Argentina's Forgotten Guru

[Judi Lynn]

BY MARCELO LARRAQUY | OCTOBER 30, 2019
Long before Brazil's Bolsonaro took cues from a YouTuber, a controversial "prophet" was calling the shots in Argentina.



As her influential adviser, López Rega, left, would leave a stain on Perón's presidency.
STR/AFP/Getty

This article is adapted from AQ's latest issue on the politics of water in Latin America

For José López Rega, the stroke of luck was moving in to live with General Juan Domingo Perón and his wife, Isabel, in Spain in 1965. At the time, his life didn’t promise more than a frustrated marriage, his practice as a spiritual guide known for darkness more than divinity, and afternoon card games at a local social club in Buenos Aires. In a matter of years, the street cop who took early retirement would become the most powerful man in Argentina.

If it weren’t for the crimes in which he was involved, his story may have been told as an act of late-life resurgence.

Since the election of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, the self-proclaimed philosopher and former astrologer Olavo de Carvalho has emerged as a highly influential figure in government and in the Brazilian culture war. Yet five decades before him, another controversial guru was driving politics in the country next door.

López Rega was 49 and had no expectations beyond printing his esoteric manuscripts. Until the unexpected occurred: He met Isabel Perón while she was traveling through Argentina.

More:
https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/isabel-perons-unlikely-guru