Wife's arrest a sign Perón legacy under fire

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The arrest of former Argentine President Isabel Perón in Spain on Friday signaled an expansion of human-rights cases here beyond the former military junta to the epoch of ex-strongman Juan Domingo Perón, father of Argentina's current ruling party.

The former president, 75, whose full name is Maria Estela Martinez de Perón, was arrested at her home near Madrid after a federal judge in Argentina issued a warrant for her detention. A Spanish tribunal later ordered her conditional release pending an extradition request from Argentina.

She is wanted for questioning in connection with the disappearance of a student activist in February 1976, during the final weeks of her mandate.

Isabel Perón is the widow and successor in office of her famous husband, three times elected president and still an iconic and controversial figure in his homeland. As the sitting vice president, the ex-dancer assumed the presidency when Juan Perón died in July 1974.

Argentina's only female president never enjoyed the popular acclaim of Peron's previous wife, the charismatic Eva "Evita" Perón, who is still idolized here more than half a century after her death. Economic and political turmoil marked the disastrous reign of Isabel Perón, who was toppled in a military coup in March 1976.

The strongman's many admirers largely have ignored his dark side, such as his regime's welcoming of Nazi war criminals after World War II and the right-wing death squads that sprang up during his final term. Critics call him a demagogue who stifled freedoms and crushed dissent while admiring European fascists such as Benito Mussolini of Italy.

The current Peronist administration aggressively has targeted hundreds of abusers from the junta that succeeded the presidencies of Perón and his wife. The former military leaders are despised here, and Argentines generally have applauded their prosecutions.

But Juan Perón, with his exaltation of the working classes and strong ties to labor unions, remains a beloved figure for many. His singular political movement, which embraced elements of the left and right, continues to dominate Argentine politics. Tens of thousands of devotees showed up last year when his remains, defiled long ago by grave robbers who cut off his hands, were moved to a lavish new mausoleum.

Investigators now are zeroing in on government-linked death squads that, human-rights groups say, operated with impunity during the tumultuous 1970s rule of Perón and his widow. The sanctioned killers, human-rights activists say, set the stage for the subsequent "dirty war" under military rule that cost the lives of as many as 30,000 people during a dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983.

Isabel Perón is being sought in connection with decrees she approved that called on security forces to "annihilate ... subversive elements throughout the country." By then, the governing Peronists had turned violently against their former left-wing allies and forced them underground.