The Unemployed Traveler

For "stains on his military honor," a court of generals last week threw Juan Peron out of the Argentine army and forbade him "forever" to wear its uniform. Some of the stains: last June's church-burnings; the "waves of idolatry" that Peron permitted for himself ("towns, houses, schools, prizes and even a province were given his name"); and "relations with a minor"--namely, Peron's bobby-soxer mistress Nelly Rivas (TIME, Oct. 10), with whom he "cohabited for two years in the presidential palace," starting when Nelly was only 14.

"Relations with a minor" is a common, nonpolitical crime that could have subjected the exiled Peron to extradition to Argentina for trial. Moreover, Paraguay, his host, had become increasingly nervous over his presence so near to Argentina. So when old friend Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza, the Nicaraguan dictator, invited him to drop in for a visit, Peron decided to move on.

He took down a picture of his late wife Evita from his bedroom wall, packed his clothes and drove off one midnight in Paraguayan President Alfredo Stroessner's own car. Well before dawn, Peron, who hates planes, was airborne in a DC-3 piloted by the Paraguayan air force's best flier. The plane's short range made any direct flight across the vast Amazonian jungles impossible; instead the aircraft hopscotched up the east coast of South America for four days. Stops on Peron's Odyssey:

P:Rio de Janeiro, for fuel.

P:Salvador, for a night's rest and rueful remarks that he was just an "unemployed traveler," and that it was "very improbable" he would ever return to Paraguay.

P:Sao Luis, on thenorth coast of the Brazilian hump, for fuel.

P:Macapa, on the mouth ofthe Amazon, for rest and mechanical checkup for the plane.

P:Paramaribo, Surinam, where he signed short-snorter bills.

P:Caracas, Venezuela, for the weekend. Since bosomy Italian Actress Silvana Pampanini was occupying the Hotel Tamanaco's luxurious presidential suite, Peron made do with lesser quarters and jovially met the press on the terrace. What about Nelly? the reporters asked. "I'm too old for politics, war or women," joked 60-year-old Juan Peron. What did he think of Argentina's new president, General Eduardo Lonardi? "Lonardi is like the man who leaped from the roof of a twelve-story building and yelled as he passed the fourth floor, 'I'm doing well so far.' "

In sweltering Nicaragua, Tacho Somoza readied a modest house on his cattle and cotton ranch, which overlooks the Pacific, for Peron. "He will be my house guest," said Tacho. "I might even give him a chance to do some work with a pick and shovel." But there were hints that Tacho, too, hoped that discredited Juan Peron would soon move on again.

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