results in frailty typically manifesting as a syndrome
of a constellation of weakness, slowness, reduced activity, low energy
and unintended weight loss. When most severe, i.e. when 3 or more of these manifestations are present, the individual is at a high risk of death.
Assessment of geriatric frailty
The
syndrome of geriatric frailty is hypothesized to reflect impairments in
the regulation of multiple physiologic systems, embodying a lack of
resilience to physiologic challenges and thus elevated risk for a range
of deleterious endpoints. Generally speaking, the empirical assessment
of geriatric frailty in individuals seeks ultimately to capture this or
related features, though distinct approaches to such assessment have
been developed in the literature (see de Vries et al., 2011 for a
comprehensive review).
Two key approaches are discussed below:
Linda Fried / Johns Hopkins Frailty Criteria
A
popular approach to the assessment of geriatric frailty encompasses the
assessment of five dimensions that are hypothesized to reflect systems
whose impaired regulation underlies the syndrome. These five dimensions
are:
unintentional weight loss,
exhaustion,
muscle weakness,
slowness while walking, and
low levels of activity.
Corresponding to these dimensions are five specific criteria
indicating adverse functioning, which are implemented using a
combination of self-reported and performance-based measures. Those who
meet at least three of the criteria are defined as “frail”, while those
not matching any of the five criteria are defined as “robust”.
Additional work on the construct is done by Bandeen-Roche et al. (2006),
though some of the exact criteria and measures differ (see Table 1 in
the paper for this contrast). Other studies in the literature have also
adopted the general approach of Linda P. Fried et al. (2001)
though, again, the exact criteria and their particular measures may
vary. This assessment approach was developed and refined by Fried and
colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University’s Center on Aging and Health. This Center is home to Johns Hopkins Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, which focuses on frailty research.
Rockwood Frailty Index
Another
notable approach to the assessment of geriatric frailty (if not also to
some degree its conceptualization) is that of Rockwood and Mitnitski
(2007)
in which frailty is viewed in terms of the number of health "deficits"
that are manifest in the individual, leading to a continuous measure of
frailty (see Rockwood, Andrew, and Mitnitski (2007) for a contrast of the two approaches). This approach was developed by Dr. Rockwood and colleagues at Dalhousie University.
Four domains of frailty
A four domains of frailty model was proposed in response to an article in the BMJ.
This conceptualisation could be viewed as blending the phenotypic and
index models. Researchers tested this model for signal in routinely
collected hospital data, and then used this signal in the development of a frailty model, finding even predictive capability across 3 outcomes of care.
In the care home setting, one study indicated that not all four domains
of frailty were routinely assessed in residents, giving evidence to
suggest that frailty may still primarily be viewed only in terms of
physical health.
SHARE Frailty Index
The SHARE-Frailty Index (SHARE-FI) was originally developed by Romero-Ortuno (2010) (https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2318-10-57)
and researchers as part of the Survey of Healthy Ageing and Retirement
in Europe. It consists of five domains of the frailty phenotype:
•Fatigue
•Loss of appetite
•Grip strength
•Functional difficulties
•Physical activity.
The SHARE-FI calculator is freely available to use online.
The calculator classifies individuals as 1) frail; 2) pre-frail; and 3)
non-frail / robust.
The SHARE-FI has good clinical utility as it provides relatively quick
assessment of frailty in often time-poor healthcare settings.
Biological underpinnings
It
has been suggested that the biological underpinnings of frailty are
multifactorial, involving dysregulation across many physiological
systems. A proinflammatory state, sarcopenia, anemia, relative deficiencies in anabolic hormones (androgens and growth hormone) and excess exposure to catabolic hormones (cortisol), insulin resistance, glucose levels, compromised altered immune function, micronutrient deficiencies and oxidative stress
are each individually associated with a higher likelihood of frailty.
Additional findings show that the risk of frailty increases with the
number of dysregulated physiological systems in a nonlinear pattern,
independent of chronic diseases and chronologic age, suggesting
synergistic effects of individual abnormalities that on their own may be
relatively mild.
The clinical implication of this finding is that interventions that
affect multiple systems may yield greater, synergistic benefits in
prevention and treatment of frailty than interventions that affect only
one system.
Associations between specific disease states are also associated
with and frailty have also been observed, including cardiovascular
disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease
and other diseases in which inflammation is prominent. To the extent
that dysregulation across several physiologic systems underlie the
pathogenesis of the frailty, specific disease states are likely
concurrent manifestations of the underlying impaired physiologic
function and regulation. It is possible that clinically measurable
disease states can manifest themselves or be captured prior to the onset
of frailty. No single disease state is necessary and sufficient for the
pathogenesis of frailty, since many individuals with chronic diseases
are not frail. Therefore, rather than being dependent on the presence of
measurable diseases, frailty is an expression of a critical mass of
physiologic impairments.
Components
Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia (from the Greek meaning "poverty of flesh") is the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass, quality, and strength associated with aging. The rate of muscle loss is dependent on exercise level, co-morbidities, nutrition and other factors. Sarcopenia
can lead to reduction in functional status and cause significant
disability from increased weakness. The muscle loss is related to
changes in muscle synthesis signalling pathways although is incompletely
understood. The cellular mechanisms are distinct from other types of
muscle atrophy such as cachexia, in which muscle is degraded through cytokine-mediated degradation although both conditions may co-exist.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis causes a hunched-over appearance in some people.
Osteoporosis is an age-related disease of bone that leads to an increased risk of fracture. In osteoporosis the bone mineral density
(BMD) is reduced, bone microarchitecture is disrupted, and the amount
and variety of proteins in bone is altered. Osteoporosis is defined by
the World Health Organization (WHO) in women as a bone mineral density 2.5 standard deviations below peak bone mass (20-year-old healthy female average) as measured by DXA; the term "established osteoporosis" includes the presence of a fragility fracture.
Osteoporosis is most common in women after menopause, when it is called postmenopausal osteoporosis, but may also develop in men, and may occur in anyone in the presence of particular hormonal disorders and other chronic diseases or as a result of medications, specifically glucocorticoids, when the disease is called steroid- or glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (SIOP or GIOP). Given its influence in the risk of fragility fracture, osteoporosis may significantly affect life expectancy and quality of life.
Muscle weakness
Muscle weakness, also known as muscle fatigue, (or "lack of strength") refers to the inability to exert force with one's skeletal muscles. Weakness often follows muscle atrophy
and a decrease in activity, such as after a long bout of bedrest as a
result of an illness. There is also a gradual onset of muscle weakness
as a result of sarcopenia - the age-related loss of skeletal muscle.
Muscle weakness makes it difficult to perform everyday activities, like getting into a bathtub.
A test of strength is often used during a diagnosis of a muscular disorder before the etiology
can be identified. Such etiology depends on the type of muscle
weakness, which can be true or perceived as well as variable topically.
True weakness is substantial, while perceived rather is a sensation of
having to put more effort to do the same task.
On the other hand, various topic locations for muscle weakness are
central, neural and peripheral. Central muscle weakness is an overall
exhaustion of the whole body, while peripheral weakness is an exhaustion
of individual muscles. Neural weakness is somewhere between.
Healing power
Physical injuries heal slower and are more likely to leave permanent scars in older people.
Aged people recover slower and are lesser likely to completely recover from physical injuries and accidents.
Surgical outcomes
Frail
elderly people are at significant risk of post-surgical complications
and the need for extended care. Frailty more than doubles the risk of
morbidity and mortality from surgery and cardiovascular conditions. Assessment of older patients before elective surgeries can accurately predict the patients' recovery trajectories.
The most widely used frailty scale consists of five items:
unintentional weight loss >4.5 kg in the past year
low physical activity such that persons would only rarely undertake a short walk
slowed walking speed, defined as lowest population quartile on 4 minute walking test.
A healthy person scores 0; a very frail person scores 5. Compared to
non-frail elderly people, people with intermediate frailty scores (2 or
3) are twice as likely to have post-surgical complications, spend 50%
more time in the hospital, and are three times as likely to be
discharged to a skilled nursing facility instead of to their own homes.
Frail elderly patients (score of 4 or 5) have even worse outcomes,
with the risk of being discharged to a nursing home rising to twenty
times the rate for non-frail elderly people.
There were two primary routes: the first went from Germany to Spain, then Argentina; the second from Germany to Rome to Genoa, then South America. The two routes developed independently but eventually came together. The ratlines were supported by clergy of the Catholic Church, and historian Michael Phayer claims this was supported by the Vatican.
The origins of the first ratlines are connected to various developments in Vatican-Argentine relations before and during World War II. As early as 1942, Monsignor Luigi Maglione
contacted Ambassador Llobet, inquiring as to the "willingness of the
government of the Argentine Republic to apply its immigration law
generously, in order to encourage at the opportune moment European Catholic immigrants to seek the necessary land and capital in our country". Afterwards, a German priest, Anton Weber, the head of the Rome-based Society of Saint Raphael, traveled to Portugal,
continuing to Argentina, to lay the groundwork for future Catholic
immigration; this was to be a route which fascist exiles would exploit.
