The Blue Line by Ingrid Betancourt Page B

Peronist far right and had become close to El Conductor. *
    Father Mugica explained that if Perón was elected, the government would have to make some painful choices. Peronism could unite the far right and the far left for as long as it was a case of confronting the dictatorship, but once they were in power, the internal divisions would become unmanageable.
    Theo insisted, as if trying to convince himself, that if Perón had to make a choice, he would come out in favor of the Montoneros. “Perón knows he owes us everything. He said so publicly when he was in exile. It was the Montoneros who destabilized the dictatorship. Perón even praised the ‘wonderful youth’ after the execution of General Aramburu!”
    â€œYes, but that same ‘wonderful youth’ is now ‘beardless.’ Make no mistake, Theo, the general has already made his choice,” shot back Augusto, one of Gabriel’s friends.
    Julia had been listening attentively to the discussion from the start. She hesitated for a moment, then ventured: “Maybe Perón has changed since he remarried. If Evita were still alive . . .”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” Theo interrupted, annoyed at being contradicted twice.
    His reaction threw Julia, who fell silent like a scolded child. Father Mugica intervened to encourage Julia and calm things down. It was true, he said, that Evita’s absence was a factor that had to be taken into account. Even though she had been dead for twenty years, her name continued to have genuine political significance.
    â€œPerón’s marriage to Isabel hasn’t simplified matters,”Augusto added. “You can’t really say he made a good choice! She can try all she likes to look like her and copy her hairstyle; she’s not fooling anyone. Evita was the idol of the
descamisados
, but Isabel’s sympathies lie with the right.”
    â€œFunny, I get the impression that in Argentina we talk more about the wives than the presidents themselves!” came a voice from the back of the room. Everyone laughed.
    â€œMaybe so, but it’s strange, to say the least, that Perón didn’t make any attempt to have Evita’s body brought home. . . .” Augusto continued.
    Theo returned to the fray. Given that Aramburu’s body had been found before the junta returned Evita’s remains, Perón could surely not be held accountable in this respect, he argued.
    Rosa, who was also at the meeting, asked to speak, cleared her throat, and said, “Didn’t General Lanusse return Evita’s body to Perón and Isabel two years ago, when they were in Madrid? Or if not, he at least told them how to get it back. I’ve heard the Vatican secretly helped bury her somewhere in Italy. . . .”
    Everyone turned to Mugica.
    â€œI don’t know, to be honest,” he said. “But it’s highly likely that was the case, or at any rate that the Vatican made sure Evita had a Christian burial.” Choosing his words carefully, he went on: “I too have wondered whether the general’s obvious shift to the right would have been possible if Evita were still alive. But, general speculation aside, it’s clear that the successof the Montoneros and the demonstrations of power by the youth since the Cordobazo * have unsettled Perón. . . .”
    He scratched his head, preoccupied. “Obviously, while Perón was in exile it was easy for him to encourage unrest. He knew it would weaken the putschists. But now that he’s back as head of state, it’s more alarming than anything else. Now, none of us knows who is really influencing the general. Has he made secret deals—with the USA, for example?”
    Gabriel interrupted him. “If, as you say, Perón’s government has shifted to the right, it’s possible that what we’re witnessing is the start of a civil war.”
    Everyone