PERONIST

member of the Justicialist Nationalist Movement, Spanish Peronista, or Movimiento Nacionalista Justicialista in Argentine politics, a supporter of Juan Pern, or an adherent of the populist and nationalistic policies that Pern espoused. Peronism has played an important part in Argentina's history from the mid-1940s. The movement arose as the personal following of Colonel Juan Pern, who, after participating in a successful military coup in 1943, became Argentina's minister of labour. In this position he enacted various social measures to help the country's growing class of urban industrial workers. Pern was elected to the presidency in 1946 with the strong support of these workers and their labour unions; he also gained the support of many lower-middle-class citizens and of the nation's industrialists. After Pern was overthrown and exiled in 1955 by the military, the leaderless Peronist movement was weakened by factional conflicts, since it was composed of many divergent elements, from left-wing trade unionists to right-wing authoritarian nationalists. The movement remained the main civilian contender for power in Argentina, however. Under the new name of the Justicialist Nationalist Movement, the Peronists swept back into power in 1973 when the military permitted the first general elections in 10 years. Pern returned from exile and became president. But deep dissension between right-wing and left-wing Peronists erupted into terrorism and violence after Pern's death in 1974, and the military overthrew Pern's widow and successor as president, Isabel, in 1976. The Peronists lost the presidential election of 1983, but in 1989 their candidate, Carlos Sal Menem, was elected to the presidency.