Wobbly Leader

Deep in trouble, Juan Peron fenced nervously last week with his own army and his own labor movement--and nothing less than his political survival appeared to be at stake.

At root, Peron's plight was of his own making. Argentina is feverish with economic ills: black markets, meatless days, a steaming inflation, unemployment. All these troubles are at least partly the effects of Peron's mismanaged scheme to industrialize the country at the expense of its grain farms and cattle ranches.

Along with economic crisis, government corruption has spread. A fortnight ago, while lecturing army brass on the "meat problem," Peron got a frank assessment of how his prestige has slipped. Looking El Lider square in the eye, one of the assembled colonels made a mordant pun: "The problem, my general, is not only of the flesh but also of the spirit."

Harsh Charge. The colonel's remark was a startling hint that the army, a major support of the regime, was grumbling. Peron's next shock came a day later when Defense Minister Jose Humberto Sosa Molina entered a cabinet meeting arm in arm with Eduardo Vuletich, boss of Argentine labor. By this gesture, labor, the other support of Peronismo, served notice that it shared the army's discontent. Taking the floor, Vuletich attacked allegedly corrupt officials, notably the President's private secretary, Juan Duarte, brother of the late Eva Peron. When a Peron sycophant tried to change the subject, General Sosa Molina glared at him and barked, "Shut up!"

Faced with an unprecedented hookup of the army and labor, Peron let Duarte, his own brother-in-law, "resign" without so much as a letter of thanks for his services. Defensively, he then took to the radio with a rambling, emotional speech. Talking about inflation, Peron shrilly told the Argentines they were "18 million dunces" for "permitting themselves to be robbed" by black-marketeers. As for corruption: "It is usual for people to judge all public officials as thieves. But you can't call a man a thief unless you can prove it, and I'm forced to believe all men honest until I can prove the contrary. But I assure you that once I prove it, that man shall go to jail, even if he were my own father." Some sensational circumstantial evidence of corruption came the day after Peron spoke: Juan Duarte killed himself (see below).

One More Chance. Next afternoon the cabinet met again in emergency session. After an hour, it was joined by Supreme Court justices, and a rumor flashed around Buenos Aires that the judges had been called in to discuss legal problems of succession if the President should resign. Another report had the army demanding that the whole cabinet quit. In the end, the cabinet decided only to postpone action until Peron could appeal to the people once more. He was to get a chance this week; Vuletich ordered a four-hour token general strike during which labor was to hold a mass meeting in front of the Casa Rosada (Argentina's White House). Peron and everyone else knew that the workers would be thinking, "This had better be good." Whether he could still work his oldtime magic over the capital crowds remained to be seen; he had never needed it more.

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