B2 First - Reading Multiple Matching Exercise

Juan Domingo Perón

Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer and politician. After serving in several government positions, including those of Minister of Labour and Vice President of the Republic, he was three times elected as President of Argentina, serving from June 1946 to September 1955, when he was overthrown by a coup d'état, and from October 1973 to July 1974.

During his first presidential term (1946-1952), Perón was supported by his second wife, Eva Duarte ("Evita"), and the two were immensely popular among many Argentines. Eva died in 1952, and Perón was elected to a second term, serving from 1952 until 1955. During the following period of two military dictatorships, interrupted by one civilian government, the Peronist party was outlawed and Perón was exiled. When the left-wing Peronist Hector Cámpora was elected President in 1973, Perón returned to Argentina and was soon after elected President for a third time. His third wife, María Estela Martínez, known as Isabel Perón, was elected as Vice President on his ticket and succeeded him as President upon his death in 1974.

Juan and Evita Perón are still considered icons by the Peronists. The Peróns' followers praised their efforts to eliminate poverty and to dignify labor, while their detractors considered them demagogues and dictators. The Peróns gave their name to the political movement known as Peronism, which in present-day Argentina is represented mainly by the Justicialist Party.

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende was a Chilean physician and politician, known as the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.

Allende's involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly forty years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy and cabinet minister. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency in a close three-way race, formally elected by Congress as no candidate had gained a majority.

As president, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization; due to these and other factors, increasingly strained relations between him and the legislative and judicial branches of the Chilean government (who did not share his enthusiasm for socialization of Chile) eventually culminated in a declaration of a "constitutional breakdown" by the parliament. On 11 September 1973 the military moved to oust Allende in a coup d'état. As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, Allende gave his last speech vowing not to resign. He was killed later that day.

Following Allende's deposition, army General Augusto Pinochet declined to return authority to the civilian government; and Chile became ruled by a military junta that was in power from 1973 to 1990, ending almost 48 years of Chilean democratic rule. The military junta that took over became known for persecuting dissidents extensively.

Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader. Bolívar played a key role in Latin America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of the most influential politicians in the history of the Americas.

Following the triumph over the Spanish monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Hispanic-America, a republic, now known as Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Despite ordering widespread atrocities in his Decree of War to the Death, Bolívar is regarded as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator in Hispanic-America.

During his lifetime, he led Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru (together with Don José de San Martín), and Bolivia to independence. Admirers claim that he helped lay the foundations for democracy in much of Latin America.

On 17 December 1830, at the age of forty-seven, Simón Bolívar died after a painful battle with tuberculosis in Santa Marta, Gran Colombia (now Colombia). On his deathbed, Bolívar asked his assistant, General Daniel F. O'Leary to burn the remaining, extensive archive of his writings, letters, and speeches. O'Leary disobeyed the order and his writings survived, providing historians with a wealth of information about Bolívar's liberal philosophy and thought, as well as details of his personal life, such as his long love affair with Manuela Sáenz.

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