Chilean History: The Dictatorship of Juan Domingo - Essay Example

Respond to Question Considering all the histories of the self-serving dictators that bend the spirit of nationalism of LatinAmerica to their own wills, the dictatorship of Juan Domingo can be considered the most dramatic. Arguably, his first error was a watershed for the modern Argentina and his impacts stretch to the modern day Argentina. Perhaps his success can partly be attributed to the cult of personality around him and partly because of his wife. His wife Eva Duarte rose from being a singer into becoming Peron’s mistress while serving as a military officer. Peron married her before rising to presidency. Not to get out of the topic, Peron’s main policies in this period were based on his being a close observer of the axis power’s fascist leaders, and this might have been the reason he acquired the Napoleonic view of being a man of destiny. When it occurred to him that the axis powers were defeated, to him this revealed the foolishness of the foreign policy of the Argentine and this established in him a conviction that he had a chance of avoiding the clear mistakes of Franco, Mussolini and Hitler in order to dive argentine to a great height. As often known, any dictator needs a bodyguard, and for this case when eyeing the office of the president, he assembled a band of followers from the row deist urban poor of the Argentina. In order to keep models of the Brown and black shirts, he went ahead labeling his followers No shirts with a reason that they lacked the white gentleman’s shirt. This clearly indicated that he was getting a way to middle ground between the communist and the fascist. Certainly, Peron was an ultra-nationalist who did not fear playing upon the class s rivalry. He took advantage of the powers he possessed while a vice-president to attach himself to the working class. In the event, some military officers sensed that Peron was up to something and went ahead arresting him. In response to this, Peron raised worker’s wages and gave them a paid holiday. Certainly, it was a shrewd investment because it is a chance that her mistress used her beauty in rallying his supporters with giant mobs gathering chanting the slogan of releasing him. This was an advantage for him since though this, he was released, as well as elected president in 1946 elections forming the peronista party. The steps he took after assuming power is what has made him be remembered for transforming the leadership of Argentina. He first went ahead marrying his mistress Eva Peron with opposition being silenced by the bands of No shirts. He along with his team set up and established a full-fledged welfare state alongside granting women voting rights using Eva as the face of the crusades. Noting that the economic policies of the new regime were as bizarre as the Cultural Revolution of Mao, he went to introduce various changes that cut across social, economic, and political. The prominent economic changes entailed freeing Argentina from the foreign dominance through investing heavily in industrialization. This he did by funding the first ever-scientific analysis of Argentina’s Andes Mountains in which he discovered coal and precious metals. With a view to fund the exploration and the social program, he centralized control of imports and exports. In a period of ten years, the true rich Argentina’s resources brought about a stunning social economic growth that actually defied the attempts of experts to attempt explaining it under Juan Peron’s erratic policies. On a social ground, the legacy of Nepoleon left a great impression in Peron, in which case the two leaders viewed their people as those who cared little about their liberty, but about the government goal to provide equality. He was called El Leader following his character that established him as being a good fascist and as a good socialist he provided higher wages, unionization, shorter working hours, paid vocations, free medical care, accident, old age, illness insurance, alongside improved housing to everyone. As a capitalist, he left the rich in their place so long as they complied with him. Peron, as well legalized prostitution and divorce at a point when he was under a threat of eviction from power by the Catholic Church. Part of the distractions came in following the idea of lack of liberty, which was introduced by Eva Peron. Common Argentina people were socially transformed to start living vicariously through the influence of Eva Peron following her extravagant mode of dressing. She is said to have adopted a lifestyle dominated by fine jewelry and fine clothes. For the period of six years, she spoke to all groups in the society stretching from the classrooms filled with awed commoners to labor unions. She came up with foundation using the power of intimidation ‘No Shirts’ to exact a pay for the day from the working class, but did account for it since she started. She is reported her funds to the point of throwing coins to the crowd that converged to hear her orations. Most notable is the fact that she cultivated her celebrity through personal extravagance, encouraging her group of No shirts to chant her name in every mass gathering, with campaign posters that bore her striking features. The final stretch of Peron entail his threat to seize the Falkland Island from Britain a move which was meant to show belligerent nationalism. Through this, he cultivated ties with the axis powers with the war criminals and refugees fleeing to Buenos Aires. He went ahead threatening Uruguay and Paraguay while manipulating the U.S. When he lounged an attack on Roman Catholic Church, it was his final act of aggrandizing abuse of power since the Church responded by stating its opposition to his act of beatification of his wife. With his popularity declining the church took advantage and set in the popular uprising and along with his own military coup Peron was forced into exile in 1960. Beside his downfall, he remains to be remembered as a man who introduced social economical and political changes in Argentina who demonstrated nationalism. His introduction of higher wages, unionization, shorter working hours, paid vocations, free medical care, accident, old age, illness insurance, alongside improved housing to everyone are being felt in the modern Argentina. Work Cited HIS330. Politics and Political Change in Latin America. 2012. < http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3his330/HIS330-02_schedule.html > Jorge Luis Borges. The Film The Garden of Forking Gardens. 2010. Web < filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/.../garden-of-forking-paths > Skidmore and Smith, Why Latin America?2012. web < http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3his330/HIS330-02_schedule.html > Read More