According to historian Michael Phayer, "this was the innocent origin of what would become the Vatican ratline".
Spain, not Rome, was the "first center of ratline activity that
facilitated the escape of Nazi fascists," although the exodus itself was
planned within the Vatican. Among the primary organizers were Charles Lescat, a French member of Action Française – an organization suppressed by Pope Pius XI and rehabilitated by Pope Pius XII – and Pierre Daye, a Belgian with contacts in the Spanish government. Lescat and Daye were the first to flee Europe with the help of Argentine cardinal Antonio Caggiano.
By 1946, there were hundreds of war criminals in Spain, and thousands of former Nazis and fascists. According to then-United States Secretary of StateJames F. Byrnes, Vatican cooperation in turning over these "asylum-seekers" was "negligible".
According to Phayer, Pius XII "preferred to see fascist war criminals
on board ships sailing to the New World rather than seeing them rotting
in POW camps in zonal Germany". Unlike the Vatican emigration operation in Italy that centered on Vatican City,
the ratlines of Spain, although "fostered by the Vatican," were
relatively independent of the hierarchy of the Vatican Emigration
Bureau.
Roman ratlines
Early efforts: Bishop Hudal
Bishop Alois Hudal, a Nazi sympathiser, was rector of the Pontificio Istituto Teutonico Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome, a seminary for Austrian and German priests, and "Spiritual Director of the German People resident in Italy". After the end of the war in Italy, Hudal became active in ministering to German-speaking prisoners of war and internees then held in camps throughout Italy. In December 1944, the VaticanSecretariat of State
received permission to appoint a representative to "visit the
German-speaking civil internees in Italy", a job assigned to Hudal.
Hudal used this position to aid the escape of wanted Nazi war criminals, including Franz Stangl, commanding officer of Treblinka, Gustav Wagner, commanding officer of Sobibor, Alois Brunner, responsible for the Drancy internment camp near Paris and in charge of deportations in Slovakia to German concentration camps, and Adolf Eichmann—a
fact about which he was later unashamedly open. Some of these wanted
men were being held in internment camps: generally without identity
papers, they would be enrolled in camp registers under false names.
Other Nazis hid in Italy and sought Hudal out as his role in assisting
escapes became known on the Nazi grapevine.
In his memoirs, Hudal said of his actions, "I thank God that He
[allowed me] to visit and comfort many victims in their prisons and
concentration camps and to help them escape with false identity papers." He explained that in his eyes:
The Allies' War against Germany was not a crusade, but
the rivalry of economic complexes for whose victory they had been
fighting. This so-called business ... used catchwords like democracy,
race, religious liberty and Christianity as a bait for the masses. All
these experiences were the reason why I felt duty bound after 1945 to
devote my whole charitable work mainly to former National Socialists and
Fascists, especially to so-called 'war criminals'.
According to Mark Aarons and John Loftus in their book Unholy Trinity, Hudal was the first Catholic priest to dedicate himself to establishing escape routes.
Aarons and Loftus claim that Hudal provided the objects of his charity
with money to help them escape and, more importantly, provided them with
false papers, including identity documents issued by the Vatican
Refugee Organisation (Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza).
These Vatican papers were not full passports and thus were not enough
to gain passage overseas. They were, rather, the first stop in a paper
trail—they could be used to obtain a displaced person passport from the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC), which in turn could be used to apply for visas. In theory, the
ICRC would perform background checks on passport applicants, but in
practice the word of a priest or particularly a bishop would be good
enough. According to statements collected by Austrian writer Gitta Sereny from a senior official of the Rome branch of the ICRC,
Hudal could also use his position as a bishop to request papers from
the ICRC "made out according to his specifications". Sereny's sources
also revealed an active illicit trade in stolen and forged ICRC papers
in Rome at the time.
According to declassified U.S. intelligence reports, Hudal was
not the only priest helping Nazi escapees at this time. In the "La Vista
Report" declassified in 1984, Counter Intelligence Corps
(CIC) operative Vincent La Vista told how he had easily arranged for
two bogus Hungarian refugees to get false ICRC documents with the help
of a letter from a Father Joseph Gallov. Gallov, who ran a
Vatican-sponsored charity for Hungarian refugees, asked no questions and
wrote a letter to his "personal contact in the International Red Cross,
who then issued the passports".
San Girolamo ratline
According
to Aarons and Loftus, Hudal's private operation was small scale
compared to what came later. The major Roman ratline was operated by a
small, but influential network of Croatian priests, members of the Franciscan order, led by Father Krunoslav Draganović, who organized a highly sophisticated chain with headquarters at the San Girolamo degli Illirici Seminary College in Rome, but with links from Austria to the final embarcation point at the port of Genoa. The ratline initially focused on aiding members of the Croatian Ustaše including its leader (or Poglavnik), Ante Pavelić.
Priests active in the chain included: Fr. Vilim Cecelja, former Deputy Military Vicar to the Ustaše, based in Austria where many Ustashe and Nazi refugees remained in hiding; Fr. Dragutin Kamber, based at San Girolamo; Fr. Dominik Mandić, an official Vatican
representative at San Girolamo and also "General Economist" or
treasurer of the Franciscan order - who used this position to put the
Franciscan press at the ratline's disposal; and Monsignor Karlo Petranović, based in Genoa.
Vilim would make contact with those hiding in Austria and help them
across the border to Italy; Kamber, Mandić and Draganović would find
them lodgings, often in the monastery itself, while they arranged
documentation; finally Draganović would phone Petranović in Genoa with the number of required berths on ships leaving for South America.
The operation of the Draganović ratline was an open secret among the intelligence and diplomatic communities in Rome. As early as August 1945, Allied commanders in Rome were asking questions about the use of San Girolamo as a "haven" for Ustaše.
A year later, a US State Department report of 12 July 1946 lists nine war criminals, including Albanians and Montenegrins
as well as Croats, plus others "not actually sheltered in the COLLEGIUM
ILLIRICUM [i.e., San Girolamo degli Illirici] but who otherwise enjoy
Church support and protection." The British envoy to the Holy See, Sir D'Arcy Osborne, asked Domenico Tardini,
a high-ranking Vatican official, for permission that would have allowed
British military police to raid ex-territorial Vatican Institutions in
Rome. Tardini declined and denied the church was sheltering war
criminals.
In February 1947, CIC Special Agent Robert Clayton Mudd reported ten members of Pavelić's Ustaša
cabinet living either in San Girolamo or in the Vatican itself. Mudd
had infiltrated an agent into the monastery and confirmed that it was
"honeycombed with cells of Ustashe operatives" guarded by "armed
youths". Mudd reported:
It was further established that these Croats travel back
and forth from the Vatican several times a week in a car with a
chauffeur whose license plate bears the two initials CD, "Corpo
Diplomatico". It issues forth from the Vatican and discharges its
passengers inside the Monastery of San Geronimo. Subject to diplomatic
immunity it is impossible to stop the car and discover who are its
passengers.
Mudd's conclusion was the following:
DRAGANOVIC's sponsorship of these Croat Ustashes
definitely links him up with the plan of the Vatican to shield these
ex-Ustasha nationalists until such time as they are able to procure for
them the proper documents to enable them to go to South America. The
Vatican, undoubtedly banking on the strong anti-Communist feelings of
these men, is endeavoring to infiltrate them into South America in any
way possible to counteract the spread of Red doctrine. It has been
reliably reported, for example that Dr. VRANCIC has already gone to
South America and that Ante PAVELIC and General KREN are scheduled for
an early departure to South America through Spain. All these operations
are said to have been negotiated by DRAGANOVIC because of his influence
in the Vatican.
The existence of Draganović's ratline has been supported by a highly respected historian of Vatican diplomacy, Fr. Robert Graham:
"I've no doubt that Draganović was extremely active in syphoning off
his Croatian Ustashe friends." Graham pointed out that Draganović, in
running his 'ratline,' was not acting on behalf of the Vatican: "Just
because he's a priest doesn't mean he represents the Vatican. It was his
own operation."
At the same time, there were four occasions in which the Vatican did
intervene on behalf of interned Ustasha prisoners. The Secretariat of
State asked the UK and US governments to release Croatian POWs from Britishinternment camps in Italy.
U.S. intelligence involvement
If
at first U.S. intelligence officers had been mere observers of the
Draganović ratline, this changed in the summer of 1947. A now
declassified U.S. Army intelligence report from 1950 sets out in detail
the history of the people smuggling operation in the three years to
follow.
According to the report, from this point on U.S. forces
themselves had begun to use Draganović's established network to evacuate
its own "visitors". As the report put it, these were "visitors who had
been in the custody of the 430th CIC and completely processed in
accordance with current directives and requirements, and whose continued
residence in Austria constituted a security threat as well as a source
of possible embarrassment to the Commanding General of USFA, since the
Soviet Command had become aware that their presence in U.S. Zone of Austria and in some instances had requested the return of these persons to Soviet custody".
