maverick
Banned
Sean Eternos los Laureles
(working title)
For the ones tired of WWII, Baseball, US and british politics...
Prologue
Argentina in 1945
The nation once known as the Barn of the World was a sleeping nation in 1945; and while the world was divided and fighting in a war of epic proportions, at the Deep South of the world different forces were fighting a war of their own.
The infamous decade of 1930 had been replaced by an even more authoritarian period of military rule under the officers of the 1943 military revolution, who had continued the economic and social policies of the previous governments, ignoring the civil rights of the workers and the farmers, who by October of 1945 had found a strong leading figure in the man known as Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, at the time both Vice President, Minister of War and head of the Department of Labor. From his position of power the young officer had been able to rally considerable support behind him, defending the rights of the common man instead of those of the industrialists, the businessmen and the oligarchs that controlled the political machines of the time.
To understand what is happening to Argentina and South America now it is important to know that much of the current situation is a direct result of the acts of men and institutions years and decades ago, as everything that a man does has consequences and has have consequences in the history of mankind, whether one writes a book that challenges the established ideologies, whether one kills a king or whether one orders a rising political figure arrested and exiled in a little prison island…
Buenos Aires, Argentina
October 17th of 1945
It was a warm day of the spring of 1945 and the crowd gathered at the Plaza de Mayo was getting hot-heated and tired. Ever since the arrest of General Peron on October 12th, and while the middle and high classes cheered President Farrell’s decision to have the popular leader incarcerated, the reaction from the working classes has been a tad different. General strikes in several provinces and massive gatherings like the one at Plaza de Mayo began to turn into nearly hourly occurrences since the arrest of the man.
What was worse for the government of General Farrell, several unions and worker’s associations declared their intention to go on a general strike on October 18th
The already dire situation of the Military government was turning even bleaker as the hours passed and the people continued to gather at the Plaza de Mayo. Thousands of workers, men and women, invaded the national capital demanding the liberation of General Peron, marching from the neighborhoods of Avellaneda, Lanús and Berriso towards the square. Even the government’s attempt to close the bridges had not stopped the mobilization of the people, some of which even swam through the Riachuelo to get to Plaza de Mayo.
The tensions could be felt in the air, as could be the heat. Even at a city like Buenos Aires, the Spring and Summer could be terrible for one, and many people went as far as to take of their shoes and deep their feet at the Plaza’s fountains.
There had been rumors that Peron’s health had forced the military government to move him from his exile at the island of Martin Garcia, between Argentina and Uruguay, to a Military hospital in the neighborhood of Belgrano in the city of Buenos Aires, which was true, but only rumors until then.
People were screaming, people were shouting, people were signing and demanding. There was probably thousands and tens of thousands of people, although nobody even knew for sure exactly how many people were there.
It was certainly a night that would change the history of the country forever, although nobody would ever know if things could have done differently that they had had things taken a different course.
It was at 9.00 pm of that night of 1945 that the history of the country changed, in front of the Presidential Palace, known as the Casa Rosada. The announcement was short and Dramatic “El General Peron esta Muerto, Abatido por la enfermedad” (General Peron is dead, stroke by Illness). The dramatic effect of those words would forever resonate in the ears of those present and in the history books written by the generations that were and the generations that came afterwards.
While some began to cry and shout, others let their feelings out in a more violent way, attacking the police controls around the crowd and some even trying to storm the Presidential palace before being stopped by the soldiers stationed around it. Nevertheless, the violence would not be stopped there.
Encyclopedia of Argentinean History 1930-1956
“The Plaza de Mayo Riots”
“Following the news of General Peron’s death that night, the angry crowds of workers gathered almost immediately began to wreck havoc in response to what they perceived as the assassination of their beloved leader at the hands of a military-industrial conspiracy
The truth of course is that the real nature of Juan Domingo Peron’s death have never and probably will never be revealed, the body of the general long-lost in the annals of History, in those chaotic and senseless days of 1945.
But for the moment the angry and heartbroken workers, finding themselves without a unified leadership, attacked several police and military personal and offices through Buenos Aires, even attempting to storm the Casa Rosada that night of October 17th, although being stopped by the machine gun fire of the soldiers defending the presidential palace.
