Men Against Per

Handsome, fire-eating Ernesto Enrique Sammartino, 46, was a charter member of the anti-Peron club. In 1940, the Colonels' Clique tossed him into jail for his outspoken opposition. Last year, back in Congress, he called for a non-violent "civil insurrection." The President paid little attention, but dapper Ernesto included Eva Duarte de Peron in his attacks, and she does not take such things lightly.

When Sammartino rose in the Chamber last June to denounce the President for a series of articles he had written for the U.S. press (TIME, July 12), he was asking for real trouble. Under Argentina's battered constitution, members of Congress may be expelled by a two-thirds vote for "gross misconduct." Sammartino's Peronista enemies decided that "gross misconduct" included offenses against presidential dignity.

Peronista Deputy Jose Conte Grand put the expulsion motion before the house. In support of the motion he quoted one of Sammartino's remarks: "A President who believes that the nation's history begins and ends with him shows at least a lack of mental and moral equilibrium."

"And well spoken, too!" shouted a Radical deputy.

Dance Time. When it came time for bristling, mustachioed Sammartino to defend himself, he spoke with measured insolence. "We have not come here to do obeisance to the lash nor to dance to Madame Pompadour's tune," said he. "This is not a fashionable nightclub or the anteroom of a palace. It is the parliament of a free people, and it should be made plain to the people here & now that this Chamber will not obey the commands of meddling old colonels, nor heed orders given in perfumed letters from the boudoir of any ruler."

Debate was cut short as a prominent Peronista hurried to a cloakroom telephone, returned to whisper in the presiding officer's ear. The roll call began, and the deputies voted--by turning the electrical indicators on their desks to "Aye" or "No." The lights on the board above the dais flashed the result: 104 to 42 in favor of expulsion. "Let's see who runs to telephone la Senora!" hooted Radical Deputy Emir Mercader.

Grave Decision. Sammartino and his supporters then marched off to Radical Party headquarters in the Calle Tucuman. There all 42 Radical deputies handed in their resignations from Congress. This week a party convention will act on them. The party's decision will be a grave one. The Senate is already 100% Peronista. Should the party reject the resignations, thus keep alive political opposition in the Peron-dominated Chamber? Or should it accept, hoping somehow to force a crisis that would embarrass Peron?

Meanwhile, Sammartino, his congressional immunity lost, has gone underground. Peron's federal police have raided his home, and spread a net for him the length of Argentina.

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