These were suspected war criminals from areas occupied by the Red Army
which the U.S. was obliged to hand over for trial to the Soviets. The
U.S. reputedly was reluctant to do so, partly due to a belief that fair
trials could hardly be expected in the USSR, and at the same time, their desire to make use of Nazi scientists and other resources.
The deal with Draganović involved getting the visitors to Rome: "Dragonovich [sic]
handled all phases of the operation after the defectees arrived in
Rome, such as the procurement of IRO Italian and South American
documents, visas, stamps, arrangements for disposition, land or sea, and
notification of resettlement committees in foreign lands".
United States intelligence used these methods in order to get
important Nazi scientists and military strategists, to the extent they
had not already been claimed by the Soviet Union, to their own centres
of military science in the US. Many Nazi scientists were employed by the
U.S., retrieved in Operation Paperclip.
Argentine connection
In Nuremberg at that time something was taking place that
I personally considered a disgrace and an unfortunate lesson for the
future of humanity. I became certain that the Argentine people also
considered the Nuremberg process a disgrace, unworthy of the victors,
who behaved as if they hadn't been victorious. Now we realize that they
[the Allies] deserved to lose the war.
—Argentine president Juan Perón on the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals
1947 Rome issued ICRC travel document to a Croatian escaping Europe for Argentina.
In his 2002 book, The Real Odessa, Argentine researcher Uki Goñi
used new access to the country's archives to show that Argentine
diplomats and intelligence officers had, on Perón's instructions,
vigorously encouraged Nazi and fascist war criminals to make their home
in Argentina. According to Goñi, the Argentines not only collaborated
with Draganović's ratline, they set up further ratlines of their own
running through Scandinavia, Switzerland and Belgium.
According to Goñi, Argentina's first move into Nazi smuggling was in January 1946, when Argentine bishop Antonio Caggiano, leader of the Argentine chapter of Catholic Action
flew with another bishop, Agustín Barrére, to Rome where Caggiano was
due to be anointed Cardinal. In Rome the Argentine bishops met with
French Cardinal Eugène Tisserant,
where they passed on a message (recorded in Argentina's diplomatic
archives) that "the Government of the Argentine Republic was willing to
receive French persons, whose political attitude during the recent war would expose them, should they return to France, to harsh measures and private revenge".
Over the spring of 1946, a number of French war criminals, fascists and Vichy officials made it from Italy to Argentina in the same way: they were issued passports by the Rome ICRC
office; these were then stamped with Argentine tourist visas (the need
for health certificates and return tickets was waived on Caggiano's
recommendation). The first documented case of a French war criminal
arriving in Buenos Aires was Émile Dewoitine,
who was later sentenced in absentia to 20 years hard labour. He sailed
first class on the same ship back with Cardinal Caggiano.
Shortly after this Argentinian Nazi smuggling became
institutionalised, according to Goñi, when Perón's new government of
February 1946 appointed anthropologist Santiago Peralta as Immigration Commissioner and former Ribbentrop
agent Ludwig Freude as his intelligence chief. Goñi argues that these
two then set up a "rescue team" of secret service agents and immigration
"advisors", many of whom were themselves European war-criminals, with
Argentine citizenship and employment.
In 2014, over 700 FBI documents were declassified revealing that
the US government had undertaken an investigation in the late 1940s and
1950s as to the reports of the possible escape of Adolf Hitler from Germany. Some leads purported that he had not committed suicide in Berlin but had fled Germany in 1945, and eventually arrived in Argentina via Spain.
Within the pages of these documents are statements, naming people and
places involved in Hitler's alleged journey from Germany to South
America including mention of the ratlines that were already in
existence. Additional CIA documents contain reported sightings and a photograph of a man alleged to be Hitler in 1954. The claim related to the photograph made by a self-proclaimed former German SS
trooper named Phillip Citroen that Hitler was still alive, and that he
"left Colombia for Argentina around January 1955." Enclosed with the CIA
report was the alleged photograph of Citroen and a person he claimed to
be Hitler. The CIA report states that neither the contact who reported
his conversations with Citroen, nor the CIA station was "in a position
to give an intelligent evaluation of the information".
The station chief's superiors told him that "enormous efforts could be
expended on this matter with remote possibilities of establishing
anything concrete", and the investigation was dropped.
ODESSA and the Gehlen Organization
The Italian and Argentine ratlines have only been confirmed
relatively recently, mainly due to research in newly declassified
archives. Until the work of Aarons and Loftus, and of Uki Goñi
(2002), a common view was that ex-Nazis themselves, organised in secret
networks, ran the escape routes alone. The most famous such network is
ODESSA (Organisation of former SS members), founded in 1946 according to
Simon Wiesenthal, which included SS-ObersturmbannführerOtto Skorzeny and SturmbannführerAlfred Naujocks and, in Argentina, Rodolfo Freude. Alois Brunner, former commandant of Drancy internment camp near Paris, escaped to Rome, then Syria, by ODESSA. Brunner was thought to be the highest-ranking Nazi war criminal still alive as of 2007.
Persons claiming to represent ODESSA claimed responsibility for the unsuccessful July 9, 1979, car bombing in France aimed at Nazi huntersSerge and Beate Klarsfeld. According to Paul Manning,
"eventually, over 10,000 former German military made it to South
America along escape routes ODESSA and Deutsche Hilfsverein..."
Simon Wiesenthal, who advised Frederick Forsyth on the early 1970s novel/film script The Odessa File which brought the name to public attention, also names other Nazi escape organisations such as Spinne ("Spider") and Sechsgestirn
("Constellation of Six"). Wiesenthal describes these immediately after
the war as Nazi cells based in areas of Austria where many Nazis had
retreated and gone to ground.
Wiesenthal claimed that the ODESSA network shepherded escapees to the
Catholic ratlines in Rome (although he mentions only Hudal, not
Draganović); or through a second route through France and into Francoist Spain.
ODESSA was supported by the Gehlen Organization, which employed many former Nazi party members, and was headed by Reinhard Gehlen, a former German Army intelligence officer employed post-war by the CIA. The Gehlen Organization became the nucleus of the BND German intelligence agency, directed by Reinhard Gehlen from its 1956 creation until 1968.
Ratline escapees
Some of the Nazis and war criminals who escaped using ratlines include:
Andrija Artuković, escaped to the United States; arrested in 1984 after decades of delay and extradited to Yugoslavia, where he died in 1988 from natural causes
Klaus Barbie,
fled to Bolivia in 1951 with help from the United States, as he had
been an agent of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps since April
1947; captured in 1983; died in prison in France on September 23, 1991
Alois Brunner, fled to Syria in 1954; died around 2010
Aribert Heim, disappeared in 1962; most likely died in Egypt in 1992
Sándor Képíró,
fled to Argentina, returned to Hungary in 1996. He stood trial for war
crimes in Budapest in February 2011, before his death in September.
Josef Mengele, fled to Argentina in 1949, then to other countries; died in Brazil in 1979
Ante Pavelić, escaped to Argentina in 1948; died in Spain, in December 1959, of wounds sustained two years earlier in an assassination attempt
Erich Priebke, fled to Argentina in 1949; arrested 1994; died in 2013
Walter Rauff, escaped to Chile; never captured; died in 1984
Eduard Roschmann, escaped to Argentina in 1948; fled to Paraguay to avoid extradition and died there in 1977
Hans-Ulrich Rudel, fled to Argentina in 1948; started the "Kameradenwerk", a relief organization for Nazi criminals that helped fugitives escape
Dinko Sakic,
fled to Argentina in 1947, arrested in 1998 and extradited to Croatia.
He was tried and found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity,
serving a 20 year sentence. He died in 2008.
Franz Stangl, fled to Brazil in 1951; arrested in 1967 and extradited to West Germany; died in 1971 of heart failure
Gustav Wagner, fled to Brazil in 1950; arrested 1978; committed suicide 1980
María Eva Duarte (May 7, 1919 – July 26, 1952), better known as María Eva Duarte de Perón, Eva Perón and Evita was the wife of Argentine PresidentJuan Perón (1895–1974) and First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She was born in poverty in the rural village of Los Toldos, in the Pampas, as the youngest of five children. At 15 in 1934, she moved to the nation's capital of Buenos Aires to pursue a career as a stage, radio, and film actress.
She met Colonel Juan Perón there on 22 January 1944 during a charity event at the Luna Park Stadium to benefit the victims of an earthquake in San Juan, Argentina.
The two were married the following year. Juan Perón was elected
President of Argentina in 1946; during the next six years, Eva Perón
became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labor rights. She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.
In 1951, Eva Perón announced her candidacy for the Peronist nomination for the office of Vice President of Argentina, receiving great support from the Peronist political base, low-income and working-class Argentines who were referred to as descamisados or "shirtless ones". Opposition from the nation's military and bourgeoisie, coupled with her declining health, ultimately forced her to withdraw her candidacy.[1] In 1952, shortly before her death from cancer at 33, Eva Perón was given the title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation" by the Argentine Congress. She was given a state funeral upon her death, a prerogative generally reserved for heads of state.
