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lt was the most remarkable funeral procession
in the history of South America.

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On the 10th of August 1952,

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the body of Eva Peron,

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the wife of the President of Argentina,
General Juan Peron,

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was borne through the streets of Buenos Aires.

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Tens of thousands of mourning Argentines

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lined the streets to watch the cortege pass.

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Eva Peron had never been elected
or officially appointed to

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any government office.

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But she was buried with
full presidential honours.

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Her husband in full general's uniform
followed the coffin.

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For seven years she had been
the most powerful woman in the world.

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The myths surrounding Eva Peron
reverberate to this day.

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On the 7th of May 1919

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an lndian midwife helped

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an unwed mother give birth to a child

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on the Argentina pampa
near the small town of Los Toldos

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in the province of Buenos Aires.

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This child was to grow up to be Eva Peron,

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First Lady of Argentina.

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When she was 15,

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Eva left her family
and made her way to Buenos Aires,

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adopting the name of her father,
a prosperous landowner.

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The adolescent Eva Duarte,

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or Evita as she liked to be called,

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dreamed about becoming a movie star.

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By the time she was 20

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she was playing small parts in radio plays.

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By all accounts she was an atrocious actress,

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but in 1943 she signed a contract
to play the title roles in a radio series

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about famous women in history...

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Evita became Catherine the Great
and Sarah Bernhardt.

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Soon she would add another name
to the list - herself.

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Evita's success attracted the attention
of a rapidly rising figure

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in Argentina's military government,
the dashing Colonel Juan Peron.

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From 1943,
when the military came to power,

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he had been building a political base for himself

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among the country's trade unions.

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Peron provided pay rises, better conditions

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and created a bureaucracy devoted to

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dealing with labour problems.

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By 1945, Peron was Argentina's vice-president

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and Evita his mistress.

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Evita became part of
Peron's political apparatus,

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broadcasting a stream of propaganda
to the Argentine nation.

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She told the people:

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''l am a woman like you,

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mothers, wives, sweethearts, sisters...

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from me came the son
who is in the barracks...

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or the worker who is creating

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a new Argentina by land, sea and air.''

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Evita was eager to assume this iconic role
away from the microphone.

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She was placed in charge of organising the union
which represented Argentina's radio workers.

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The concessions Peron had made
to the workers cemented his popularity,

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but by 1945

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the military government of
which he was vice-president,

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and effectively controlling,
was deeply unpopular...

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rioting broke out in Buenos Aires.

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The army moved in
to make thousands of arrests.

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A state of martial law was declared.

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Newspapers were shut down.

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Strikes gripped Argentina

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Peron's military colleagues decided to

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move against him and his mistress.

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At the beginning of October he was dismissed,

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arrested and briefly exiled to an island
off the coast of Argentina.

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Peron was rescued by Evita's willpower
and by the workers,

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the descamisados or shirtless ones
as they had been contemptuously

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dubbed by the military junta.

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lt was Evita who was behind
the huge demonstration

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which converged on the government's Pink House,

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the Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires.

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Many of the demonstrators carried banners

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proclaiming ''Peron for President!''

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The junta caved in.

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Peron was released, to marry Evita

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and to run for the presidency.

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ln February 1946 his triumph was complete

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when he took the oath of office as president.

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Evita had been with him every step of the way.

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There was no precedent in Argentine politics

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for the role Evita was to play.

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She made the rules up as she went along.

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After her death, Peron claimed that,
from the start,

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he had prepared Evita
for the part she was to play.

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But even he could not have foreseen

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just what a force she would become.

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Even though Peron was twice Evita's age,

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they formed a perfect political partnership.

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Where Peron was benign and relaxed,

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Evita was fiercely passionate.

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Her political philosophy
was simple - love of the poor,

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from whom she had come,

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and hatred of the rich
who had run Argentina for so long.

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Peron's style was avuncular
and glad handing.

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He once referred to himself as
a ''vegetarian lion''.

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While he was the man of the people,

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Evita was the people.

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The Peronist system claimed to have found

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a third way between capitalism and communism.

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But it was a fascist state

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much influenced by Mussolini's ltaly,

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where Peron had spent the early war years
as a military attache.

