Word: argentinas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...vast land nearly three times the size of Western Europe, Argentina did not begin to develop until the 19th century, when there was large-scale immigration from Western Europe. On the pampas, a flat plain stretching out in a semicircle from Buenos Aires, the immigrants found the richest, deepest topsoil in the world. It was ideal for raising cattle and crops, and still is. The number of cattle on the hoof today is more than double the country's population of 25 million...
Back in Buenos Aires, Peron joined the G.O.U. (Group of United Officers), a cabal of extreme-right-wing colonels who shared his belief that Argentina was destined to become the Germany of Latin America. In 1943 they staged a coup against the bumbling government of Ramón Castillo (who, ironically, was pro-Nazi himself). Perón backed the naming of General Pedro Ramírez as a figurehead replacement. For himself, he cannily took the directorship of the moribund Department of Labor. Turning it into the government's most active branch, Perón used the department...
Shortly after Evita's death, it became apparent that Perón was spending much more than the government was taking in. In fact, he had been squandering the huge profits that Argentina had accumulated as a neutral supplier of foodstuffs during and after World War II (making it then the richest country in Latin America, with foreign-currency reserves totaling $1.7 billion). The nationalized industries stagnated; inflation soared. Even the workers began to have second thoughts about el Líder as their paychecks purchased less...
...September 1955, all three branches of the armed forces combined to seize control of the floundering country. Auditors later discovered that during Perón's years in power, Argentina's treasury had been drained of $1.25 billion. After bouncing around in exile from Paraguay to Panama to Venezuela to the Dominican Republic, Perón finally settled in Madrid in 1960, where he bought a $500,000 villa that he called "17 de Octubre." There Peron kept in touch with his loyalists in Argentina, goading them to civil strife with taped messages, letters and personal envoys...
Last week, though, Perón shuffled somebody else out of circulation, and this time the move delighted his left wing. Perón told the ubiquitous López Rega, who also triples as Argentina's new Social Welfare Minister, to take a month's vacation from domestic politics and attend a nonaligned nations conference in Algeria. Temporarily at least Lopecito had been effectively removed from what the leftists derisively call Perón's "celestial court." The remaining members: Isabelita and Finance Minister José Gelbard. Of the courtiers, only Gelbard has spent more than...