Isabel Perón

Isabel Perón (born February 4, 1931, La Rioja, Argentina) is an Argentine politician who served as president of Argentina in 1974–76, the world’s first woman president. She was the third wife of President Juan Perón and served as vice president (1973–74) in his administration.

She was born to a lower-middle-class family, acquired the name Isabel (her saint’s name) on her Roman Catholic confirmation, and used that name when she became a dancer. She met Juan Perón in either 1955 or 1956 and, giving up her career in show business, became his personal secretary, accompanying him in exile to Madrid, where they were married in 1961. She visited Argentina several times in the 1960s and early ’70s, building support for her husband. When he finally returned to Argentina to run for president in 1973, Isabel was chosen as his vice presidential running mate on the suggestion of his close adviser José López Rega. The couple won the election, and they took office in October 1973. Juan’s illness several times elevated Isabel to the position of acting president, and she succeeded him in office when he died on July 1, 1974.

Her regime inherited problems of inflation, labour unrest, and political violence. She attempted to solve the problems by appointing new cabinet ministers, printing money to pay foreign debts, and imposing a state of siege in November 1974 as the country was on the brink of anarchy. The controversy surrounding her social welfare minister López Rega, who was forced into exile for graft and terrorist activities, did not help her situation. Moderate military officers urged her to resign, but she stubbornly refused. The economic and political situation continued to worsen, and on March 24, 1976, she was seized by air force officers and held under house arrest for five years. In 1981 she was convicted of corrupt practices, but she was paroled in the summer of that year and went into exile in Spain. Pardoned in late 1983, she submitted her resignation as head of the Partido Justicialista, the Peronist party, from her home in Madrid in 1985.

In 2007 an Argentine judge issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of allowing the armed forces to commit human rights abuses during her presidency. Perón, who by then had gained Spanish citizenship, was briefly arrested. In 2008, however, Spain’s National Court refused the extradition request, ruling that the charges did not constitute crimes against humanity and that the statute of limitations had been exceeded.