Peronism as Pathology: Representations and Press in Jujuy, Argentina, in Libertarian Revolution

Abstract

Perón’s government was overthrown in September, 1955. The new administration called itself Libertarian Revolution and introduced a set of policies in order to change the peronist order. Public space was one of those spheres influenced by such guiding principles; all speeches about the overthrown regime were substituted by discourses which favored antiperonism and disapproved Peronism. The execration of Peronism was based on representations forged during its administration by antiperonist opposition. Following this discourses, Peronism was defined as an anomaly by the press, as an irregularity which emerged in the normal history of Argentina. Journals in Jujuy (a province in northern Argentina) reproduced such principles too; they underlined the pathological character of Peronism. Such nature of Peronism was treated in two consecutive ways: first, as a phenomenon which belonged to the past; then, as residue which pressured to return.