October 17: 75 years after the day Peronism was born and Argentina changed

It was also the beginning of anti-Peronism, a rift that continues to this day.

The mysterious role of Evita and Perón's first speech as a political leader.

Alberto Amato

10/16/2020 7:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 10/16/2020 7:01 AM

It was the day that

.

And the day

.

And the crack.

The old Argentine rift that marked entire generations, that somehow forged the country of today and that from time to time reappears, with regular intensity, with capricious outcomes, with melancholy fatalism.

75 years ago,

, a gigantic popular mobilization demanded, and obtained, the release of Colonel

, who had been Vice President, Minister of War of a neutral Argentina during the World War, and Secretary of Labor and Social Security. of the military dictatorship established on June 4, 1943.

The gigantic labor march that defied kilometers, police barriers, lack of transport;

that he circumvented the Riachuelo, by boat or by swimming when the bridges that linked the Capital with Buenos Aires were raised to impede their passage;

That sea of ​​people came

, from the distant Berisso and Ensenada de los frigoríficos, from the workshops in the industrial zone of Avellaneda, Lanús, Quilmes or La Matanza and even from the metallurgical and logging workshops of the south of the Capital, and represented a new social class, born in the 1930s, those of

, which disguised its authoritarianism with bombastic definitions such as patriotic fraud.

The crowd that entered the capital on October 17 and in history, only had one slogan:

.

The tottering military power, which days before had imprisoned the colonel, summoned him to put out the unforeseen social fire.

In the high night of that long day, Perón spoke from the balcony of the Casa Rosada to the crowd gathered in the Plaza de Mayo.

It was ten past eleven.

Between two hundred and three hundred thousand people listened to him,

;

a figure that the legend, and Perón himself, later increased to the unlikely "million people."

It was his first balcony and perhaps the only one of his speeches that did not start with his legendary "Companions": he said

.

It was an emotional speech in which he

, aware that the government would call elections in six months;

He announced that he was leaving the Army, from which he never left;

he created a definitive communion with the workers, harshly punished the opposition and called for good sense and calm.

A recipe that would lead him to rule the destinies of the country for almost three decades, until his death in 1974.

“This is the true celebration of democracy, represented by a people who march on foot for hours to get to ask their officials to fulfill their duty to respect their true rights.

Many times I have attended meetings of workers.

I have always felt enormous satisfaction, but from today on I will feel a true Argentine pride because I

v 1.5

"We want Perón":

the mobilization of that day

The map tells of the milestones that occurred on October 17, 1945. It can be explored interactively and a magnifying glass that follows the movements on the map shows a composition of aerial photographs of the City of Buenos Aires in 1940, to put it in an urban context the events of that time.

On the mobile use two fingers to move around the map.

Tap the icons on the map to go through the story.

First thing in the morning |   

During the day |   

Into the night

Source:

Infographic:

Workers: Unite;

be more brothers today than ever.

(…) On a daily basis we will incorporate into this enormous mass in movement all the wayward and discontented so that, together with us, they may become confused in this beautiful and patriotic mass that you constitute.

(…) Let us trust that the days that come will be one of peace and construction for the country.

(…) I know that labor movements have been announced.

At this time there is no longer any cause for this.

That is why I ask you, like an older brother, to return to your work in peace ”.

But there was no calm

.

After Perón's speech, a group of young nationalists attacked the headquarters of the newspaper “Crítica”, at 1333 Avenida de Mayo.

"Criticism" had been the colonel's enemy:

had titled days before, when the Army had dismissed him and sent Martín García prisoner.

The newspaper was attacked with stones and the protesters were shot from the terrace.

There died Darwin Passaponti, a boy from the Nationalist Union of Secondary Students, known today as

.

There is no shortage of martyrs in the crack.

Thirteen days before, another university boy, Aarón Salmún Feijoó, who was enrolled in Chemistry at the UBA, had been killed by a bullet in the mouth by "a guy from the gang that Perón had in Labor and Prevision," he revealed twenty years ago. years his brother Tito to La Nación.

The student was protesting the closure of the University decreed by the Farrell dictatorship.

October 17, 1945 actually began in 1943

.

With the balance of the war tilted towards the Allies, the nationalist and Prussian-minded Army, which had looked upon the Axis forces with more than sympathy, feared that the conservative government of President Ramón Castillo would abandon neutrality and join the forces. victors, a decision that the dictatorship itself took with its late declaration of war on Germany, on March 27, 1945.

The plot that ended with Castillo's presidency was led by a secret Army lodge, the GOU, born as the “Unification Work Group”, which aimed to make the Army a custodian of the Republic and which had Colonel among its founders Perón and his counterpart, Domingo Mercante, who would be a faithful collaborator and ruled Buenos Aires before falling into disgrace with Peronism in 1952. It is the GOU lodge, which at some point became the United Officers Group, the one that entered that dance of generals that, in less than two years, would lead Arturo Rawson, Pedro Ramírez and Edelmiro Farrell to the presidency, and in 1946 to Perón, elected in February of that year.