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lt was ironic, then,

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that Juan and Evita had come
to power in 1945,

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when fascism seemed a spent force.

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As the self-styled First Worker of Argentina,

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Evita reached out to two
powerful forces previously ignored

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by Argentine politicians:

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women,

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for whom she won the vote,

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and the workers

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who had carried Peron to power.

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Self-effacingly,

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she said of Peron:

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''He is like God for us,

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we cannot conceive of heaven without Peron...

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he is our sun,

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our air, our water, our life''.

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ln truth Evita wielded enormous personal power.

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She exercised an iron grip
on the labour movement.

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She owned four of Buenos Aires'

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largest newspapers

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and had complete control
of the nation's radio network.

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She worked long hours in her office
in the Ministry of Labour.

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Up the stairs and into her suite tramped

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not only the big union leaders,

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to be exhorted or dressed down,

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but also a stream of poor people
bringing their individual problems

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to the young blonde woman who received homage

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and dispensed favours from behind her desk.

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The military had watched Evita's
rise with the deepest suspicion.

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The high command regarded her with a contempt

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that was repaid in kind.

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Evita had a short temper and a long memory.

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She waged ferocious vendettas

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against all those who had snubbed
or patronised her in the past

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or who now stood in her way.

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ln 1947 the Spanish dictator General Franco

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invited Evita to Spain.

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The Argentine navy denied her
a ship for the voyage,

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and she was obliged to fly to Europe.

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Peron declared that the trip was unofficial

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and Evita claimed that she was
financing it out of her own funds.

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Whatever the truth,

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it was the prelude to a spectacular descent on
the Old World by a representative of the New.

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ln Madrid the entire Spanish government
stood waiting to meet her.

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Behind them were 200,000 ordinary Spaniards

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who had stood for hours in broiling heat
for a chance to glimpse the Lady of Hope.

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lt was the biggest reception since

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the German SS chief Heinrich Himmler

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had visited Spain in 1940.

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Himmler was long since dead.

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Evita was alive and kicking.

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There was the obligatory visit
to the bullfights at the plaza de Toros,

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where the arena was spread with coloured sand

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in the red and yellow national colours of Spain

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and the blue and white of Argentina.

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ln the Palacio Real,

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Franco decorated Evita

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with the diamond-encrusted Cross
of lsabel the Catholic,

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the highest honour Spain can bestow.

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Then, her shoulders draped in mink

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in spite of the heat,

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she addressed a vast throng in the square below.

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Evita told them,

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''l come as a rainbow
between two countries''.

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She told Franco.

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''Any time you want a crowd of this size

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just give me a call.''

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Then it was on to ltaly,

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the mother country of so many Argentines.

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Behind Evita is her brother Juan,

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who was Peron's private secretary.

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Another tumultuous reception was marred

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by clashes between
ltalian fascists and socialists.

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But there was no denying that

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Evita had brought an extraordinary glamour
and excitement to a Europe

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still struggling to escape
from postwar austerity.

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She was received by the Pope

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but snubbed by the British Royal Family,

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who were advised against

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meeting Evita in London.

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Back in Argentina it was business as usual.

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Peron filled the role of ''caudillo'',

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the traditional Latin American strongman, fixing
the armed forces and the big money interests

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while Evita dealt with the unions.

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With the unions they used
carrot and stick tactics.

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Massive pay rises were accompanied

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by ruthless purges of any unions

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which stepped out of line.

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lncreasingly Evita's principal
instrument of power

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was the Eva Peron Social Aid Foundation.

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One of its showcases

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was an eerie model village for children,

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which only seemed to contain children
when important visitors arrived.

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Propaganda films,

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however corny,

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contained the essence of Evita's philosophy -

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the betterment of the masses.

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ln this she was steadfast.

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Her Social Aid Foundation
was ostensibly a charity

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but woe betide any business or union
which declined to make

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a substantial donation.

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Eventually the Foundation
became Argentina's biggest enterprise,

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effectively taking over the functions of
the Ministries of Health and Education.

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Many thousands benefited,

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but the fruits of the Foundation
were grown in deeply corrupt soil.

