El Lider Returns

Juan Peron, Argentina's onetime strongman, has said repeatedly that he would return to his homeland "when the people tell me the bollo [roll] is ready for the oven." Apparently the bollo is now ready. In Buenos Aires, Peron's top aide, Hector Compara, announced that el Lider would arrive in Argentina on Nov. 17, thus ending 17 years of exile abroad, most of it spent in princely isolation in Madrid.

Peron's trip has been carefully orchestrated to have the maximum impact. His Argentine supporters, who could deliver up to 40% of the popular vote, have already purchased a $70,000 house in the posh Buenos Aires suburb of Olivos for their old leader, who turned 77 last month. The house is only eight blocks from the presidential villa of Argentina's current strongman (and Peron's archfoe), Alejandro Lanusse. Peronistas have also chartered a DC-8 from Alitalia to fly their leader home. Aboard will be his third wife Isabelita, 41, several aides, household servants and numerous bodyguards, but not Eva, his second wife, who died in 1952 and is considered a saint by Argentina's descamisados, or shirtless ones. Her embalmed body, now lodged in a crystal-topped silver coffin, rests in a monastery near Madrid. It will probably follow later, provided Peron can find a burial place that would be safe from the devout depredations of Evita cultists or the angry assaults of anti-Peronistas.

Lanusse, who was once imprisoned by Peron, has boasted that the old dictator will never return and has even been taunting him by saying that "he just hasn't got the guts" to come to Argentina and is playing "hide and seek."

Some of Peron's own aides, fearing violence, have called the trip "madness." Others feel that el Lider exerts far more power in exile than he could at home; Argentina's chaotic economy, saddled with inflation and vanishing export markets, might be too much for him to handle if he was to return to power in next year's election. Asked how long Peron plans to stay if he actually does return, an aide said that "it could be for a few days or for good." As a waffling afterthought, he added: "It will not be for a few hours."

Peron has said that he wants to return home because "I prefer to die with my boots on in Argentina than to expire quietly in a hospital." For that reason alone, he will probably keep his date with destiny and with the estimated 1,000,000 supporters who are expected to be on hand to greet him at Buenos Aires' sprawling Ezeiza Airport.

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