Tell about the misadventures of Argentina's Eva Peron's corpse.
by Sam Green
In 1955, three years after her death, Eva Peron's corpse disappeared following a coup that kicked her husband, ex-Argentinian President Juan Peron, out of office. It was taken in the middle of the night by military officers who staged a coup to kick out Peron's widower. Those who supported Peron thought it was a movement taken to erase their legacy from Argentina, specifically Eva's. After moving around through Buenos Aries for a while, even staying in the Military Intelligence HQ for a while, the body made its way to the Vatican in 1957 with some Italian assistance. There, it was buried under a false name. Her body may have been missing, but she was not forgotten.
In 1970, an ex-military leader and current leader of Argentina, Gen. Pedro Aramburu, was kidnapped and assassinated. This allowed for Juan Peron, who has been exiled in Spain since the coup, to return to Argentina and potentially re-enter government. Upon regaining some power, he set out to find Eva's body, even though he had a new wife, Isabel; when he found it, her body had been beaten up and a finger was missing. In 1973, he returned to Argentina as President, and upon his death a year later, Isabel was given control. In 1974, Domingo Tellechea was chosen to make her body presentable for public viewing, like Lenin's Mausoleum. Accepting the request to restore her body would have put him at risk of suffering at the hands of the officers who originally took her body. Meanwhile, Isabel was erecting a monument taller than the Statue of Liberty to put her body in. Sadly, another coup ended those plans, and she was kicked out of office. In the end, Tellechea left in exile and Eva's body was put in the Peron Mausoleum.
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