Santa Cruz Sentinel

Argentina's Peronist machine is in high gear to shore up shaky votes

- By Daniel Politi

CIUDAD EVITA, ARGENTINA

>> As Argentina heads for a presidenti­al runoff election on Sunday, the decades-old populist movement known as Peronism is on shaky ground, its candidate having lost some traction even among longtime loyalists living in a suburb of the capital that is its literal and figurative embodiment.

Built in the 1950s by Peronism's founder, then-President Juan Domingo Perón, Ciudad Evita's original boundaries were shaped like the profile of his wife, former first lady María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Evita. It provided workers not just large homes but also dignity, and its generation­s of inhabitant­s have been ardent supporters of a political movement that champions social justice and workers' rights.

But that support has been rattled by rising poverty and red-hot inflation that has punished society. Some Ciudad Evita residents are tempted to do the previously unthinkabl­e: Vote against the Peronist candidate, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, on Sunday. That has Massa working overtime to keep once-steadfast supporters from straying to his opponent, right-wing populist Javier Milei, who rocked Argentina's political landscape by receiving the most votes in the August primary election.

“I've always been a Peronist. But not for the past few years,” said Susana García, a 62-year-old who has lived in Ciudad Evita most of her life and, as a longtime union worker, has seen the power of Peronism firsthand to mobilize Argentina's workers. García is struggling to make ends meet, much less pay for needed repairs to her threebedro­om home.

“I have a nice house, but I can't maintain it,” she said.

Peronism, a nebulous movement with both leftand right-wing factions, has been the dominant force in Argentine politics for decades and draws its origins to the three-time-President Perón's strong alliances with workers' unions. Its promise has been derailed by decades of economic decay, and Ciudad Evita is now surrounded by poorer neighborho­ods with dilapidate­d houses and shacks.

“There has been deep disaffecti­on with Peronism in the lower-income sectors over the past four years,” said Pablo Touzon, a Peronism expert who runs the local political consultanc­y Escenarios. “That is partly what made Milei's victory in the primaries possible.”

To recover lost ground, Massa has kicked the Peronist vote-getting machine into overdrive. It consists of vast networks of local leaders who hand out mattresses, fridges and stoves. Government-funded organizati­ons provide food, aid and jobs through an array of welfare programs in the poorest neighborho­ods. In both cases, they remind voters to which party they owe gratitude.

And Massa has also pulled out all stops from his ministeria­l post — to the deep chagrin of government creditors and political opponents. He slashed income taxes for the highest earners, began refunding some of a value-added tax levied on food purchases, unveiled fresh payments for pensioners and unemployed people, and announced bonuses for millions of workers.

Massa has described the programs as helping people get by after the government devalued the peso by almost 20% in August, which pushed inflation even higher. It is now running at an annual rate of more than 140%.

Critics say Massa's moves amplify the patronage of Peronism that they say has created a system of dependance.

“Being able to push the levers of the Economy Ministry allowed him to inject money quickly to influence the election results,” Milei said in a television interview after the first-round vote.

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