title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: After retiring as a player, Pochettino began his managerial career at Espanyol in 2009. He left the club in 2012 after poor results and financial disputes. In 2013, he was appointed at Premier League club Southampton, leading them to an eighth-place finish that season – equalling their highest ever Premier League finish. He signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 2014 and finished as league runner-up in the 2016–17 season and UEFA Champions League finalist in 2019. He was dismissed after a string of poor results, and in 2021, joined Paris Saint-Germain, where he won Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino was born in Murphy, Santa Fe to Amalia and Héctor Pochettino, a farm labourer. His family is of Italian descent from Piedmont. Between the age of eight and ten, he played both football and volleyball, and also learned judo. He supported Racing Club de Avellaneda as a child. The first football match he watched on television was the 1978 FIFA World Cup which he watched with his father Héctor at the local sports club in Murphy, Centro Recreativo Unión y Cultura. He started playing as a centre-back at an early age for Unión y Cultura, a position he preferred, but he also played as a striker and midfielder. When he was 13, he trained two days a week with Rosario Central in Rosario, Santa Fe, a 160 mile bus-ride away from Murphy. He played in Murphy in the first division of the regional together with his older brother, Javier. He studied agriculture in a school 20 miles from home.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: When he was 14, Pochettino was scouted by Jorge Griffa, director of football at Newell's Old Boys, and his future manager Marcelo Bielsa, then the reserve team coach at Newell's. Although he was happy at Rosario Central who were interested in signing him, he was persuaded to try out for their rivals Newell's Old Boys in Rosario, Santa Fe. He was quickly placed in a team attending a tournament in Mar del Plata in January 1987, and helped the team win 3–2 in the final against Club Olimpia of Paraguay, after which he signed for Newell's. He was offered a professional contract at 16, and made his first appearance in the Primera División in the 1988–89 season when he was 17.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: At Newell's he played in an intense, fast-paced, high press style of play under Bielsa who was first-team coach from 1990 to 1992. Bielsa's coaching methods and philosophy would have a significant impact on the young player.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: During his five-year stint at the club, Pochettino won the 1990–91 national championship as well as the 1992 Clausura. The side also reached the final of the Copa Libertadores helped by Pochettino who netted a crucial goal away to Colombian champions América de Cali in the second match leg of their semi-final, but they were beaten 3–2 in the final in a penalty shoot-out by São Paulo after both teams drew 1–1 on aggregate over the course of two legs. He played with Diego Maradona for a time, sharing a room before games.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In 1994, Pochettino had the option of joining a number of clubs including Boca Juniors, but chose the Catalan club Espanyol even though it was the least financially attractive offer as he was interested in moving to the city of Barcelona. Aged 22, Pochettino moved to Espanyol for the 1994–95 season, as part of the new intake of players upon their return to La Liga. There he soon established himself as an automatic first-team starter, and developed a reputation as a tough, uncompromising central defender. In February 1997, in the local derby against their rival Barcelona at the soon-to-be-demolished home ground Sarrià Stadium, Pochettino man-marked Ronaldo out the game, and helped the team win 2–0. It was their first win against Barcelona in ten years.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: He stayed six-and-a-half years at the club. Although he had the opportunity to move a number of occasions, he chose to stay. In 1998 he stayed so as to reconnect with his former coach Bielsa, and he also rejected an offer from Valencia in the 1999–2000 season out of loyalty to the club. In that season, he helped Espanyol beat Atlético Madrid in the 2000 final of the Copa del Rey, winning their first major trophy in 60 years.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In the 1999–2000 season, he signed a pre-agreement to stay at the club for 6 more years contingent on funding. However, the club could not finance the deal, and informed Pochettino that he should accept an offer from Paris Saint-Germain.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In late January 2001, Pochettino signed for Paris Saint-Germain for an undisclosed fee. A regular starter during his stay, he made his official league debut on 3 February 2001 for manager Luis Fernández away to Nantes, which PSG lost 1–0. Three days later, Pochettino netted his first goal in a 1–3 home defeat at the Parc des Princes against Guingamp. His contributions led to Paris Saint-Germain winning the 2001 edition of the UEFA Intertoto Cup later in the 2001–02 season following a 1–1 draw with Brescia, which meant the Parisian side won on away goals, as well as reaching the final of the Coupe de France the , where PSG lost 1–2 to Auxerre.