Vice-President Victoria Villarruel published on Thursday pictures of a recent meeting between her and former President María Estela “Isabel” Martínez de Perón, who was deposed in 1976 by Argentina’s last military coup. She also unveiled a bust of Perón in the Senate, placing it in the same location in which a bust of late former President Néstor Kirchner used to be before the vice president had it removed. 

Villarruel’s double act made heads spin and unleashed a flurry of speculation. While government members like Patricia Bullrich criticized her for “pursuing her own agenda,”  media pundits theorized that Villarruel, an army hardliner, is aiming to cater to right-wing Peronists and perhaps carve out a space of political real estate.

The VP had harsh words for Peronists while unveiling Perón’s bust, noticing that it was happening on Loyalty Day, the day on which the party celebrates its unofficial birth. 

“On a day when people talk about loyalty, I would like to know where are those who left a woman whose last name is Perón at the mercy of the terrorism she fought, a de facto government that imprisoned her, and a political class that banished her,” Villarruel said.

She argued that the unveiling of the bust brought an “end to the ban” on Isabel Perón which had been imposed by those who now “lead the political party that bears her same surname.” Villarruel added have these people “corroded the structural bases of our great nation, disregarding the ideas that nurtured the Justicialist doctrine.”

Perón was elected vice-president in 1973 on the ticket that elected her husband Juan Perón president for his third term in office. She took his place and became Argentina’s first woman president the next year when Perón died. 

Those presidencies are considered to embody a right-wing version of Peronism. The Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (usually referred to as the “Triple A”) was created during those years — a Peronist fascist group operated by members of the Federal Police and the Argentine Armed Forces that killed left-wing activists, artists, and politicians.

On March 24, 1976, a military junta took over Isabel Perón’s government and ruled the country until 1983. During that time, the dictatorship forcefully disappeared 30,000 people. Villarruel, the niece and the daughter of military men who participated in the dictatorship, has disregarded the crimes of the military dictatorship by saying they were committed in the context of “a war.” 

Human rights organizations and the prosecution of the 1985 trial against the dictatorship’s military commanders have rejected this argument used by the military junta to justify their actions. Evidence has shown that their actions were part of a systematic extermination plan in which they committed crimes against humanity.

In 1976, the junta incarcerated Isabel Perón and kept her imprisoned until 1981, when she was forced into exile in Madrid. She briefly returned to Argentina after democracy was reinstated but did not have another prominent role in national politics. Perón returned to  Madrid in 1990 and has lived there ever since.

Is the VP trying to warm up to right-wing Peronism? 

Isabel Perón is a controversial figure for most Peronists. They compare her unfavorably to Juan Perón’s first wife, Evita, and criticize her for the human rights violations during her presidential term. Some right-wing Peronist leaders, however, have said this is an unfair characterization.

Villarruel’s overture towards Perón could be a signal to some of these sectors within the party. Recently, Peronist leaders such as Senator José Mayans and former Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno have tried to come close to Villarruel.

“[Villarruel] is ideologically a little bit closer to us than to [President Javier] Milei,” Mayans said in August. 

“[She] claims to be a nationalist and might be closer to us in that way; I don’t think we would agree with taking the gold to England,” he added, referring to the fact that the Central Bank sent its gold reserves overseas during Milei’s administration.

It’s safe to say that, at this moment, this position represents a minority in Peronism. Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner seemed to represent this opinion when she commented in passing that anyone suggesting Villarruel is a Peronist might need a “psychiatric examination.”

Moreno, a right-wing Peronist who advocates for impeaching Milei, has been vocal in his desire that the VP take over the government if the president is deposed. He said that Kirchner is making a mistake in “denying the possibility of Villarruel becoming a Peronist.”

The fact that Villarruel is doing this despite getting a cold shoulder from most of Peronism is an indication of how bad things are for her within the libertarian administration. She is in the midst of a cold war with Milei, heavily criticized by his followers for not towing the party line to a tee.

Among her critics is Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who said that Villarruel “is trying a path of its own, separate from the government team” with “gestures” towards Peronism.

 “I do not vindicate the figure of Isabel,” Bullrich said. “She was a very bad president.”