San Vicente evokes the memories of the compound where Juan Domingo Perón relaxed, away from the socially-ebullient atmosphere permeating post-WWII Buenos Aires, along with his companion, Eva (Evita) Duarte – who would later become Argentina’s First Lady.

In the mid-1940s, the compound (or Quinta de San Vicente, as it is known) belonged to Perón’s fellow army comrade and loyalist Colonel Domingo Mercante. Before reaching the Presidency, Perón bought the property from him, turned it into his hideout, and there gave shape to a political movement of unprecedented strength – later to be known as Peronism.

Immediately after General Perón was dethroned by a military revolution in 1955, the Quinta was ransacked by anti-Peronist mobs that lashed out at and destroyed any vestiges of the now fallen leader. Today, it is preserved as a museum-memorial honoring the three-time President through the display of memorabilia, swords, medals and recognitions bestowed on Perón by other dignitaries. Thus, San Vicente’s legacy has been made available to younger generations, recreating an important chapter (though a convoluted, undemocratic and at times a dictatorial one) of Argentina’s past.

On October 17 (a date which marks Peronists’ “loyalty” to their leader), the memorial turned into a battling ground. The occasion was meant to mark the transfer of Perón’s remains from Buenos Aires’ cemetery (where he was buried in 1974) to the compound in San Vicente. A nonsensical idea masterminded by a perennially corrupted, unreformed union nomenklatura, one which focuses on the past as a way to hide its inability to face the country’s present or decipher its future.

Though the Kirchner administration was never excited about this project, it ultimately gave the necessary blessing. Unexpectedly, grassroots militants, antagonistic political factions, union activists, and hooligans on the hire of Peronist caudillos, unleashed their violence against each other. As live broadcasting of the surreal scenes brought astounded Argentines back in time many years. The incidents were triggered as the long-procession of vehicles involved was accessing the Quinta. An open war then broke-out involving marginals that gravitate around Peronist chieftains, thus marring an event that was meant to pay homage to a former head of state.

What took place at the Quinta shows that Argentine political life remains strongly imbued of violence, hooliganism, corruption, and chaos. And more perplexing, those factors are not being eroded after 25 years of ongoing democratic life. This situation seems to be particularly relevant within the catch-all, multifaceted Peronism. A political movement that leading Argentine historian Felix Luna has deemed historically responsible for both “fascinating virtues” along with “unforgiving sins.”

Alongside violence, an undeniable obsession with the dead refuses to vanish from public life, stubbornly emerging every now and then. A decade ago, Perón’s hands were surreptitiously severed from his body (that had been embalmed in 1974) and stolen. Then, a shocked society was once again confronted brutally with the macabre manipulating of corpses (mob-like) of prominent Argentines (being recovered, exhumed, transferred, appropriated, and even subjected to profanation), as means of sending encrypted “messages” or claiming political relevance. If not, what other reasons could have possibly inspired the October 17 ordeal?

As Peronist factions fought in San Vicente, struggling to “gain” proximity to the long-departed General (as if proximity translates into “ownership” of his legacy and political aura), a whole nation was hijacked by the brutality, arrogance, and impunity of a few. Meanwhile, Argentina’s present seems to be sinking in the deep, troubled waters of an exhausting cult to the past.

* Pedro G. Cavallero is a foreign policy analyst based in Washington, DC.

www.hacer.org