The violence would nevertheless last for three days before the direct military response on October 21st, when men scratched from several infantry battalions were gathered to end the riots, which by then had cost the life of 135 people and thousands and even millions of pesos in damage to personal and public property…”
US Embassy at Buenos Aires, October 18th of 1945
‘Mr. Braden, It is safer if you stay away from the windows’
The US Ambassador to Argentina hardly listened to what his secretary told him. He was blankly staring at the window from his office, terrified and shocked at the violence that took place right in front of his eyes. The soldiers at the gates could only do so much, but nothing to calm the nerves of the Ambassador.
Spruille Braden knew that the people below him wanted him death. To them he was part of the conspiracy that had put their hero in the exile that killed him. Both Braden, the oligarchs, the military and the conservatives were part of the conspiracy, but whether said machinations had resulted in the death of Peron was unknown to Braden. He had hoped so at the beginning, since taking Peron out of the way had been Braden’ s say of adverting the rise of “the Hitler of Tomorrow”, or at least so did he think when he started his work against the man. Braden had gone as far as advocating for a pre-emptive military invasion of Argentina upon accusing several members of the Argentine government of conspiring with the Axis powers during the war.
With a glass of scotch in his left hand and a tissue in his right one, the Ambassador was waiting for the worse, and at every minute he expected the angry mobs to break through the gates to take over the embassy, torch it and lynch him. So far the mobs had limited themselves to thrown rocks and bottles to the building, while insulting and cursing at the people inside.
On the bottom drawer of his desk there was a gun which he hadn’t used in years and that he had little idea of how to use know, but that made Braden feel much better that the men holding their carabines outside his office door.
‘We’ve heard that the army is preparing a response, Mr. Braden’ commented his secretary once more, although Braden could do little more than to grin unconvincingly and wait for the worse to come.
‘Any news from Washington?’ inquired Braden now, as he filled his glass once more.
The crowds around the embassy were now bigger and louder, and the rocks hitting the building’s walls and windows were now more accurate and destructive.
‘Maybe we should go to the basement’ suggested Braden’s assistant, as the Ambassador came out from under his desk.
‘Maybe we should, maybe we should’
From The Country that was Argentina, by Felix Luna
“Following the mysterious death of General Juan Domingo Peron, the extremely violent Plaza de Mayo Riots and the bloody military response of the night of the 21st, the military government could barely stand, and the weakest of winds could force the house of cards down, crumbling and collapsing over its inhabitants.
Said wind came in the form of an assassination attempt on President Farrell by an angry member of the CGT, one of the most powerful Labor unions of the country. The assassination attempt, although far from injuring the president, gave the General a new perspective, letting him knows exactly how much he was hated…”
“On October 30th, the military government announced that a new government would be formed and that elections were to be held on February 20th of the following year…”
“Of course, many had suspected that the fraudulent system of the decade of the 1930s would be revived the keep the old political machines in power, and thus some protests and strikes continued even after December of 1945, when military force was used one last time to bring some stability to the country…”
Encyclopedia of Argentinean History 1930-1956
Presidential Election of 1946
The terrible economic and social crisis originated by the death of Peron, although with roots as deep and old as the origins of the labor movement in Argentina decades ago, were hardly a good atmosphere for a return to Democracy after a three year military dictatorship and a thirteen year fraudulent semi-democracy.
The divisions between the various social and political sectors were of great influence in the consolidation of the political powers that contested the election, including most notably the Union Civica Radical, the Catholic Church, the Military, the Agricultural-Financial oligarchy, the industrialists and of course, the Labor movement.
By far, many had anticipated what was to come, the formation of a coalition of the moderate elements of the Union Civica Radical (UCR) and the conservative factions of Argentine society and politics, as the one formed in the aftermath of the overthrowing of the left wing radical President in 1930, Hipolito Yrigoyen. The Concordancia, as the alliance of anti-Yrigoyenist radicals, conservatives and nationalists was known, had ruled the country for 13 years through a series of corrupt practices and electoral fraud in the form of rigged elections in which the Yrigoyenists were not allowed to participate.
The new Concordancia, this time known as the Partido Social Democratico Radical (Social-Democratic Radical Party) presented the Radical leader, Jose P. Tamborini as their candidate, with a fellow radical as his running mate, Enrique Mosca.
The socialists, on the other hand nominated Nicolas Repeto as their candidate, while the Conservative Partido Democrata Nacional (National-Democratic Party) limited itself to support the Tamborini-Mosca ticket, being unable to find a candidate without falling to inner fighting. Finally, a rump PDN of conservative officers and former supporters of General Peron nominated Admiral Alberto Tessaire, who would eventually play an important role in future political event, as history would show.