Eva's autobiography, La Razón de mi Vida, contains no dates or references to childhood occurrences, and does not list the location of her birth or her name at birth. According to Junín's civil registry, a birth certificate shows that one María Eva Duarte was born on 7 May 1922. Her baptismal certificate lists the date of birth as 7 May 1919 under the name Eva María Ibarguren. It is thought that in 1945 the adult Eva Perón created a forgery of her birth certificate for her marriage.
Eva Perón spent her childhood in Junín, Buenos Aires province. Her father, Juan Duarte, was descended from French Basque immigrants. Her mother Juana Ibarguren, was descended from Spanish Basque immigrants. Juan Duarte, a wealthy rancher from nearby Chivilcoy,
already had a wife and family there. At that time in rural Argentina,
it was not uncommon for a wealthy man to have multiple families.
When Eva was a year old, Duarte returned permanently to his legal family, leaving Juana Ibarguren and her children in penury.
Ibarguren and her children were forced to move to the poorest area of
Junín. Los Toldos was a village in the dusty region of Las Pampas, with a
reputation as a desolate place of abject poverty. To support herself
and her children, Ibarguren sewed clothes for neighbors. The family was stigmatized by the abandonment of the father and by the illegitimate status of the children under Argentine law, and was consequently somewhat isolated.
A desire to expunge this part of her life might have been a motivation
for Eva to arrange the destruction of her original birth certificate in
1945.
When Duarte suddenly died and his mistress and their children
sought to attend his funeral, there was an unpleasant scene at the
church gates. Although Juana and the children were permitted to enter
and pay their respects to Duarte, they were promptly directed out of the
church. Mrs. Juan Duarte did not want her husband's mistress and
children at the funeral and, like those of the legitimate wife, her
orders were respected.
Junín
Before
abandoning Juana Ibarguren, Juan Duarte had been her sole means of
support. Biographer John Barnes writes that, after this abandonment, all
Duarte left to the family was a document declaring that the children
were his, thus enabling them to use the Duarte surname.
Soon after, Juana moved her children to a one-room apartment in Junín.
To pay the rent on their single-roomed home, mother and daughters took
up jobs as cooks in the houses of the local estancias.
Eventually, owing to Eva's older brother's financial help, the
family moved into a bigger house, which they later transformed into a
boarding house.
During this time, young Eva often participated in school plays and
concerts. One of her favorite pastimes was the cinema. Though Eva's
mother had a few plans for Eva, wanting to marry her off to one of the
local bachelors, Eva herself dreamed of becoming a famous actress. Eva's love for acting was reinforced in October 1933, when she played a small role in a school play called Arriba Estudiantes (Students Arise), which Barnes describes as "an emotional, patriotic, flag-waving melodrama." After the play, Eva was determined to become an actress.
In her autobiography, she explained that all the people from her town
who had been to the big cities described them as "marvelous places,
where nothing was given but wealth". In 1934, at the age of 15, Eva
escaped her poverty-stricken village when she ran off with a young
musician to the nation's capital of Buenos Aires.
The young couple's relationship ended almost as quickly as it had
begun, but Eva remained in Buenos Aires. She began to pursue jobs on the
stage and the radio, and eventually became a film actress. Eva had a
series of relationships and via some of these men, she did acquire a
number of her modeling appointments. She bleached her naturally black
hair to blonde, a look she maintained for the rest of her life.
It is often reported that Eva traveled to Buenos Aires by train with tango singerAgustín Magaldi.
Biographers Marysa Navarro and Nicholas Fraser maintain that this is
unlikely, as there is no record of the married Magaldi performing in
Junín in 1934 (and, even if he had, he usually traveled with his wife).
Eva's sisters maintain that Eva traveled to Buenos Aires with their
mother. The sisters also claim that Doña Juana accompanied her daughter
to an audition at a radio station and arranged for Eva to live with the
Bustamante family, who were friends of the Duarte family. While the method of Eva's escape from her bleak provincial surroundings is debated, she did begin a new life in Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires in the 1930s was known
as the "Paris of South America". The center of the city had many cafés,
restaurants, theaters, movie houses, shops, and bustling crowds. In
direct contrast, the 1930s were also years of great unemployment,
poverty, and hunger in the capital, and many new arrivals from the
interior were forced to live in tenements, boardinghouses and in
outlying shanties that became known as villas miserias.
Upon arrival in Buenos Aires, Eva Duarte was faced with the
difficulties of surviving without formal education or connections. The
city was especially overcrowded during this period because of the
migrations caused by the Great Depression. On 28 March 1935, she had her professional debut in the play Mrs. Perez (la Señora de Pérez), at the Comedias Theater.
In 1936, Eva toured nationally with a theater company, worked as a model, and was cast in a few B-grade movie melodramas. In 1942, Eva experienced some economic stability when a company called Candilejas (sponsored by a soap manufacturer) hired her for a daily role in one of their radio dramas called Muy Bien, which aired on Radio El Mundo (World Radio), the most important radio station in the country at that time. Later that year, she signed a five-year contract with Radio Belgrano, which assured her a role in a popular historical-drama program called Great Women of History, in which she played Elizabeth I of England, Sarah Bernhardt, and the last Tsarina of Russia. Eventually, Eva Duarte came to co-own the radio company. By 1943, Eva Duarte was earning five or six thousand pesos a month, making her one of the highest-paid radio actresses in the nation. Pablo Raccioppi, who jointly ran Radio El Mundo with Eva Duarte, is said to have not liked her, but to have noted that she was "thoroughly dependable".
Eva also had a short-lived film career, but none of the films in which
she appeared were hugely successful. In one of her last films, La cabalgata del circo (The Circus Cavalcade), Eva played a young country girl who rivaled an older woman, the movie's star, Libertad Lamarque.
As a result of her success with radio dramas and the films, Eva
achieved some financial stability. In 1942, she was able to move into
her apartment in the exclusive neighborhood of Recoleta,
on 1567 Calle Posadas. The next year Eva began her career in politics,
as one of the founders of the Argentine Radio Syndicate (ARA).
Early relationship with Juan Perón
Evita and Juan Perón in 1947
Official portrait of Juan Domingo Perón and Evita, by Numa Ayrinhac in 1948. He is the only Argentine President to be accompanied by the First Lady in an official portrait.
On 15 January 1944, an earthquake occurred in the town of San Juan, Argentina,
killing ten thousand people. In response, Perón, who was then the
Secretary of Labour, established a fund to raise money to aid the
victims. He devised a plan to have an "artistic festival" as a
fundraiser, and invited radio and film actors to participate. After a
week of fundraising, all participants met at a gala held at Luna Park Stadium in Buenos Aires to benefit earthquake victims. It was at this gala, on 22 January 1944, that Eva Duarte first met Colonel Juan Perón. Eva promptly became the colonel's mistress. Eva referred to the day she met her future husband as her "marvelous day". Fraser and Navarro write that Juan Perón and Eva left the gala together at around two in the morning.
Fraser and Navarro claim that Eva Duarte had no knowledge of or
interest in politics prior to meeting Perón. Therefore, she never argued
with Perón or any of his inner circle, but merely absorbed what she
heard.
Juan Perón later claimed in his memoir that he purposefully selected
Eva as his pupil, and set out to create in her a "second I."
Fraser and Navarro suggest that Juan Perón allowed Eva Duarte such
intimate exposure and knowledge of his inner circle because of his age:
he was 48 and she was 24 when they met. He had come to politics late in
life, and was therefore free of preconceived ideas of how his political
career should be conducted, and he was willing to accept whatever aid
she offered him.
In May 1944, it was announced that broadcast performers must
organize themselves into a union, and that this union would be the only
one permitted to operate in Argentina. Shortly after the formation of
the union, Eva Duarte was elected its president. Fraser and Navarro
speculate that Juan Perón made the suggestion that performers create a
union, and the other performers likely felt it was good politics to
elect his mistress. Shortly after her election as president of the
union, Eva Duarte began a daily program called Toward a Better Future,
which dramatized, in soap opera form, the accomplishments of Juan
Perón. Often, Perón's own speeches were played during the program. When
she spoke, Eva Duarte spoke in ordinary language as a regular woman who
wanted listeners to believe what she herself believed about Juan Perón.
Rise to power
Juan Perón's arrest
Demonstration for Perón's release, on 17 October 1945. The Casa Rosada is seen in the background.
By early 1945, a group of Army officers called the GOU for "Grupo de Oficiales Unidos"
(United Officers' Group), nicknamed "The Colonels", had gained
considerable influence within the Argentine government. President Pedro Pablo Ramírez
became wary of Juan Perón's growing power within the government and was
unable to curb that power. On 24 February 1944, Ramírez signed his own
resignation paper, which Fraser and Navarro claim was drafted by Juan
Perón himself. Edelmiro Julián Farrell,
a friend of Juan Perón, became President. Juan Perón returned to his
job as Labor Minister. Fraser and Navarro claim that, by this point,
Perón was the most powerful man in the Argentine government.
On 9 October 1945 Juan Perón was arrested by his opponents within the
government who feared that, due to the strong support of the descamisados, the workers and the poor of the nation, Perón's popularity might eclipse that of the sitting president.
