Isabel Begins

"What was good for General Peron will be good for me. Neither at home nor abroad will the national line vary so much as a whit." Thus did Isabel Peron, 43, open her first formal Cabinet meeting in Government House last week, one week after the death of her husband and predecessor. To emphasize her plea of no change, she confirmed as her private secretary Conservative Jose Lopez Rega, who had held the same position under her husband and is also Minister of Social Welfare. Moments later she reaffirmed Peron's economic policy, having earlier retained Jose Gelbard as Economics Minister. The next day she appeared at Buenos Aires' cathedral for a Te Deum commemorating the 158th anniversary of Argentina's independence. As she appeared in the doorway, carrying the presidential baton and wearing a theatrical black cape, the crowd spontaneously cheered her.

In all, Isabel's actions were a characteristically Peronist performance. Compromise, giving a little here to get a little there, a dramatic personal appearance--these typified the style of Juan Peron. Judging by her first few days, the old leader had passed his ability on to the former cabaret dancer who is now Latin America's first female head of state.

Though she is an object of genuine affection, Mrs. Peron is a long way from proving her capacity to lead, or even to survive. Reports TIME'S Buenos Aires Bureau Chief Rudolf Rauch: "The inherited style of leadership passed on by Peron may be enough now when the nation, blind with veneration for her husband and bewildered by the sudden turn of events, is solidly behind her; but many I people here doubt that it will be enough when things go badly."

Probable sources of trouble are abundant. One is the enmity between Lopez Rega, 54, and Gelbard, 57. As Peron's closest, most influential aide, Lopez Rega became a highly controversial political figure, distrusted by moderate and leftist Peronistas both in and out of the government. When he went to Libya last March to negotiate an oil deal, later criticized as too costly, he complained that he had been hindered because Argentina had too many Jews on its economic team. Gelbard is a Jew. This conflict is expected to get worse as it becomes increasingly difficult to hold the line on Argentina's 30% inflation, especially after the recent wage hikes--some as high as 80% --for such groups as journalists, the military and police.

New Warnings. Then there are the guerrillas. Although there has been a lull in terrorism, most observers feel that the leftist Peronists and the out-and-out guerrillas have only been taking stock. Both the Marxist People's Revolutionary Army (E.R.P.) and the Montoneros, left-wing Peronist guerrillas, have issued warnings of new revolutionary activity. Wrote Domingo Menna, a high E.R.P. officer, "We are at the beginning of a revolutionary situation."

Even without an upsurge of terrorism, however, the situation could easily get out of hand. Even Peron, with all his popularity, was unable to maintain order among the country's conflicting groups. None of the problems disappeared with his death. They all await solution by La Presidente Isabelita.

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