Most important was the labor nominations, as without Peron, the labor movement had lost the one unifying figure they had. The CGT (Confederación General de Trabajo-General Labor Confederation) and other prominent unions formed the Partido Laborista (Labor Party) and the “Partido de los trabajadores” (Worker’s party), the first nominating their leader, Alcides Montiel, and the second one nominating prominent Union leader Luis Gay.
The elections were hold on February 20th of 1946, giving a not surprising victory to Jose Tamborini of the UCR, with a 45% of the votes and over 200 electoral votes (1), while the others including Montiel (13% of the votes), Gay (11%) and Repeto (6%) would not come close enough to compete with the coalition behind Tamborini.
Weeks after the elections…”
From the cover of La Nacion, February of 1946
TAMBORINI DEFEATS MONTIEL AND TESSAIRE
CGT THREATENS WITH FURTHER STRIKES
TENSIONS BETWEEN THE SOVIET UNION AND THE UNITED STATES RISING AT BERLIN
From…A History of the UCR 1890-1950 by Felix Luna
The Times of Jose Tamborini
“The presidency of Jose Tamborini has always been considered as one of the most controversial of our history. Tamborini was a man in a very complicated position, representing the conservative wing of his party, often agreeing more with the conservatives outside the UCR than with the main party line, something that lead to several conflicts with the party leadership and the Senate throughout his presidency.
It’s of course interesting that even his vice-president represented completely different political views, being from the social-progressive wing of the party. But the divisions between the President, the vice President and the Party were not the only problems Tamborini would have to face during his government. The unions were growing in power and action, the economy that had grown immensely from the war neutrality was now stagnating due to the CGT strikes, while on the international stage Argentina was being pressured into taking anti-communist lines along the main party line of the United States, something that both nationalists and socialists did not like…
…most importantly was also the problem with the military sphere, which did not completely trust Tamborini, despite having proven himself a conservative…through his entire government the president would find himself under the pressure of the Unions, his own party, his own army, the senate and several other sectors wanting to further their own goals within the country…”
To be continued...
Notes:
1.Argentina was under an Electoral College system until the constitutional reform of 1956. (OTL, until 1949)
2. The title comes from the National anthem...
3. No, that was not a joke, there was actually a politician called Luis Gay...
(working title)
For the ones tired of WWII, Baseball, US and british politics...
Prologue
Argentina in 1945
The nation once known as the Barn of the World was a sleeping nation in 1945; and while the world was divided and fighting in a war of epic proportions, at the Deep South of the world different forces were fighting a war of their own.
The infamous decade of 1930 had been replaced by an even more authoritarian period of military rule under the officers of the 1943 military revolution, who had continued the economic and social policies of the previous governments, ignoring the civil rights of the workers and the farmers, who by October of 1945 had found a strong leading figure in the man known as Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, at the time both Vice President, Minister of War and head of the Department of Labor. From his position of power the young officer had been able to rally considerable support behind him, defending the rights of the common man instead of those of the industrialists, the businessmen and the oligarchs that controlled the political machines of the time.
To understand what is happening to Argentina and South America now it is important to know that much of the current situation is a direct result of the acts of men and institutions years and decades ago, as everything that a man does has consequences and has have consequences in the history of mankind, whether one writes a book that challenges the established ideologies, whether one kills a king or whether one orders a rising political figure arrested and exiled in a little prison island…
Buenos Aires, Argentina
October 17th of 1945
It was a warm day of the spring of 1945 and the crowd gathered at the Plaza de Mayo was getting hot-heated and tired. Ever since the arrest of General Peron on October 12th, and while the middle and high classes cheered President Farrell’s decision to have the popular leader incarcerated, the reaction from the working classes has been a tad different. General strikes in several provinces and massive gatherings like the one at Plaza de Mayo began to turn into nearly hourly occurrences since the arrest of the man.
What was worse for the government of General Farrell, several unions and worker’s associations declared their intention to go on a general strike on October 18th
The already dire situation of the Military government was turning even bleaker as the hours passed and the people continued to gather at the Plaza de Mayo. Thousands of workers, men and women, invaded the national capital demanding the liberation of General Peron, marching from the neighborhoods of Avellaneda, Lanús and Berriso towards the square. Even the government’s attempt to close the bridges had not stopped the mobilization of the people, some of which even swam through the Riachuelo to get to Plaza de Mayo.