And it was the GOU that served Perón, or that Perón used, for his meteoric career during that dictatorship in which he held three decisive positions.

It was in Labor and Welfare where Perón became strong and from where he promoted the sanction of labor laws, the Christmas bonus, the Statute of the Country Peon, and improved the existing ones, improvements that until then had only been a project of socialism legislators in for the most part.

It was the embryo of the massive popular support that Perón would receive in October 1945 and the bases of state unionism that he was to establish as president in 1946, a model that he had seen work in Mussolini's Italy in 1939.

“My adored treasure (…) Today I know how much I love you and that I cannot live without you.

Juan Domingo Perón On October 14, in his prison on Martín García Island, he wrote a letter to Eva Duarte.

When the military power judged Perón's influence and his ambitions excessive,

, an imposition of General Eduardo Ávalos, head of the powerful Campo de Mayo garrison.

The next day, in a general rehearsal of what would happen a week later, Perón said goodbye to his followers in a ceremony in front of Trabajo y Previsión: it

, plotted in his apartment on Posadas Street, along with some union leaders Among them Luis Gay, who would later found the Labor Party, a political structure that supported Perón's candidacy in 1946.

What did Perón say in that act?

“

.

The opposition to Perón responded with a massive act in front of the Military Circle, in Plaza San Martín.

It was an opposition with a bad star: supported by the United States ambassador in Buenos Aires, Spruille Braden,

, who represented, knowingly or not, the other side of the perfect rift.

The one of October 12 was a chaotic act.

The crowd, who saw in that government the fascist outbreaks that had broken Europe, demanded in front of the Military Circle that the dictatorship hand over the government to the Court.

.

The next day, in the “Independencia” gunboat, the colonel was locked up on Martín García Island.

On October 14, in his island prison, Perón wrote two letters.

One to General Ávalos in which he demands to be tried or released.

The other letter is addressed to Eva Duarte:

(…) Today I wrote to Farrell asking him to speed up my retirement, as soon as I leave we get married and we will go anywhere to live in peace.

(…) From home they transferred me to Martín García and here I am, I don't know why and without being told anything.

What about Farrell and Ávalos?

Two scoundrels with the friend.

This is life.

(…) I order you to tell Mercante to talk to Farrell to see if they'll leave me alone and we'll both go to Chubut (…) "

On October 15, FOTIA (Tucumana Workers Federation of the Sugar Industry) declared a "revolutionary strike for an indefinite period in all the sugar mills."

In Berisso, the meat workers, mobilized by Cipriano Reyes, walk the streets shouting "

."

The newspaper "La Época" affirms that workers throughout the country are demanding Perón's freedom.

It is already underway on October 17.

.

The Socialist Party denounces that an attempt is being made to confuse the opinion of the workers and create “disturbance and anarchy”.

The CGT, on the other hand, in a document that does not mention Perón and “in defense of the social conquests obtained and those to be obtained, and considering that these are in danger from the seizure of power by the forces of capital and the oligarchy,

”.

The demonstration of October 17, 1945. A crowd gathered to demand the freedom of Juan Perón.Photos: AGN (General Archive of the Nation)

On the afternoon of October 15, the medical captain Miguel Ángel Mazza, who has been treating Perón for years and has visited him in Martín García, delivers a report to Farrell: it is essential, he says, to transfer the prisoner to a hospital to make him clinical examinations.

.

On the 16th, he sent his own doctors to the island, never before so visited by so many people in such a short time.

There, at night, there is thread, confusion, confusion, bewilderment.

Anyway, at six in the morning on October 17, Perón entered the Military Hospital with his impeccable nannies.

An hour later, in Brazil and Paseo Colón, the police dispersed one of the first workers' demonstrations that tried to reach the Plaza de Mayo.

An hour later, they dissolve another in Paseo Colón and Independencia.

At half past nine there are almost 10,000 people in front of the Prilidiano Pueyrredón drawbridge, the one on Vieytes Street, which has its two iron leaves raised by the Police: access to the Capital is cut off.

People cross the Riachuelo in boats, on rafts, some swimming

.

They come from everywhere, but especially from the south, from Avellaneda, from Lanús, from Quilmes, from Varela, lined up along Avenida Miter.

That is nothing with the other south, that of Berisso and Ensenada, which, at eight in the morning, turn entirely to the streets, advance towards La Plata, whistle and stone as they pass in front of the University, improvise an act in front of Government, until they leave, they too, to Plaza de Mayo.

There is fury there,

, they are led by Cipriano Reyes, who will end up defenestrated by Peronism.

The account of those hours, narrated with the expertise of a novelist and the fiber of a witness, was written, like much of the information in this note, in "El 45", which Felix Luna wrote as a treatise to understand those years, those days and that social and political phenomenon.