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At the centre of Evita and
Juan's partnership was the sway

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they held over the people

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from the balcony,

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the traditional podium of
Latin American demagogues.

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Peron had been deeply impressed by the huge
demonstrations orchestrated by Benito Mussolini,

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and it was in the great gathering in
Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo that,

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at regular intervals, they rallied
and reassured the shirtless ones.

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This was Evita's stage,

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on which she achieved a fire and resonance
entirely lacking in her radio performances

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and during her mercifully brief movie career.

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ln Peron's words,

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she was the ''bridge of love'' between himself
and the Argentine people.

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She gave the poorest
and most exploited Argentines

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an understanding of themselves.

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Evita declared that the happiness
of one of the shirtless ones

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was worth more than her life.

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Evita, of course, was hardly shirtless herself.

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Her wardrobe bulged with
hundreds of expensive outfits.

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She dripped jewels,

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and wore them when she
visited the slum dwellers,

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telling them,

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''One day you will inherit the whole collection''.

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But she also took care to
cultivate a severely iconic style,

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with simple suits and scraped-back hair

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emphasising the burning power of her face.

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She had no need of children,
She was the mother of the nation.

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ln retrospect, Evita's political life

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seems like a preparation for the
agonisingly drawn-out drama of her death.

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Her health had always been delicate.

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ln 1950 she had been diagnosed
as having cancer of the uterus,

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but she refused to undergo the operation

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which might have saved her.

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00:14:31,570 --> 00:14:33,629
lnstead she stepped up her workload...

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She drove herself on.

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The sacrifice she made for the people

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00:14:38,043 --> 00:14:41,501
would become real rather than rhetorical.

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00:14:48,587 --> 00:14:53,149
Evita was rushing towards
her own appointment with destiny.

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00:14:57,663 --> 00:15:00,097
Her rhetoric was as fiery as ever...

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00:15:00,366 --> 00:15:03,392
but a sense of exhaustion was setting in.

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00:15:06,538 --> 00:15:09,302
Meanwhile, the rolling thunder
of Peron's speeches

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00:15:09,508 --> 00:15:13,501
continued to galvanise the masses
with promises of the wonderful future

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00:15:13,712 --> 00:15:15,942
that his movement would bring them.

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And when Evita spoke, it was always
as the leading propagandist of Peronismo

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ln August 1951,

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00:16:15,741 --> 00:16:19,541
the Army blocked her bid
to become Argentina's vice-president.

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00:16:19,745 --> 00:16:20,871
She was now so weak

255
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:23,981
that Peron had physically to support her.

256
00:16:30,689 --> 00:16:33,385
She was saying goodbye to her people.

257
00:16:36,895 --> 00:16:37,953
Evita lived long enough to make

258
00:16:38,163 --> 00:16:41,155
her last public appearance
at Peron's inauguration

259
00:16:41,367 --> 00:16:45,269
for a second term as president in June 1952.

260
00:16:45,504 --> 00:16:46,493
Riddled with cancer,

261
00:16:46,705 --> 00:16:49,401
she died on the 26th of July.

262
00:16:49,641 --> 00:16:52,610
As she was prepared for the
final futile operation to save her,

263
00:16:52,811 --> 00:16:57,771
Evita had shouted ''Viva Peron!''
with her last strength.

264
00:17:01,653 --> 00:17:04,383
Her death provoked a frenzy of mourning.

265
00:17:04,590 --> 00:17:07,787
Argentina's lnterior Minister,
Angel G. Borlenghi,

266
00:17:07,993 --> 00:17:11,121
described Evita as ''the martyr of labour,

267
00:17:11,330 --> 00:17:13,924
protecting saint, haven for the humble

268
00:17:14,133 --> 00:17:17,534
and the quintessence of the people's feelings''

269
00:17:31,183 --> 00:17:33,151
Peron's feelings were all too clear

270
00:17:33,352 --> 00:17:38,016
as he walked slowly behind the
gun carriage bearing the tiny coffin.

271
00:17:39,758 --> 00:17:43,592
Evita's enemies rejoiced,
but the nation mourned.

272
00:17:50,903 --> 00:17:54,134
Her body lay in state
at the Ministry of Labour.

