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Why do the people stand for Perón? One answer is that Perón moves in easy stages. After each new encroachment on their rights, the Argentines accept the situation rather than force a showdown which, they fear, would cost them even more of their rights. Recently vandals, protected by Perón's police, burned Buenos Aires' famed old Jockey Club and destroyed priceless art treasures. Some of the club members demanded that the club close down its race track in protest. Cooler heads argued that this might prompt the government to nationalize horse racing. As a result, the board of directors adopted a "realistic" position, trooped dutifully off to assure the Minister of Interior that the club would not close its track. Last week Perón's Congress nationalized horse racing.
Another reason why the people stand for Perón is that there is no hunger in Argentina. One of Perón's driving emotions—and this helps to explain his virulent anti-Americanism—is his envy of the industrial U.S. and a desire to imitate it. To finance the industrialization scheme, he bought his farmers' wheat and meat at controlled prices, sold them on the world market for whatever the traffic would bear. Too much of the money ended up in grafters' pockets, uneconomical industries or pipe dreams such as the projects to build atomic bombs and jet fighters. According to government figures, which Perón has been anxious not to make public, Argentine cattle is down from a postwar high of 41 million head to about 27 million.
The agricultural recession has begun to spread to industry and business. Workers are finding it harder and harder to get jobs, while they pay more and more for everything from meat to movie tickets. But it is still fairly common to see a day laborer broiling his lunch—a thick, juicy steak the size of a dinner plate—over a fire in his wheelbarrow. After two bad drought years, farmers last year harvested a fine, 7.8 million-ton wheat crop. After a year of tasteless, sandy-colored bread adulterated with birdseed, Argentines are again eating white bread.
Hunger will not overthrow Perón. Will anything?
Discipline & Bombs. The fact is that Perón still has strong popular support. In a free election, he might poll roughly half the votes. The foundation of this support is the feeling of importance he has given the working class. Perón is still able to convince his descamisados that he is running the country for them alone. Perón tightly controls the 4,000,000-member General Confederation of Labor (C.G.T.). Should he ever lose his grip on the C.G.T., he would be done for. But so far, there are no signs that he will.
As for the army, a successful military coup, while always a possibility, looks highly unlikely at the moment. In recent weeks some of Perón's bitterest enemies—students and sons of wealthy ranchers—have tried to blast loose Perón's grip by setting off 15 homemade bombs in Buenos Aires. They gave Perón a real scare; police seized 25 machine guns, 600 rifles and pistols, more than a ton of explosives. But Perón, who blamed the bombings on foreigners and evil capitalists, once more seems firmly in the saddle.