Six days later, between 250,000 and 350,000 people gathered in front of the Casa Rosada,
Argentina's government house, to demand Juan Perón's release, and their
wish was granted. At 11 pm, Juan Perón stepped onto the balcony of the
Casa Rosada and addressed the crowd. Biographer Robert D. Crassweller
claims that this moment was particularly powerful because it
dramatically recalled important aspects of Argentine history.
Crassweller writes that Juan Perón enacted the role of a caudillo addressing his people in the tradition of Argentine leaders Rosas and Yrigoyen. Crassweller also claims that the evening contained "mysticovertones" of a "quasi-religious" nature.
Eva Perón has often been credited with organizing the rally of thousands
that freed Juan Perón from prison on 17 October 1945. This version of
events was popularized in the movie version of the Lloyd Webber musical; most historians agree that this version of events is unlikely. At the time of Perón's imprisonment, Eva was still merely an actress. She had no political clout with the various labor unions,
and it is claimed that she was not well liked within Perón's inner
circle, nor was she liked by many within the film and radio business at
this point. When Juan Perón was imprisoned, Eva Duarte was suddenly
disenfranchised. In reality, the massive rally that freed Perón from
prison was organized by the various unions, such as General Labor Confederation, or CGT as they came to be known. To this day, 17 October is something of a holiday for the Justicialist Party in Argentina (celebrated as Día de la Lealtad, or "Loyalty Day").
What followed was shocking and nearly unheard of. Juan Perón, the
well-connected and politically rising star, married Eva. Despite Eva's
childhood illegitimacy, and having an uncertain reputation, Perón was in
love with Eva, and her loyal devotion to him even while he had been
under arrest touched him deeply, and so he married her, providing a
respectability she had never known. Eva and Juan were married discreetly
in a civil ceremony in Junín on 18 October 1945 and in a church wedding on 9 December 1945 in La Plata.
1946 Presidential election victory
After
his release from prison, Juan Perón decided to campaign for the
presidency of the nation, which he won in a landslide. Eva campaigned
heavily for her husband during his 1946 presidential bid. Using her
weekly radio show, she delivered powerful speeches with heavy populist rhetoric urging the poor to align themselves with Perón's movement.
In 1947, Eva embarked on a much-publicized "Rainbow Tour" of Europe,
meeting with numerous dignitaries and heads of state, such as Francisco Franco and Pope Pius XII.
Biographers Fraser and Navarro write that the tour had its genesis in
an invitation that the Spanish leader had extended to Juan Perón. For
political reasons it was decided that Eva, rather than Juan Perón,
should make the visit. Fraser and Navarro write that Argentina had only
recently emerged from its "wartime quarantine", thus taking its place in
the United Nations and improving relations with the United States.
Therefore, a visit to Franco, with António Salazar of Portugal,
the last remaining Western European authoritarian leaders in power,
would be diplomatically frowned upon internationally. Fraser and Navarro
write that Eva made the decision that if Juan Perón would not accept
Franco's invitation for a state visit to Spain, then she would. Advisors
then decided that Eva should visit many other European countries in
addition to Spain. This would make it seem that Eva's sympathies were
not specifically with Francoist Spain but with all of Europe. The tour was billed not as a political tour but as a non-political "goodwill" tour.
Eva was well received in Spain, where she visited the tombs of Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in the Capilla Real de Granada. Francoist Spain had not recovered from the Spanish Civil War (the autarkic economy and the UN embargo meant that the country could not feed its people). During her visit to Spain, Eva handed out 100-peseta
notes to many poor children she met on her journey. She also received
from Franco the highest award given by the Spanish government, the Order of Isabella the Catholic.
Eva then visited Rome, where the reception was not as warm as it had been in Spain. Though Pope Pius XII did not give her a Papal decoration, she was allowed the time usually allotted to queens and was given a rosary.
Her next stop was France, where she was generally well received. She visited the Palace of Versailles, among other sites. She also met with Charles de Gaulle. She promised France two shipments of wheat.
While in France, Eva received word that George VI would not receive her when she planned to visit Britain, regardless of what his Foreign Office might advise,
and that her visit would not be viewed as a state visit. Fraser and
Navarro wrote that Eva regarded the royal family's refusal to meet her
as a snub, and canceled the trip to the United Kingdom. Eva gave
"exhaustion" as the official reason for not going on to Britain.
Eva also visited Switzerland during her European tour, a visit that
has been viewed as the worst part of the trip. According to the book Evita: A Biography
by John Barnes, while she traveled down a street with many people
crowding her car, someone threw two stones and smashed the windshield.
She threw her hands up in shock, but was not injured. Later, while
sitting with the Foreign Minister, protesters threw tomatoes at her. The
tomatoes hit the Foreign Minister and splattered on Eva's dress. After
these two events, Eva had had enough and, concluding the two-month tour,
returned to Argentina.
Members of the Peronist opposition speculated that the true purpose of the European tour was to deposit funds in a Swiss bank account.
"The opposition in Buenos Aires", write Fraser and Navarro, "assumed
that the genuine purpose of the whole European visit was for Eva and her
husband to deposit money in Swiss bank accounts, and that the rest had
been devised to conceal this. Many wealthy Argentines did this, but
there are many more convenient and less conspicuous ways of depositing
money in Swiss accounts than meeting the Swiss Foreign Minister and
being shown around a watch factory." Fraser and Navarro conclude, "Was there a Swiss bank account? It seems unlikely."
During her tour to Europe, Eva Perón was featured in a cover story for Time
magazine. The cover's caption – "Eva Perón: Between two worlds, an
Argentine rainbow" – was a reference to the name given to Eva's European
tour, The Rainbow Tour. This was the only time in the periodical's
history that a South American first lady appeared alone on its cover.
(In 1951, Eva appeared again with Juan Perón.) The 1947 cover story was
also the first publication to mention that Eva had been born out of
wedlock. In retaliation, the periodical was banned from Argentina for
several months.
After returning to Argentina from Europe, Evita never again appeared in public with the complicated hairdos
of her movie-star days. The brilliant gold color became more subdued in
tone and even the style changed, her hair being pulled back severely
into a heavy braided chignon.
Her extravagant clothing became more refined after the tour. No longer
did she wear the elaborate hats and form-fitting dresses of Argentine
designers. Soon she adopted simpler and more fashionable Paris couture and became particularly attached to the fashions of Christian Dior and the jewels of Cartier.
In an attempt to cultivate a more serious political persona, Eva began
to appear in public wearing conservative though stylish tailleurs (a business-like combination of skirts and jackets), which also were made by Dior and other Paris couture houses.
Charitable and feminist activities
Eva Foundation
Perón meets with the public in her foundation's office.
The Sociedad de Beneficencia (Society of Beneficence), a charity group
made up of 87 society ladies, was responsible for most works of charity
in Buenos Aires prior to the election of Juan Perón. Fraser and Navarro
write that at one point the Sociedad had been an enlightened institution, caring for orphans and homeless women, but that those days had long since passed by the time of the first term of Juan Perón. In the 1800s, the Sociedad had been supported by private contributions, largely those of the husbands of the society ladies. But by the 1940s, the Sociedad was supported by the government.
It had been the tradition of the Sociedad to elect the First Lady of Argentina as president of the charity. But the ladies of the Sociedad
did not approve of Eva Perón's impoverished background, lack of formal
education, and former career as an actress. Fraser and Navarro write
that the ladies of the Sociedad were afraid that Evita would set a
bad example for the orphans, therefore the society ladies did not
extend to Evita the position of president of their organization. It has
often been said that Evita had the government funding for the Sociedad
cut off in retaliation. Fraser and Navarro suggest that this version of
events is in dispute, but that the government funding that had
previously supported the Sociedad now went to support Evita's own foundation. The Eva Perón Foundation began with 10,000 pesos provided by Evita herself.
In The Woman with the Whip,
the first English-language biography of Eva Perón, author Mary Main
writes that no account records were kept for the foundation because it
was merely a means of funneling government money into private Swiss bank accounts controlled by the Peróns.
Fraser and Navarro counter these claims, writing that Ramón Cereijo,
the Minister of Finance, kept records, and that the foundation "began as
the simplest response to the poverty [Evita] encountered each day in
her office" and "the appalling backwardness of social services—or
charity, as it was still called—in Argentina."
Crassweller writes that the foundation was supported by donations of
cash and goods from the Peronist unions and private businesses, and that
the Confederación General del Trabajo
donated three man-days (later reduced to two) of salary for every
worker per year. Tax on lottery and movie tickets also helped to support
the foundation, as did a levy on casinos and revenue from horse races.
Crassweller also notes that there were some cases of businesses being
pressured to donate to the foundation, with negative repercussions
resulting if requests for donations were not met.