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In July, 2003, Pochettino moved to fellow Ligue 1 outfit Bordeaux for the 2003–04 campaign. His first game came on 2 August 2003 against Monaco in a 2–0 defeat. Pochettino's first goal was on 23 August, thus helping Bordeaux overcome Auxerre with a 2–0 home victory.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: During the 2004 summer transfer window, he returned to Espanyol however, initially on loan, before he later made the transfer permanent. The return occurred midway through his first year, where Pochettino continued to play for two-and-a-half more seasons. In the 2005–06 Copa del Rey, he was an unused substitute at the final, where Espanyol beat Zaragoza 4–1.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Following the win, Ernesto Valverde took over as manager in the summer of 2006, but he did not want Pochettino in the squad for the coming season. Pochettino announced his retirement as a player at the age of 34. He studied for a master degree in sports management at a business school before training to be a coach in Madrid a year later.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In 1992, Pochettino played four matches for the Argentina under-23 team at the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament in Paraguay, which saw them fail to qualify for the 1992 Summer Olympics.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino won 20 caps for the full side over a period of four years. He was handed his first senior international by his former manager Bielsa, playing his first match on 31 March 1999 in a friendly against the Netherlands at Amsterdam Arena, ending in a 1–1 draw. Pochettino scored his first goal on 17 November 1999 in another friendly, a 2–0 win over Spain. He was a participant at the 1999 Copa América and the 2002 FIFA World Cup under Bielsa, appearing in three complete matches as the nation were unsuccessful in progressing from the group stage in the latter tournament.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino's most newsworthy highlight to the competition came during the second group stage match against England, when Italian referee Pierluigi Collina awarded Argentina's opponents a penalty, after the defender brought down Michael Owen in the box. The resulting kick was converted by David Beckham for the match's only goal.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In late January 2009, Pochettino became Espanyol's third coach of the 2008–09 season, with the team third from the bottom of the table. Tasked with saving them from relegation, he had only just received his UEFA Pro License in December 2008 and had spent a short spell as the assistant coach to the ladies' team but was otherwise untested as a coach. His first match was at home to neighbouring FC Barcelona, coached by Pep Guardiola, in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. Despite his players' reluctance and only being able to avail themselves of two training sessions prior to the game, his system of high pressing and one-on-one defensive cover yielded an unexpected 0–0 draw. After he had asked for "divine intervention", the side's fortunes improved and they eventually finished the season comfortably mid-table with their most significant result being a 2–1 victory in the league derby against Barcelona, their first in the competition at the Camp Nou for 27 years. He coached nine players who were his teammates during his last year active and, in early June, renewed his contract for a further three years.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In 2009–10, Pochettino once again led Espanyol to a comfortable league position, in a campaign where club captain (and his former teammate) Raúl Tamudo fell out of favour, particularly after the January 2010 arrival of the coach's compatriot Dani Osvaldo. On 28 September 2010, he agreed to a one-year extension at the Estadi Cornellà-El Prat which ran until 30 June 2012, and in May of the following year further renewed his contract until 2014. On 26 November 2012, however, following a 0–2 home loss against Getafe CF that left the team in last place with just nine points from 13 matches and with the manager complaining about the financial restrictions being placed upon him, his contract was terminated by mutual consent at the end of that month.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Despite the lowly league position, Pochettino's work had drawn praise from commentators and he was beginning to display the characteristics that would inform his coaching at his subsequent clubs, namely the imposition of a specific tactical style on all of the clubs' team from the senior side down to youth level, attending training sessions to receive updates from all levels, a preference for 4–2–3–1, a focus on a high-pressing game and the promotion of players from the academy to the first team.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: On 18 January 2013, Pochettino was announced as the new first-team manager of Premier League club Southampton, replacing Nigel Adkins and becoming the second Argentine manager in English football after Osvaldo Ardiles. His first match in charge was five days later, a 0–0 draw against Everton at St Mary's Stadium. He recorded his first win on 9 February, 3–1 at home over reigning champions Manchester City.