The tensions could be felt in the air, as could be the heat. Even at a city like Buenos Aires, the Spring and Summer could be terrible for one, and many people went as far as to take of their shoes and deep their feet at the Plaza’s fountains.
There had been rumors that Peron’s health had forced the military government to move him from his exile at the island of Martin Garcia, between Argentina and Uruguay, to a Military hospital in the neighborhood of Belgrano in the city of Buenos Aires, which was true, but only rumors until then.
People were screaming, people were shouting, people were signing and demanding. There was probably thousands and tens of thousands of people, although nobody even knew for sure exactly how many people were there.
It was certainly a night that would change the history of the country forever, although nobody would ever know if things could have done differently that they had had things taken a different course.
It was at 9.00 pm of that night of 1945 that the history of the country changed, in front of the Presidential Palace, known as the Casa Rosada. The announcement was short and Dramatic “El General Peron esta Muerto, Abatido por la enfermedad” (General Peron is dead, stroke by Illness). The dramatic effect of those words would forever resonate in the ears of those present and in the history books written by the generations that were and the generations that came afterwards.
While some began to cry and shout, others let their feelings out in a more violent way, attacking the police controls around the crowd and some even trying to storm the Presidential palace before being stopped by the soldiers stationed around it. Nevertheless, the violence would not be stopped there.
Encyclopedia of Argentinean History 1930-1956
“The Plaza de Mayo Riots”
“Following the news of General Peron’s death that night, the angry crowds of workers gathered almost immediately began to wreck havoc in response to what they perceived as the assassination of their beloved leader at the hands of a military-industrial conspiracy
The truth of course is that the real nature of Juan Domingo Peron’s death have never and probably will never be revealed, the body of the general long-lost in the annals of History, in those chaotic and senseless days of 1945.
But for the moment the angry and heartbroken workers, finding themselves without a unified leadership, attacked several police and military personal and offices through Buenos Aires, even attempting to storm the Casa Rosada that night of October 17th, although being stopped by the machine gun fire of the soldiers defending the presidential palace.
The violence would nevertheless last for three days before the direct military response on October 21st, when men scratched from several infantry battalions were gathered to end the riots, which by then had cost the life of 135 people and thousands and even millions of pesos in damage to personal and public property…”
US Embassy at Buenos Aires, October 18th of 1945
‘Mr. Braden, It is safer if you stay away from the windows’
The US Ambassador to Argentina hardly listened to what his secretary told him. He was blankly staring at the window from his office, terrified and shocked at the violence that took place right in front of his eyes. The soldiers at the gates could only do so much, but nothing to calm the nerves of the Ambassador.
Spruille Braden knew that the people below him wanted him death. To them he was part of the conspiracy that had put their hero in the exile that killed him. Both Braden, the oligarchs, the military and the conservatives were part of the conspiracy, but whether said machinations had resulted in the death of Peron was unknown to Braden. He had hoped so at the beginning, since taking Peron out of the way had been Braden’ s say of adverting the rise of “the Hitler of Tomorrow”, or at least so did he think when he started his work against the man. Braden had gone as far as advocating for a pre-emptive military invasion of Argentina upon accusing several members of the Argentine government of conspiring with the Axis powers during the war.
With a glass of scotch in his left hand and a tissue in his right one, the Ambassador was waiting for the worse, and at every minute he expected the angry mobs to break through the gates to take over the embassy, torch it and lynch him. So far the mobs had limited themselves to thrown rocks and bottles to the building, while insulting and cursing at the people inside.
On the bottom drawer of his desk there was a gun which he hadn’t used in years and that he had little idea of how to use know, but that made Braden feel much better that the men holding their carabines outside his office door.
‘We’ve heard that the army is preparing a response, Mr. Braden’ commented his secretary once more, although Braden could do little more than to grin unconvincingly and wait for the worse to come.
‘Any news from Washington?’ inquired Braden now, as he filled his glass once more.
The crowds around the embassy were now bigger and louder, and the rocks hitting the building’s walls and windows were now more accurate and destructive.
‘Maybe we should go to the basement’ suggested Braden’s assistant, as the Ambassador came out from under his desk.
‘Maybe we should, maybe we should’
From The Country that was Argentina, by Felix Luna
“Following the mysterious death of General Juan Domingo Peron, the extremely violent Plaza de Mayo Riots and the bloody military response of the night of the 21st, the military government could barely stand, and the weakest of winds could force the house of cards down, crumbling and collapsing over its inhabitants.