Within a few years, the foundation had assets in cash and goods in excess of three billion pesos,
or over $200 million at the exchange rate of the late 1940s. It
employed 14,000 workers, of whom 6,000 were construction workers and 26
were priests. It purchased and distributed annually 400,000 pairs of
shoes, 500,000 sewing machines, and 200,000 cooking pots. The foundation
also gave scholarships, built homes, hospitals, and other charitable
institutions. Every aspect of the foundation was under Evita's
supervision. The foundation also built entire communities, such as Evita City,
which still exists today. Fraser and Navarro claim that due to the
works and health services of the foundation, for the first time in
history there was no inequality in Argentine health care.
Perón kicks off the Youth Football Championship, 1948
Fraser and Navarro write that it was Evita's work with the foundation
that played a large role in her idealization, even leading some to
consider her a saint.
Though it was unnecessary from a practical standpoint, Evita set aside
many hours per day to meet with the poor who requested help from her
foundation. During these meetings with the poor, Evita often kissed the
poor and allowed them to kiss her. Evita was even witnessed placing her
hands in the suppurated wounds of the sick and poor, touching the leprous, and kissing the syphilitic.
Fraser and Navarro write that though Argentina is secular in many
respects, it is essentially a Catholic country. Therefore, when Evita
kissed the syphilitic and touched the leprous she "...ceased to be the
President's wife and acquired some of the characteristics of saints
depicted in Catholicism." Poet José María Castiñeira de Dios,
a man from a wealthy background, reflected on the times he witnessed
Evita meeting with the poor: "I had had a sort of literary perception of
the people and the poor and she had given me a Christian one, thus
allowing me to become a Christian in the profoundest sense...."
Fraser and Navarro write that, toward the end of her life, Evita
was working as many as 20 to 22 hours per day in her foundation, often
ignoring her husband's request that she cut back on her workload and
take the weekends off. The more she worked with the poor in her
foundation, the more she adopted an outraged attitude toward the
existence of poverty, saying, "Sometimes I have wished my insults were
slaps or lashes. I've wanted to hit people in the face to make them see,
if only for a day, what I see each day I help the people."
Crassweller writes that Evita became fanatical about her work in the
foundation and felt as though she were on a crusade against the very
concept and existence of poverty and social ills. "It is not
surprising", writes Crassweller, "that as her public crusades and her
private adorations took on a narrowing intensity after 1946, they
simultaneously veered toward the transcendental." Crassweller compares Evita to Ignatius Loyola, saying she came to be akin to a one-woman Jesuit Order.
Female Peronist Party and women's suffrage
Perón supported the female vote.
Biographers Fraser and Navarro wrote that Eva Perón has often been
credited with gaining the right to vote for Argentine women. While Eva
did make radio addresses in support of women's suffrage and also published articles in her Democracia
newspaper asking male Peronists to support women's right to vote,
ultimately the ability to grant to women the right to vote was beyond
Eva's powers. Fraser and Navarro claim that Eva's actions were limited
to supporting a bill introduced by one of her supporters, Eduardo Colom,
a bill that was eventually dropped.
A new women's suffrage bill was introduced, which the Senate of Argentina
sanctioned on 21 August 1946. It was necessary to wait more than a year
before the House of Representatives sanctioned it on 9 September 1947.
Law 13,010 established the equality of political rights between men and
women and universal suffrage in Argentina. Finally, Law 13,010 was
approved unanimously. In a public celebration and ceremony, Juan Perón
signed the law granting women the right to vote, and then he handed the
bill to Eva, symbolically making it hers.
Eva Perón then created the Female Peronist Party,
the first large female political party in the nation. Navarro and
Fraser write that by 1951, the party had 500,000 members and 3,600
headquarters across the country. Navarro and Fraser write that while Eva
Perón did not consider herself a feminist, her impact on the political
life of women was decisive. Thousands of previously apolitical women
entered politics because of Eva Perón. They were the first women active
in Argentine politics. The combination of female suffrage and the
organization of the Female Peronist Party granted Juan Perón a large
majority (63 percent) of the vote in the 1951 presidential elections.
1952 Presidential election
Vice-Presidential nomination
A crowd of an estimated two million gathers in 1951 to show support for the Juan Perón–Eva Perón ticket.
In 1951, Evita set her sights on earning a place on the ballot as
candidate for vice-president. This move angered many military leaders
who despised Evita and her increasing powers within the government.
According to the Argentine Constitution, the Vice President
automatically succeeds the President in the event of the President's
death. The possibility of Evita becoming president in the event of Juan
Perón's death was not something the military could accept.
She received great support from the working class, the unions,
and the Peronist Women's Party. The intensity of the support she drew
from these groups is said to have surprised even Juan Perón himself.
Fraser and Navarro write that the wide support Evita's proposed
candidacy generated indicated to him that Evita had become as important
to members of the Peronist party as Juan Perón himself was.
Perón embraces her husband during the 1951 joint ticket rally, unable to accept popular calls that she run for Vice-President.
On 22 August 1951, the unions held a mass rally of two million people
called "Cabildo Abierto." (The name "Cabildo Abierto" was a reference
and tribute to the first local Argentine government of the May Revolution, in 1810.) The Peróns addressed the crowd from the balcony of a huge scaffolding set up on the Avenida 9 de Julio,
several blocks away from the Casa Rosada, the official government house
of Argentina. Overhead were two large portraits of Eva and Juan Perón.
It has been claimed that "Cabildo Abierto" was the largest public
display of support in history for a female political figure.
At the mass rally, the crowd demanded that Evita publicly
announce her candidacy as vice president. She pleaded for more time to
make her decision. The exchange between Evita and the crowd of two
million became, for a time, a genuine and spontaneous dialogue,
with the crowd chanting, "¡Evita, Vice-Presidente!" When Evita asked
for more time so she could make up her mind, the crowd demanded,
"¡Ahora, Evita, ahora!" ("Now, Evita, now!"). Eventually, they came to a
compromise. Evita told the audience that she would announce her
decision over the radio a few days later.
Declining health
Eva Perón addresses the Peronists on 17 October 1951. By this point she had become too weak to stand without Juan Perón's aid.
Eventually, she declined the invitation to run for vice-president.
She said her only ambition was that in the large chapter of history to
be written about her husband, the footnotes would mention a woman who
brought the "...hopes and dreams of the people to the president", a
woman who eventually turned those hopes and dreams into "glorious
reality". In Peronist rhetoric, this event has come to be referred to as
"The Renunciation", portraying Evita as having been a selfless woman in
line with the Hispanic myth of marianismo.
Most biographers postulate that Evita did not so much renounce her
ambition as bow to pressure from her husband, the military, and the
Argentine upper class, who preferred that she not enter the race.
On 9 January 1950, Evita fainted in public and underwent surgery
three days later. Although it was reported that she had undergone an appendectomy, she was, in fact, diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. Fainting episodes continued through 1951 (including the evening after "Cabildo abierto"),
with extreme weakness and severe vaginal bleeding. By 1951, it had
become evident that her health was rapidly deteriorating. Although her
diagnosis was withheld from her by Juan,
she knew she was not well, and a bid for the vice-presidency was not
practical. Only a few months after "the Renunciation", Evita underwent a
secret radical hysterectomy, performed by the American surgeon George T. Pack, in an attempt to eradicate her advanced cervical cancer. In 2011, a Yale
neurosurgeon, Dr. Daniel E. Nijensohn, studied Evita's skull x-rays and
photographic evidence and said that Perón may have been given a prefrontal lobotomy
in the last months of her life, "...to relieve the pain, agitation and
anxiety she suffered in the final months of her illness."
On 4 June 1952, Evita rode with Juan Perón in a parade through
Buenos Aires in celebration of his re-election as President of
Argentina. Evita was by this point so ill that she was unable to stand
without support. Underneath her oversized fur coat was a frame made of
plaster and wire that allowed her to stand. She took a triple dose of
pain medication before the parade, and took another two doses when she
returned home.
Death and aftermath
Evita's elaborately adorned funeral
Death
Despite the hysterectomy, Eva's cervical cancer had metastasized and returned rapidly. She was the first Argentine to undergo chemotherapy – a novel treatment at that time. She became emaciated, weighing only 36 kg (79 lb) by June 1952.
Eva died at 8:25 p.m. on Saturday, 26 July 1952. Radio broadcasts
throughout the country were interrupted with the announcement that "the
Press Secretary's Office of the Presidency of the Nation fulfills its
very sad duty to inform the people of the Republic that at 20:25 hours,
Mrs. Eva Perón, Spiritual Leader of the Nation, died." Ordinary activities ceased; movies were stopped and patrons were asked to leave restaurants.
Mourning
Immediately
after Perón's death, the government suspended all official activities
for two days and ordered that all flags be flown at half-staff for ten
days. It soon became apparent that these measures fell short of
reflecting popular grief. The crowd outside of the presidential
residence, where Evita died, grew dense, congesting the streets for ten
blocks in each direction.
Nearly three million people attended Evita's funeral in the streets of Buenos Aires.
The morning after her death, while Evita's body was being moved to
the Ministry of Labour Building, eight people were crushed to death in
the throngs. In the following 24 hours, over 2,000 people were treated
in city hospitals for injuries sustained in the rush to be near Evita as
her body was being transported, and thousands more were treated on the
spot.
