Winning Ways

If Juan Domingo Peron had planned it, the timing could not have been better. Six days before Argentina's congressional elections, the Strong Man was rushed off to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. A crowd of hundreds of thousands, who had gathered to hear him orate on the occasion of taking over the British railways, gasped a long "Ooohhh!" when an announcer gave the news.

As soon as the operation was over, Oscar Ivanissevich, Peron's surgeon, who is also his new Education Minister and until recently was his Ambassador in the U.S., held a press conference to give a play-by-play. Said he: "The wife of the First Magistrate remained in the operating room, dressed in a white nurse's costume. ... She passed all this time praying to God for the success of the operation. The President preserved his serenity. . . . Some minutes after I had begun the operation, he was heard to say: 'What a pity! My poor dear descamisados whom I will not be able to see today!'"

Even without such pressagentry, Strong Man Peron was all set to win this week's election. He 'needed a two-thirds majority in the Chamber of Deputies to get a constitutional amendment permitting him to succeed himself when his term expires in 1952. For weeks, he had artfully played on the nationalistic feelings of the Argentines.

He had taken out the dusty old skeleton of the dispute with Britain over the Falkland (Islas Malvinas) Islands (TIME, March 1) and rattled it for all it was worth, capped it all by making good on his promise to get the British railroad proprietors out of Argentina.

He had also made his bow to democracy by promising a free campaign to the badly split anti-Peronist as (Radicals, Socialists, Communists, Nationalists). When Radicals got out 70,000 people for a rally in Buenos Aires' Plaza Once, the brakes of a tramcar that had somehow been abandoned nearby were mysteriously released and the car rolled into the crowd. When anti-Peronistas tried to put up posters, they were told that the law forbade it.

It did riot matter much anyhow: all available wall space was covered with pictures of the President--("Help Peron --Vote for His Men") and La Senora ("The Standard-Bearer of the Workers"). All the while, the radio blared: "A vote for Peron is a vote for Social Justice."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.