Case of the Severed Hands

They had to pick the twelve triple-combination locks that secured the coffin, but somehow the grave robbers at Buenos Aires' Chacarita Cemetery managed the task. Their take: a ceremonial saber and the hands of Juan Peron, who was perhaps Argentina's most revered President. After the break-in was discovered two weeks ago on the 13th anniversary of Peron's death, a group called "Hermes IAI and the 13" claimed responsibility for the theft and demanded $8 million in return for the severed parts. If the ransom was not met by this week, the group threatened, Peron's hands would be pulverized.

The case of the missing hands has stirred up political turmoil in Argentina. More than 50,000 members of the populist dictator's Peronist Party and its trade union ally, the General Confederation of Labor, attended a Mass of mourning last week. Distraught Peronistas cried in one another's arms. Some held up posters that read YOUR HANDS ARE THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE. The government of President Raul Alfonsin, which only two months ago survived a military uprising, blamed "rightist" elements bent on destabilizing the country's young democracy for the theft.