For the following two weeks, lines stretched for many city blocks with
mourners waiting hours to see Evita's body lie in state at the Ministry
of Labour.
The streets of Buenos Aires overflowed with huge piles of
flowers. Within a day of Perón's death, all flower shops in Buenos Aires
had run out of stock. Flowers were flown in from all over the country,
and as far away as Chile. Despite the fact that Eva Perón never held a political office, she was eventually given a state funeral usually reserved for a head of state, along with a full Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. A memorial was held for the Argentine team during the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki due to Eva Perón's death during those games.
On Saturday, 9 August, the body was transferred to the Congress
Building for an additional day of public viewing, and a memorial service
attended by the entire Argentine legislative body. The next day, after a
final Mass, the coffin was laid on a gun carriage pulled by CGT officials. It was followed by Perón, his cabinet, Eva's family and friends, the delegates and representatives of the Partido Peronista Femenino—then workers, nurses and students of the Eva Peron Foundation. Flowers were thrown from balconies and windows.
There were different interpretations of the popular mourning of
Eva Perón's death. Some reporters viewed the mourning as authentic,
others saw a public succumbing to another of the "passion plays" of the
Peronist regime. Time magazine reported that the Peronist
government enforced the observance of a daily period of five minutes of
mourning following a daily radio announcement.
During Perón's time, children born to unmarried parents did not
have the same legal rights as those born to married parents. Biographer
Julie M. Taylor, professor of anthropology at Rice University,
has said that Evita was well aware of the pain of being born
"illegitimate." Taylor speculates that Evita's awareness of this may
have influenced her decision to have the law changed so that
"illegitimate" children would henceforth be referred to as "natural"
children.
Upon her death, the Argentine public was told that Evita was only 30.
The discrepancy was meant to dovetail with Evita's earlier tampering
with her birth certificate. After becoming the first lady in 1946, Evita
had her birth records altered to read that she had been born to married
parents, and placed her birth date three years later, making herself
younger.
Memorial
Dr. Ara inspects Eva Perón's embalmed corpse.
Shortly after Evita's death Pedro Ara, who was well known for his embalming skill, was approached to embalm
the body. Fraser and Navarro write that it is doubtful that Evita ever
expressed a wish to be embalmed, and suggest that it was most likely
Juan Perón's decision.
Ara replaced the subject's blood with glycerine in order to preserve the organs and lend an appearance of "artistically rendered sleep."
Biographer Robert D. Crassweller writes that the English-speaking
nations of North America and Europe largely misunderstood Argentina's
response to the death of Perón as well as the ornate funeral she was
granted. Crassweller attributes this misunderstanding to the unique
cultural makeup of the Peróns and of Argentina, saying that the Peróns
were of the Hispanic tradition and that their opposition was largely of
British ancestry.
Disappearance and return of body
Perón rests in the Recoleta Cemetery
Shortly after Evita's death, plans were made to construct a memorial
in her honour. The monument, which was to be a statue of a man
representing the descamisados, was projected to be larger than the Statue of Liberty. Evita's body was to be stored in the base of the monument and, in the tradition of Lenin's
corpse, to be displayed for the public. While the monument was being
constructed, Evita's embalmed body was displayed in her former office at
the CGT building for almost two years. Before the monument to Evita was
completed, Juan Perón was overthrown in a military coup, the Revolución Libertadora, in 1955. Perón hastily fled the country and was unable to make arrangements to secure Evita's body.
Following his flight, a military dictatorship took power. The new
authorities removed Evita's body from display, and its whereabouts were
a mystery for 16 years. From 1955 until 1971, the military dictatorship
of Argentina issued a ban on Peronism. It became illegal not only to
possess pictures of Juan and Eva Perón in one's home, but to speak their
names. In 1971, the military revealed that Evita's body was buried in a
crypt in Milan,
Italy, under the name "María Maggi." It appeared that her body had been
damaged during its transport and storage, such as compressions to her
face and disfigurement of one of her feet due to the body having been
left in an upright position.
In 1995, Tomás Eloy Martínez published Santa Evita,
a fictionalized work propounding many new stories about the escapades
of the corpse. Allegations that her body was the object of inappropriate
attentions are derived from his description of an 'emotional
necrophilia' by embalmers, Colonel Koenig and his assistant Arancibia.
Many primary and secondary references to his novel have inaccurately
stated that her body had been defiled in some way resulting in the
widespread belief in this myth. Also included are allegations that many
wax copies had been made, that the corpse had been damaged with a
hammer, and that one of the wax copies was the object of an officer's
sexual attentions.
Final resting place
In
1971, Evita's body was exhumed and flown to Spain, where Juan Perón
maintained the corpse in his home. Juan and his third wife, Isabel,
decided to keep the corpse in their dining room on a platform near the
table. In 1973, Juan Perón came out of exile and returned to Argentina,
where he became president for the third time. Perón died in office in
1974. His third wife, Isabel Perón,
whom he had married on 15 November 1961, and who had been elected
vice-president, succeeded him. She became the first female president in
the Western Hemisphere.
Isabel had Eva Perón's body returned to Argentina and (briefly)
displayed beside her husband's. Perón's body was later buried in the
Duarte family tomb in La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires. The previous removal of Evita's body was avenged by the Montoneros when they in 1970 stole the corpse of Pedro Eugenio Aramburu,
whom they had previously killed. Montoneros then used the captive body
of Aramburu to pressure for the repatriation of Evita's body. Once
Evita's body arrived in Argentina, the Montoneros gave up Aramburu's
corpse and abandoned it in a street in Buenos Aires.
The Argentine government took elaborate measures to make Perón's
tomb secure. The tomb's marble floor has a trapdoor that leads to a
compartment containing two coffins. Under that compartment is a second
trapdoor and a second compartment. That is where Perón's coffin rests.
Biographers Marysa Navarro and Nicholas Fraser write that the claim is
often made that her tomb is so secure that it could withstand a nuclear
attack. "It reflects a fear", they write, "a fear that the body will
disappear from the tomb and that the woman, or rather the myth of the
woman, will reappear."
Legacy and criticism
Argentina and Latin America
Official portrait of Eva Perón in 1951, a few months before her death
In all of Latin America, only one other woman has aroused an emotion, devotion, and faith comparable to those awakened by the Virgin of Guadalupe. In many homes, the image of Evita is on the wall next to the Virgin.
— Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir
In his essay titled "Latin America" published in The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, John McManners
claims that the appeal and success of Eva Perón are related to Latin
American mythology and concepts of divinity. McManners claims that Eva
Perón consciously incorporated aspects of the theology of the Virgin and of Mary Magdalene into her public persona.
Historian Hubert Herring has described Eva Perón as "Perhaps the
shrewdest woman yet to appear in public life in Latin America."
In a 1996 interview, Tomás Eloy Martínez referred to Eva Perón as "the Cinderella of the tango and the Sleeping Beauty of Latin America." Martínez suggested she has remained an important cultural icon for the same reasons as fellow Argentine Che Guevara:
Latin
American myths are more resistant than they seem to be. Not even the
mass exodus of the Cuban raft people or the rapid decomposition and
isolation of Fidel Castro's
regime have eroded the triumphal myth of Che Guevara, which remains
alive in the dreams of thousands of young people in Latin America,
Africa and Europe. Che as well as Evita symbolize certain naive, but
effective, beliefs: the hope for a better world; a life sacrificed on
the altar of the disinherited, the humiliated, the poor of the earth.
They are myths which somehow reproduce the image of Christ.
Although not a government holiday, the anniversary of Eva Perón's death
is marked by many Argentines each year. Additionally, Eva Perón has been
featured on Argentine coins, and a form of Argentine currency called
"Evitas" was named in her honour. Ciudad Evita (Evita City), which was established by the Eva Perón Foundation in 1947, is located just outside Buenos Aires.
Dress of Eva Perón in the Museo del Bicentenario, Buenos Aires
Cristina Kirchner,
the first elected female president in Argentine history, is a Peronist
who has occasionally been referred to as "The New Evita." Kirchner says
she does not want to compare herself to Evita, claiming she was a unique
phenomenon in Argentine history. Kirchner also says that women of her
generation, who came of age in the 1970s during the military
dictatorships in Argentina, owe a debt to Evita for offering an example
of passion and combativeness. On 26 July 2002, the 50th anniversary of Eva Perón's death, a museum opened in her honour called Museo Evita.
The museum, created by her great-niece Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez,
houses many of Eva Perón's clothes, portraits, and artistic renderings
of her life, and has become a popular tourist attraction. The museum was
opened in a building that was once used by the Eva Perón Foundation.
In the book Eva Perón: The Myths of a Woman, cultural anthropologist Julie M. Taylor claims that Evita has remained important in Argentina due to the combination of three unique factors:
In the images examined, the three elements consistently linked—femininity, mystical
or spirituality power, and revolutionary leadership—display an
underlying common theme. Identification with any one of these elements
puts a person or a group at the margins of established society and at
the limits of institutional authority. Anyone who can identify with all
three images lays an overwhelming and echoing claim to dominance through
forces that recognize no control in society or its rules. Only a woman
can embody all three elements of this power.
