The book that also explains and models the tumultuous present of Peronism

It is not him “Fight and Come Back” the only evocation of the 70s. It was perhaps the most grotesque indication that the present seems to be repeating itself in Argentina as a tragedy or a farce (your choice). But this is not the exclusive nor the most obvious. The book “Meeting Perón” by Juan Manuel Abal Medina, seems to explain and, at one point, model the tumultuous present of Peronism, subject to stressful discussion for leadership and candidacies. For and against President Alberto Fernández.

With the same slogan that called on militancy to mobilize for the return of Juan Perón after 17 years of exile, the various Christian organizations last week called on their supporters to demonstrate to convince Cristina Fernandez Kirchner that she is running for president again, despite the prison sentence and life ban that a trial court imposed on her for corruption in public works in Santa Cruz. A pronouncement to break what they call “proscription”.

“Meeting Perón” -written with the liveliness and passion of someone who witnessed, did and, at one point, “victim” of a violent time- not only describes the events before and after the return of General , but also reviews the crucial moments .and events that have a certain familiarity with the present, which passes through a fragmented Peronism and with immanent presences: that of personbefore, and now that of CFK.

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It is interesting to see how passages from this book – especially their names and facts – tend to appear in journalistic statements made by Peronists of all kinds: Cristinists, Camporists, Albertists, and also anti-Kirchnerists.

In a radio interview, Andrés “El Cuervo” Larroque – who usually faithfully translates Cristina’s strategy – talked about the original “Fight and Come Back”, the decision in 1972 that Héctor J. Cámpora be the candidate and not Perón, and the need to recreate something similar to “La Hora de los Pueblos”, the multiparty campaign that forced the dictatorial regime of Lanusse to reverse the ban on Peronism. “We need a Balbín now,” said Larroque this Sunday. So many issues stemming from the Peronist legacy but which have resurfaced with notable relevance due to the editorial success of Planeta.

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But this influence and impact does not stop with Peronism. Beyond the fact that this is not a direct answer, the presentation of a documentary that the UCR will present tomorrow in Congress coincides in subject and time with the writing of Abal Medina, the last general secretary of the Peronist National Movement.

According to the organizers of the screening in the Members’ Auditorium, “The Best Youth” is “a documentary about the radical women and men who pushed the last great epic: creating democracy in a society crushed by political violence and subjected to state terrorism and the revolutionary myth”.

With the direction, the original project and the direction of Sabrina Ajmechet and Luis Quevedo, “it is a claim of a generation that made politics outside the state and against the violent culture of the time, which believed that the gun and terrorism were the way out. They said: free elections without prohibitions or conditions”.

“Radical youth in the late 60s were an ultra-minority and in the spring of 1983 they numbered in the millions,” Quevedo explained to GlobeLiveMedia. “The Best Youth” -which contrasts with the “wonderful youth” of the Peronist armed groups- is a choral tale of twenty radical leaders, including Jesús Rodríguez, Enrique Nosiglia, Luis Cáceres, Lilia Puig and Cristina Guevara.

Abal Medina’s book goes behind the scenes of the differences between the dialogued, dogmatic and rebellious sectors, the orthodox and the heterodox that ended up clashing without Perón himself being able to avoid an outcome of blood and gunpowder . The book does a fundamental service by exposing, by contrast, how in the past political disputes were settled by shootings and deaths in the streets.

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The 40 years of democracy that will be celebrated on December 10 have served to strengthen the institutions to the point that a former Peronist president and at the same time serving vice-president is sentenced to prison and life imprisonment by judges inferior and the reaction is protests, criticisms, but within the margins of the Constitution and the laws.

Another situation the book reflects is a subject that has not been widely reported and has an undeniable relationship to the present. The former secretary general of the Peronist National Movement revealed that Cámpora was reluctant to resign so that, finally, Perón assumes the presidency of the Nation. In fact, he says he ended up being forced to resign and his place was not taken by the vice president, but by another unknown figure.

‘El Cuervo’, who confirmed he was no longer La Cámpora’s general secretary, insisted on demanding that Alberto Fernández abandon his re-election bid and suggested that the ‘proscription’ hanging over Cristina falls from one way or another. Although he avoided saying if the vice president will actually run again, he praised all the work he is doing Sergio Massa at the Ministry of Economy.

“As in the times of Perón”, Larroque predicted that they planned to lift the ban: “With popular mobilization, organization and awareness, so that power understands and perceives that it cannot not dictate who can and who cannot be our candidate.”

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