By midmorning there are already protesters in front of the Military Hospital.

They want to see Perón.

Consequence of October 17, images of the campaign that led Perón to the presidency.

Photos: AGN (General Archive of the Nation)

The Police decided not to dissolve more marches, not to build more bridges

.

In a world without cell phones, without Internet, without messaging, without satellites;

In a country of flintstones, the news, the links, the communication between the protesters

.

With the easy music of

.

At noon there are about ten thousand people in the Plaza de Mayo.

Some will then ease the fire of the walk with the most convenient and effective resource they can find: they

.

It is not true that that scene provoked the phrase that spoke of a "zoo flood", to insult the protesters.

The phrase did exist, it was said by the radical deputy Ernesto Sammartino but in August 1947 and to despise the brand new bloc of workers' deputies of the ruling party.

Sammartino was expelled from the Chamber and had to go into exile in Montevideo.

On October 17, 1945, the heat was oppressive, the walk, inadequate footwear and the heat caused their feet to swell, so when they reached the square they needed to refresh them.

The crowds of workers came to Plaza de Mayo from different parts of the city and the province of Buenos Aires, from popular neighborhoods such as La Boca, Barracas, Parque Patricios and industrial sectors such as Lomas de Zamora, Avellaneda, Lanús, Quilmes, Berisso. : AGN (General Archive of the Nation)

Although the Police raised the bridges of the Riachuelo to avoid the passage of the columns that came from the Province, many crossed it by swimming or by raft.

While

, a small delegation of railwaymen passes the fence of the Military Hospital to see Perón.

They see him.

While having lunch in the room they gave him, the chaplain's, he says, mischievous and cautious:

."

The Government, blind and deaf, misread the popular mobilization.

General Ávalos believes that once the people know that Colonel Perón is fine, they will return to their homes.

And business finished.

The city and Greater Buenos Aires are paralyzed, the factories are empty, the flow of people overflows the Plaza de Mayo;

The columns of Berisso and Ensenada arrive around five in the afternoon, it is a hot, heavy Wednesday, without wind;

a slight threat of rain unleashes a defiant song:

;

the new columns are received with other songs:

.

The Government House is a farce, a go tell him between La Rosada and the Military Hospital.

Until late at night, General Ávalos meets with Perón at the Military Hospital.

What was said is still a secret.

Ávalos returns to La Rosada and talks by phone with Campo de Mayo: he informs that Perón is going to speak that same night from the balconies of the Government House.

The role played by Eva Perón is also a mystery, or part of the legend of that day.

Hugo Gambini, author of a critical history of Peronism, places her in Junín,

.

In the 1990s, the mayor of Lanús, Manuel Quindimil, who had in his office a sanctuary dedicated to Eva Perón, told a journalist for this newspaper that Eva had passed through Lanús to encourage the workers to march towards the Capital.

Otelo Borroni and Roberto Vacca, authors in 1970 of a biography about Eva Perón that he only knew about a first volume, locate her on the night of 16-17, along with her brother Juan Duarte and in the car of the lawyer Román Subiza parked on the sidewalk odd numbers on Avenida Luis María Campos, waiting for Perón's arrival at the Military Hospital.

Eva Duarte had indeed agitated a sector of the unionism to demand the immediate freedom of Perón.

Borroni and Vacca also revealed half a century ago that, when leaving the Military Hospital towards the Government House, and from the story, the colonel hesitated, or hesitated, or decided to wait while he nervously paced the room in pajamas.

Eva then, out of her mind, yelled at him:

.

Driven by his wife's outburst,

, on October 22, in Junín.

Either prompted by a phone call from Farrell, or perhaps convinced that his time had come, Perón arrived at the Government House around 9:30 at night.

Fifteen minutes later he was meeting with the President.

What follows was dictated by Perón in 1971 and in Madrid.

The general's memory was generous and tended towards recreation, but it is the memory that survived that encounter.

Perón said that Farrell asked him what the government should do.

And Perón told him that they should call elections, Farrell accepted immediately and promised them in three months.

They told him something about setting up the registers and, Perón said, Farrell declared: "Well, in six months."

They sealed the agreement of honor with a handshake and Perón, with doubtful naivety, said: “Well, general, I'm going.

See you tomorrow".

And Farrell: “No, no!

Wait!

Go out and talk to those people, they are going to burn down the Government House! ”.

The last comedy step of that government took place on the balcony of the Rosada.

Farrell and Perón left together and had to embrace the shout of the crowd: “

”.

Colonel Mercante also had to greet

" and even the circumspect Hortensio Quijano, who in 1946 would be Perón's vice president, took a bath of popularity: "

" .

Finally, at ten past eleven at night, Perón decided to speak.

In 1971 he admitted that he did not know very well what to say to that human tide that lived him, who then asked them to sing the National Anthem to buy time and organize their ideas a bit.

Afterward, he stood in front of the microphone, took a deep breath, and launched his: "Workers!"