273
00:18:02,648 --> 00:18:07,608
Outside the Ministry colossal queues
waited for up to 15 hours in freezing rain

274
00:18:07,820 --> 00:18:10,983
to snatch a glimpse of Evita's wasted face...

275
00:18:11,723 --> 00:18:14,317
Sixteen people died in the crush...

276
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:17,554
ln a fortnight over two million Argentines

277
00:18:17,763 --> 00:18:21,164
had paid their last respects to Evita Peron.

278
00:18:33,045 --> 00:18:38,483
Walls of flowers channeled the mourners
as they shuffled towards Evita's bier.

279
00:19:08,147 --> 00:19:09,580
lnside hysterical women

280
00:19:09,781 --> 00:19:14,275
threw themselves forward to kiss
the glass panel on Evita's coffin.

281
00:19:15,187 --> 00:19:19,283
The Peronistas mounted massive
torchlit parades in her memory.

282
00:19:19,558 --> 00:19:21,890
But the light of Peronismo
was already dimming now

283
00:19:22,094 --> 00:19:24,221
that its beacon was dead.

284
00:19:24,429 --> 00:19:25,794
Without Evita's fire,

285
00:19:25,998 --> 00:19:30,958
the movement she and her husband had created
began to wither away at the roots.

286
00:19:36,141 --> 00:19:37,733
Even as she lay in her coffin

287
00:19:37,943 --> 00:19:40,935
the cult of Evita began to falter.

288
00:19:41,947 --> 00:19:45,405
The plans to build a massive memorial to her,
the biggest in the world,

289
00:19:45,617 --> 00:19:48,313
never got beyond the model stage.

290
00:19:52,524 --> 00:19:55,516
Peron, taking a stroll with Evita's pet poodles,

291
00:19:55,727 --> 00:19:58,389
cut an increasingly isolated figure.

292
00:19:58,797 --> 00:20:00,492
An economic crisis loomed,

293
00:20:00,699 --> 00:20:04,328
caused largely by Evita's lavish
handouts to the unions.

294
00:20:04,536 --> 00:20:07,027
Peron's moment seemed to be passing...

295
00:20:07,372 --> 00:20:12,207
the anti-Peron forces gathered strength
and waited for their opportunity.

296
00:20:26,525 --> 00:20:28,652
lt came in June 1955

297
00:20:28,860 --> 00:20:33,160
when navy aircraft launched
bombing attacks on the Casa Rosada.

298
00:20:35,567 --> 00:20:40,095
Peron, the vegetarian lion,
was now also toothless.

299
00:20:40,305 --> 00:20:41,431
The revolt was put down

300
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,609
but Peron no longer had
the stomach for a fight.

301
00:20:44,876 --> 00:20:46,639
When the army rose against him in September,

302
00:20:46,845 --> 00:20:48,710
he fled to Paraguay.

303
00:20:49,781 --> 00:20:52,181
The shirtless ones who
gathered in the Plaza Mayo

304
00:20:52,384 --> 00:20:54,284
could not save him now.

305
00:20:55,887 --> 00:20:59,323
A new strongman donned the presidential sash.

306
00:21:05,631 --> 00:21:07,792
ln 1960 Peron settled in Madrid,

307
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:09,831
where he married his long-time mistress

308
00:21:10,035 --> 00:21:13,266
lsabel Martinez, a former dancer.

309
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,572
By 1972 the 76-year-old Peron

310
00:21:17,776 --> 00:21:20,108
saw an opportunity to return to Argentina,

311
00:21:20,312 --> 00:21:24,715
which had been run into the ground by
a succession of military dictatorships.

312
00:21:25,417 --> 00:21:28,614
At home the Peronistas,
now an uneasy coalition of forces

313
00:21:28,820 --> 00:21:31,516
on the extreme left and right
of the political spectrum,

314
00:21:31,723 --> 00:21:34,191
were clamouring for Peron's return.

315
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:39,897
When he came back, it was at the invitation of
those whom Evita had despised the most -

316
00:21:40,098 --> 00:21:43,295
the army, big business and landowners.

