Word: argentina
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...most of South America, political power is conferred by the barracks rather than the ballot box. Only two of the continent's Latin nations (Colombia and Venezuela) are Western-style democracies; Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile remain under more or less strict military control. In a few countries, however, the armed forces have been trying to ease their khaki embrace-so far with mixed results...
...Argentina's Juan and Eva Perón gave a different wrinkle to the haberdashery of power. Although they dressed like Napoleon and Josephine, they identified themselves with the descamisados, the shirtless poor who supported Perón from 1946-55. It was a classic case of gilt by association. Both Peróns came up from the bottom, and their ostentation and tantrums against the upper classes provided vicarious thrills for the masses they left behind...
...farmer's son. Evita, as the crowd called her, was a third-rate actress with first-rate street smarts who worked her way up from the casting couch to the Pink House, the traditional seat of Argentina's First Family. When she died in 1952 of cancer at the age of 33, the bereaved descamisados sought to have her canonized. The Vatican diplomatically declined, suggesting that her good works were basically secular...
John Barnes' biography amplifies the papal declaration. Peronist power was founded on a simple principle: Take from the rich and give to the poor, then take from the poor. Just after World War II this was not difficult. Argentina was fat with hard foreign currency from its exports of wheat and beef. While Juan donated the machismo, Eva provided the cunning and humorless drive. Largely under her direction, the wealth was spread...
Today Peronism is brutally suppressed by Argentina's military government. Yet the mystique of Juan and Eva continues. She, especially, has achieved an international moment of posthumous pop stardom. Evita, a musical based on her life, is now a hit in London, and will probably be brought to Broadway...