Monday 15 June 2015

From a Nightclub Dancer to a President: The Story of Isabel Peron, the First Female President of Argentina...and the World

Maria Estela Martinez was born on the 4th of February 1941 in La Rioja, Argentina to a lower middle-class family. She dropped out of school as a teenager and in the early 50's, she became a nightclub dancer to make ends meet. She later adopted the name Isabel.

In 1956, Isabel Martinez met Juan Perón (the former President of Argentina) during his exile in Panama. Juan Perón, who was 35 years her senior, was attracted by her beauty and believed she could provide him with the female companionship he had been lacking since the death of his second wife, Eva Perón (Evita) in 1952. Perón brought Isabel with him when he moved to Madrid in 1960. Authorities in the strongly conservative Roman Catholic nation did not approve of Perón living with a young woman to whom he was not married, so on 15 November 1961 the former president reluctantly married for a third time.

When Perón finally returned to Argentina to run for president in 1973, Isabel was chosen as his running mate on the suggestion of Perón’s close adviser José López Rega. Perón’s illness several times elevated her to the position of acting president, and when he died on July 1, 1974, she succeeded him in office, becoming the world’s first woman president.

Isabel Peron was the first lady and acting President of Argentina between 1973 and 1974, and governed as the President of her country between 1974 and 1976. She was deposed through a military coup that was staged by air force officers on the 24th of March 1976. She was held under house arrest for five years  and later exiled in Spain where she still resides till date. 


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