Document text
http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Past Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview October 17, 2006 Thousands mob coffin of Argentine leader By BILL CORMIER Associated Press Writer BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Thousands of jostling, weeping admirers of Juan Domingo Peron tossed carnations and cheered the Argentine strongman Tuesday as his coffin was carried through clogged streets for reburial at a new mausoleum. Peron, who dominated Argentine politics for years with the glamorous Evita at his side, was being buried for a third time since his death in 1974. Throngs of people, swept by emotion, fought to touch his slowly passing coffin as bugles sounded and pallbearers loaded it on a motorized caravan headed to the $1.1 million mausoleum in the cattle-ranching countryside. Removed from its longtime crypt at the Chacarita cemetery in Buenos Aires, Peron's body was carried in a flag-draped coffin topped by a military cap and saber in a slow-moving procession led by ceremonial guards on horseback through the city. President Nestor Kirchner of the ruling Peronist party was expected to join tens of thousands of people just before sunset for the reburial at the mausoleum site at the former leader's old weekend estate in San Vicente, 30 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. Relatives of the late Eva Peron, known as Evita, have opposed moving her coffin from her family's tomb in Buenos Aires' downtown Recoleta cemetery. Her remains have already made two trans-Atlantic crossings since her death from cancer in 1952 at age 33. As Argentina's power couple, the Perons cultivated an enormous working-class following by redirecting agricultural wealth to legions of urban poor through projects to build schools, hospitals and homes. Peron was elected three times and died in office on July 1, 1974, at age 78. "We are paying homage to our Peronist party, to the political party of our grandfathers and our fathers!" exclaimed Daniel Ferreri, 24, one of thousands in the street. Hundreds of labor activists waved large photographs of the Perons and banners reading "Peron, immortal! Evita, immortal!" as his caravan left a midday tribute at a union hall, the first stop. The ceremonies nevertheless underscored how the movement that bears Peron's name has suffered deep fissures since his death: former presidents Carlos Menem and Eduardo Duhalde, among Kirchner's rivals, said they would not take part. Peron's supporters say he deserves a resting place befitting a national hero, a place more grand than the family crypt in the crowded Chacarita cemetery where grave robbers broke in and stole his hands in 1987. Workers on Monday opened his crypt to remove the heavy metal coffin horizontally and avoid further damage to his corpse, said Alejandro Rodriguez Peron, his nephew. Peron's body will now rest in a marble sarcophagus set in a lofty, modern atrium with a towering eucalyptus tree standing guard. His former weekend estate is named "Oct. 17" after the date in 1945 when Peron — then-vice president and secretary of war — was released amid massive protests after opponents in the military threw him in jail on accusations of conspiring against a previous government. Peron went on to win the first of three his elections in February 1946. An authoritarian leader who also had enemies, Peron radically reshaped Argentina's economic and political life by nationalizing railroads and other industries to bankroll state programs for the working classes. The young, blond Evita became a national icon, and after her death, her body lay in state in Congress for weeks as hundreds of thousands of mourners thronged to view it. When military leaders overthrew Juan Peron in 1955, they were apparently so worried about a death cult that they secretly moved Evita's body to an unmarked grave in Italy. In 1971, it was delivered to Juan Peron's home in exile in Spain. Peron returned to Argentina soon after and ruled briefly until his death. He was succeeded by his third wife, Isabel, who brought Evita's body to rest by his in the presidential residence in Buenos Aires. But after Isabel Peron was ousted in a 1976 coup, the military quietly dispatched both bodies to their families' respective crypts. Controversy has accompanied Juan Peron's reburial. On Friday, DNA samples were taken from his remains for testing in a paternity case. Martha Holgado, 72, who says Peron fathered her during an affair in the mid-1930s, told The Associated Press she was certain the tests would prove she is Peron's daughter. Peron never publicly acknowledged her as a daughter, and critics have long scoffed at her claims. Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.