The Sorcerer and the Stripper

Since this seemed to cause a minor stir in class the other day, I think it at least deserves some background information (plus I love Argentinian history). Juan Peron, the former dictator of Argentina is today known to most US audiences as the husband of Eva Peron, Evita, his second wife. Juan's policies, which were economically protectionist and populist, appealed to the lower classes of Argentina and organized labor, but the opposition of the conservative elites and military led to his overthrow in a coup in 1955 and Peron was exiled to Spain. Visiting Panama, he met his third wife, Isabel, who worked as a dancer in a nightclub, and brought her back to Madrid and married her. While in Madrid, she met Jose Lopez Rega, an Argentine Police corporal who had an extensive background in the occult and esoteric movements. Rega therefore gained influence over Isabel, and indirectly Juan, whose health was failing. When Juan returned to Argentina as President in 1973, the country was de facto led by Rega and Isabel, due to Juan's age and ill health. Rega himself was also connected/the leader of various right-wing death squads, and was connected to the murder of various left-wing Argentinian activists, the Montejurra Shootings in Spain, and the secret Italian Masonic Lodge, P2. So when Juan died in 1974, these two were now de jure leaders of the nation, where a civil war was being waged between the right and left, and Isabel and Rega led the right wing forces, leading to a multitude of human rights abuses, mainly through Rega's Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA). However, the two proved to be totally incompetent at both waging war and managing the Argentinian economy, which led to Isabel's overthrow by a military junta, who were even more brutal at putting down the war. Rega died in an Argentinian prison in 1989, while Isabel currently lives in Madrid, and was arrested there in 2007 to be extradited back to Argentina (however this warrant was denied),