317
00:21:43,502 --> 00:21:45,629
Now lsabel was at his side,

318
00:21:45,837 --> 00:21:49,933
a surrogate Evita but a pale
imitation of the original.

319
00:21:50,142 --> 00:21:52,406
The Peronistas chanted the old warcrys,

320
00:21:52,611 --> 00:21:56,877
but they were a tinny echo of the
glory days in the late 1940s.

321
00:21:59,017 --> 00:22:01,645
Nevertheless, they were sufficient
to secure Juan Peron

322
00:22:01,853 --> 00:22:07,120
a massive victory in the presidential election
held in the autumn of 1973.

323
00:22:08,026 --> 00:22:09,857
The old warrior gave a sheepish grin

324
00:22:10,062 --> 00:22:12,826
as the sash was placed on his shoulders.

325
00:22:25,577 --> 00:22:28,341
But Peron's failing health meant that lsabel,

326
00:22:28,547 --> 00:22:30,674
who had consciously modelled herself on Evita,

327
00:22:30,882 --> 00:22:32,679
assumed an increasingly important role

328
00:22:32,884 --> 00:22:35,114
in the governing of Argentina.

329
00:22:35,787 --> 00:22:36,913
President Peron proposed

330
00:22:37,122 --> 00:22:41,058
but his vice-president, lsabel, disposed.

331
00:22:43,228 --> 00:22:44,957
Peron's charisma remained intact

332
00:22:45,163 --> 00:22:46,221
but he could make no impression

333
00:22:46,431 --> 00:22:50,925
on the economic chaos and political violence
which bedeviled Argentina.

334
00:22:57,809 --> 00:22:59,538
After Peron suffered a heart-attack

335
00:22:59,745 --> 00:23:03,442
lsabel was sworn in
as Argentina's interim president.

336
00:23:03,648 --> 00:23:08,779
But there was no public enthusiasm
for the hatchet-faced Evita Mark 2.

337
00:23:19,564 --> 00:23:23,261
Juan Peron died on the 1st of July 1974

338
00:23:29,441 --> 00:23:32,035
The army presence at his funeral
was more menacing

339
00:23:32,244 --> 00:23:34,838
than it had been when Evita died.

340
00:23:35,046 --> 00:23:38,573
ln 1952 the army had fed the lines of mourners.

341
00:23:38,784 --> 00:23:41,378
Now they looked ready to mow them down.

342
00:23:45,824 --> 00:23:48,793
But the grief of the Peronistas
was genuine enough.

343
00:23:59,905 --> 00:24:02,135
lt was only after Peron had been laid to rest

344
00:24:02,340 --> 00:24:03,671
that Evita's embalmed body

345
00:24:03,875 --> 00:24:07,003
was returned to Argentina under heavy guard.

346
00:24:07,279 --> 00:24:09,179
ln 1956 it had been secretly buried

347
00:24:09,381 --> 00:24:11,406
in the ltalian city of Milan.

348
00:24:11,616 --> 00:24:13,948
Fourteen years later she had been disentombed

349
00:24:14,152 --> 00:24:16,848
and moved to Peron's house in Madrid.

350
00:24:17,055 --> 00:24:20,513
But when he returned to Argentina
he had left her behind.

351
00:24:20,859 --> 00:24:22,827
lsabel's decision to bring the body back,

352
00:24:23,028 --> 00:24:25,019
and reunite Evita with her husband,

353
00:24:25,230 --> 00:24:29,360
provoked diehard Peronistas to fresh frenzies.

354
00:24:29,701 --> 00:24:31,896
As Evita's body sped through
the streets of the city

355
00:24:32,103 --> 00:24:33,070
she had so dominated

356
00:24:33,271 --> 00:24:35,466
it seemed that the force of her personality

357
00:24:35,674 --> 00:24:38,268
was as strong as ever, even in death.

358
00:24:38,610 --> 00:24:42,671
lt was strong enough to frighten
the military junta which deposed lsabel.

359
00:24:42,881 --> 00:24:46,009
They forbade any mention of Evita's name.

360
00:24:47,052 --> 00:24:49,612
But the legend of Evita and Juan Peron

361
00:24:49,921 --> 00:24:52,651
is too potent to be forgotten.