Said wind came in the form of an assassination attempt on President Farrell by an angry member of the CGT, one of the most powerful Labor unions of the country. The assassination attempt, although far from injuring the president, gave the General a new perspective, letting him knows exactly how much he was hated…”
“On October 30th, the military government announced that a new government would be formed and that elections were to be held on February 20th of the following year…”
“Of course, many had suspected that the fraudulent system of the decade of the 1930s would be revived the keep the old political machines in power, and thus some protests and strikes continued even after December of 1945, when military force was used one last time to bring some stability to the country…”
Encyclopedia of Argentinean History 1930-1956
Presidential Election of 1946
The terrible economic and social crisis originated by the death of Peron, although with roots as deep and old as the origins of the labor movement in Argentina decades ago, were hardly a good atmosphere for a return to Democracy after a three year military dictatorship and a thirteen year fraudulent semi-democracy.
The divisions between the various social and political sectors were of great influence in the consolidation of the political powers that contested the election, including most notably the Union Civica Radical, the Catholic Church, the Military, the Agricultural-Financial oligarchy, the industrialists and of course, the Labor movement.
By far, many had anticipated what was to come, the formation of a coalition of the moderate elements of the Union Civica Radical (UCR) and the conservative factions of Argentine society and politics, as the one formed in the aftermath of the overthrowing of the left wing radical President in 1930, Hipolito Yrigoyen. The Concordancia, as the alliance of anti-Yrigoyenist radicals, conservatives and nationalists was known, had ruled the country for 13 years through a series of corrupt practices and electoral fraud in the form of rigged elections in which the Yrigoyenists were not allowed to participate.
The new Concordancia, this time known as the Partido Social Democratico Radical (Social-Democratic Radical Party) presented the Radical leader, Jose P. Tamborini as their candidate, with a fellow radical as his running mate, Enrique Mosca.
The socialists, on the other hand nominated Nicolas Repeto as their candidate, while the Conservative Partido Democrata Nacional (National-Democratic Party) limited itself to support the Tamborini-Mosca ticket, being unable to find a candidate without falling to inner fighting. Finally, a rump PDN of conservative officers and former supporters of General Peron nominated Admiral Alberto Tessaire, who would eventually play an important role in future political event, as history would show.
Most important was the labor nominations, as without Peron, the labor movement had lost the one unifying figure they had. The CGT (Confederación General de Trabajo-General Labor Confederation) and other prominent unions formed the Partido Laborista (Labor Party) and the “Partido de los trabajadores” (Worker’s party), the first nominating their leader, Alcides Montiel, and the second one nominating prominent Union leader Luis Gay.
The elections were hold on February 20th of 1946, giving a not surprising victory to Jose Tamborini of the UCR, with a 45% of the votes and over 200 electoral votes (1), while the others including Montiel (13% of the votes), Gay (11%) and Repeto (6%) would not come close enough to compete with the coalition behind Tamborini.
Weeks after the elections…”
From the cover of La Nacion, February of 1946
TAMBORINI DEFEATS MONTIEL AND TESSAIRE
CGT THREATENS WITH FURTHER STRIKES
TENSIONS BETWEEN THE SOVIET UNION AND THE UNITED STATES RISING AT BERLIN
From…A History of the UCR 1890-1950 by Felix Luna
The Times of Jose Tamborini
“The presidency of Jose Tamborini has always been considered as one of the most controversial of our history. Tamborini was a man in a very complicated position, representing the conservative wing of his party, often agreeing more with the conservatives outside the UCR than with the main party line, something that lead to several conflicts with the party leadership and the Senate throughout his presidency.
It’s of course interesting that even his vice-president represented completely different political views, being from the social-progressive wing of the party. But the divisions between the President, the vice President and the Party were not the only problems Tamborini would have to face during his government. The unions were growing in power and action, the economy that had grown immensely from the war neutrality was now stagnating due to the CGT strikes, while on the international stage Argentina was being pressured into taking anti-communist lines along the main party line of the United States, something that both nationalists and socialists did not like…
…most importantly was also the problem with the military sphere, which did not completely trust Tamborini, despite having proven himself a conservative…through his entire government the president would find himself under the pressure of the Unions, his own party, his own army, the senate and several other sectors wanting to further their own goals within the country…”
To be continued...
Notes:
1.Argentina was under an Electoral College system until the constitutional reform of 1956. (OTL, until 1949)
2. The title comes from the National anthem...
3. No, that was not a joke, there was actually a politician called Luis Gay...