Taylor argues that the fourth factor in Evita's continued importance
in Argentina relates to her status as a dead woman and the power that
death holds over the public imagination. Taylor suggests that Evita's
embalmed corpse is analogous to the incorruptibility of various Catholic saints, such as Bernadette Soubirous, and has powerful symbolism within the largely Catholic cultures of Latin America:
To some extent her continuing
importance and popularity may be attributed not only to her power as a
woman but also to the power of the dead. However a society's vision of
the afterlife
may be structured, death by its nature remains a mystery, and, until
society formally allays the commotion it causes, a source of disturbance
and disorder. Women and the dead—death and womanhood—stand in similar
relation to structured social forms: outside public institutions,
unlimited by official rules, and beyond formal categories. As a female
corpse reiterating the symbolic themes of both woman and martyr, Eva Perón perhaps lays double claim to spiritual leadership.
John Balfour was the British ambassador in Argentina during the Perón regime, and describes Evita's popularity:
She was by any standard a very
extraordinary woman; when you think of Argentina and indeed Latin
America as a men-dominated part of the world, there was this woman who
was playing a very great role. And of course she aroused very different
feelings in the people with whom she lived. The oligarchs, as she called
the well-to-do and privileged people, hated her. They looked upon her
as a ruthless woman. The masses of the people on the other hand
worshipped her. They looked upon her as a lady bountiful who was
dispensing Manna from heaven.
In 2011, two giant murals of Evita were unveiled on the building
facades of the current Ministry of Social Development, located on 9 de Julio Avenue. The works were painted by Argentine artist Alejandro Marmo.
On 26 July 2012, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Evita's
death, notes were issued in a value of 100 pesos. The controversial
effigy of Julio Argentino Roca was replaced by that of Eva Duarte, making her the first actual woman to be featured on the currency of Argentina.
The image in the notes is based on a 1952 design, whose sketch was
found in the Mint, made by the engraver Sergio Pilosio with artist Roger Pfund. The printing totals 20 million notes; it is not clear whether the government will replace the notes that feature Roca and the Conquest of the Desert.
Allegations of fascism
On 9 April 1951, Golda Meir, then Labor Minister of Israel, met with Eva Perón to thank her for the aid the Eva Perón Foundation had given to Israel.
Biographers Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro write that Juan Perón's opponents had from the start accused Perón of being a fascist. Spruille Braden,
a diplomat from the United States who was greatly supported by Juan
Perón's opponents, campaigned against Juan Perón's first candidacy on
the platform that Juan Perón was a fascist and a Nazi. Fraser and
Navarro also theorize that the perception of the Peróns as fascists was
enhanced during Evita's 1947 European tour during which she was a guest
of honour of Francisco Franco.
By 1947, Franco had become politically isolated as one of the few
remaining fascists to retain power. Franco, therefore, was in desperate
need of a political ally. With nearly a third of Argentina's population
of Spanish descent, it seemed natural for Argentina to have diplomatic
relations with Spain. Commenting on the international perception of
Evita during her 1947 European tour, Fraser and Navarro write, "It was
inevitable that Evita be viewed in a fascist context. Therefore, both
Evita and Perón were seen to represent an ideology which had run its
course in Europe, only to re-emerge in an exotic, theatrical, even
farcical form in a faraway country."
Laurence Levine, the former president of the U.S.-Argentine Chamber of Commerce, writes that in contrast to Nazi ideology, the Peróns were not anti-Semitic. In the book Inside Argentina from Perón to Menem: 1950–2000 from an American Point of View, Levine writes:
The American government
demonstrated no knowledge of Perón's deep admiration for Italy (and his
distaste for Germany, whose culture he found too rigid). Nor did they
appreciate that although anti-Semitism existed in Argentina, Perón's own
views and his political associations were not anti-Semitic. They paid
no attention to the fact that Perón sought out the Jewish community in
Argentina to assist in developing his policies and that one of his most
important allies in organizing the industrial sector was José Ber
Gelbard, a Jewish immigrant from Poland.
Biographer Robert D. Crassweller writes, "Peronism was not fascism",
and "Peronism was not Nazism." Crassweller also refers to the comments
of U.S. Ambassador George S. Messersmith.
While visiting Argentina in 1947, Messersmith made the following
statement: "There is not as much social discrimination against Jews here
as there is right in New York or in most places at home."
Time Magazine published an article by Tomás Eloy Martínez—Argentine writer, journalist, and former director of the Latin American program at Rutgers University—titled
"The Woman Behind the Fantasy: Prostitute, Fascist, Profligate—Eva
Peron Was Much Maligned, Mostly Unfairly". In this article, Martínez
writes that the accusations that Eva Perón was a fascist, a Nazi, and a
thief had been made against her for decades. He wrote that the
allegations were untrue:
She was not a fascist—ignorant,
perhaps, of what that ideology meant. And she was not greedy. Though she
liked jewelry, furs and Dior dresses, she could own as many as she
desired without the need to rob others.... In 1964 Jorge Luis Borges
stated that 'the mother of that woman [Evita]' was 'the madam of a
whorehouse in Junín.' He repeated the calumny so often that some still
believe it or, more commonly, think Evita herself, whose lack of sex
appeal is mentioned by all who knew her, apprenticed in that imaginary
brothel. Around 1955 the pamphleteer Silvano Santander employed the same
strategy to concoct letters in which Evita figures as an accomplice of
the Nazis. It is true that (Juan) Perón facilitated the entrance of Nazi
criminals to Argentina in 1947 and 1948, thereby hoping to acquire
advanced technology developed by the Germans during the war. But Evita
played no part.
In his 2002 doctoral dissertation at Ohio State University,
Lawrence D. Bell writes that the governments that preceded Juan Perón
had been anti-Semitic but that his government was not. Juan Perón
"eagerly and enthusiastically" attempted to recruit the Jewish community
into his government and set up a branch of the Peronist party for
Jewish members, known as the Organización Israelita Argentina (OIA).
Perón's government was the first to court the Argentine Jewish community
and the first to appoint Jewish citizens to public office.
Kevin Passmore writes that the Peronist regime, more than any other in
Latin America, has been accused of being fascist. But he says that the
Peronist regime was not fascist, and what passed for fascism under Perón
never took hold in Latin America. Additionally, because the Peronist
regime allowed rival political parties to exist, it cannot be described
as totalitarian.
International popular culture
Liza Minnelli
reading the plaque on Eva Perón's tomb, 1993. In the early 1980s,
Minnelli was considered for the lead role in the movie version of the
musical Evita.
By the late 20th century, Eva Perón had become the subject of
numerous articles, books, stage plays, and musicals, ranging from the
biography The Woman with the Whip to a 1981 TV movie called Evita Perón with Faye Dunaway in the title role. The most successful rendering of Eva Perón's life has been the musical production Evita. The musical began as a concept album co-produced by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1976, with Julie Covington in the title role. Elaine Paige was later cast in the title role when the concept album was adapted into a musical stage production in London's West End and won the 1978 Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical. In 1980, Patti LuPone won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance as the title character in the Broadway
production. The Broadway production also won the Tony Award for Best
Musical. Nicholas Fraser claims that to date "the musical stage
production has been performed on every continent except Antarctica and
has generated over $2 billion in revenue."
As early as 1978, the musical was considered as the basis for a movie. After a nearly 20-year production delay, Madonna was cast in the title role for the 1996 film version and won the Golden Globe Award
for "Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy." In response to the American
film, and in an alleged attempt to offer a more politically accurate
depiction of Evita's life, an Argentine film company released Eva Perón: The True Story. The Argentine production starred actress Esther Goris in the title role. This movie was the 1996 Argentine submission for the Oscar in the category of "Best Foreign Language Film."
Nicholas Fraser writes that Evita is the perfect popular cultureicon
for our times because her career foreshadowed what, by the late 20th
century, had become common. During Evita's time it was considered
scandalous for a former entertainer to take part in public political
life. Her detractors in Argentina had often accused Evita of turning
public political life into show business. But by the late 20th century,
Fraser claims, the public had become engrossed in the cult of celebrity
and public political life had become insignificant. In this regard,
Evita was perhaps ahead of her time. Fraser also writes that Evita's
story is appealing to our celebrity-obsessed age because her story
confirms one of Hollywood's oldest clichés, the rags to riches story. Reflecting on Eva Perón's popularity more than half a century after her death, Alma Guillermoprieto writes that, "Evita's life has evidently just begun."
Titles and honours
Eva Peron appears on the 100 peso note first issued in 2012 and scheduled for replacement sometime in 2018.
The titles given to Eva Peron are the following:
Titles and styles
7 May 1919 – 21 October 1945: Miss María Eva Duarte
22 October 1945 – 3 June 1946: Mrs Eva Duarte de Perón
4 June 1946 – 26 July 1952: Her Excellency Eva Perón, First Lady of the Nation
7 May 1952 – Present: Spiritual Leader of the Nation
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