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Despite having some knowledge of English, Pochettino initially used a Spanish interpreter in press conferences as a way to fully express himself. He led the Saints to notable victories against other top league sides, including a 3–1 home win over Liverpool and a 2–1 success against Chelsea also at St Mary's.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: In his first full season at Southampton, Pochettino led the team to an eighth-placed finish, their highest league position since 2002–03, while also recording their highest points tally since the Premier League began in 1992–93.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: On 27 May 2014, Pochettino was appointed head coach of Tottenham Hotspur on a five-year contract, becoming their tenth manager over a 12-year span. The following 28 January, the team reached the final of the League Cup following a 3–2 aggregate win over Sheffield United, only to be beaten 2–0 by Chelsea in the decisive game at Wembley Stadium. In the domestic league, his first season was generally successful, ending in a fifth-placed finish and the conversion of several young academy players into regular first-team players; he put one of those graduates, Harry Kane, as starting striker at the expense of Spanish international Roberto Soldado, a gamble which paid off as Kane and his teammates Dele Alli and Eric Dier were touted as the potential basis for the England squad at UEFA Euro 2016.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Tottenham were in contention to win the league in 2015–16, but on 2 May 2016 they drew 2–2 against Chelsea, confirming Leicester City as champions. The game at Stamford Bridge saw the former receive a league record nine yellow cards, and Pochettino entered the pitch in the first half to separate his left back Danny Rose from a confrontation with Chelsea winger Willian. Spurs also lost in their last match of the season, ceding the league runners-up spot to rival Arsenal – it was still good enough for their highest league finish since 1990.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: On 12 May 2016, Pochettino agreed to an extension to his contract, committing him to the club until 2021 as it was also confirmed that his title had changed from that of "head coach" to "manager", although he confirmed that the role itself was no different. The campaign began with a series of 12 unbeaten league matches that ended with a defeat away to Chelsea in late November. However, inconsistencies which saw them being eliminated from UEFA Champions League and League Cup contention meant that they fell some way behind the leaders Chelsea who had a run of 13 wins (ended by a loss to Tottenham in January 2017).


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino's side eventually finished in second place with 86 points, their highest-ever tally since the English League began under the new denomination and their highest ranking in 54 years since 1962–63 under Bill Nicholson, and the first season-long unbeaten home run in 52 years since 1964–65 was also achieved.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: On 24 May 2018, Pochettino signed a new five-year contract to keep him at Tottenham until 2023. In December 2018, Pochettino won his 100th Premier League match as manager of Tottenham after a late win against Burnley; he became the first Tottenham manager to reach this milestone and the third quickest Premier League manager to achieve the feat with a single club. On 8 May 2019, Pochettino led Tottenham to their first ever Champions League/European Cup final after beating Ajax on away goals (3–3 aggregate), with his side coming back from a 2–0 deficit (3–0 aggregate) at half-time in Amsterdam, only for Lucas Moura to score a second-half hat-trick. The final in Madrid ended in a 2–0 defeat to Liverpool.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: On 19 November 2019, Pochettino was dismissed by Tottenham Hotspur with the side placed 14th in the Premier League table, with chairman Daniel Levy citing "extremely disappointing" domestic results as the reason behind the dismissal. Pochettino was succeeded by José Mourinho.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: On 2 January 2021, Pochettino was appointed as the head coach of Paris Saint-Germain on an 18-month contract, where he had spent two years during his playing career. He replaced Thomas Tuchel. His first match in charge was four days later, a 1–1 away league draw against Saint-Étienne. On 9 January, Pochettino won his first game in a 3–0 home win over Brest. Four days later, he won the first honour of his managerial career as Paris Saint-Germain defeated rivals Marseille with a 2–1 victory in the Trophée des Champions. On 16 February 2021, Pochettino took charge of his first Champions League match with the Parisians, guiding them to a 4–1 win over Barcelona at the Camp Nou in the first leg of the round of 16 tie. This marked Pochettino's first European victory as Paris Saint-Germain coach. In the Champions League quarter-finals, PSG won against the title holders Bayern Munich on the away goal rule, due to a 3–2 away victory at the Allianz Arena. However, PSG lost in both legs in the semi-finals against Manchester City. Pochettino finished the season with a win in the Coupe de France Final against Monaco, and in second place in the Ligue 1 behind Lille. In July 2021, he extended his contract until 2023. In the 2021–22 season, he won his first Ligue 1 title. On 5 July 2022, it was announced that Paris Saint-Germain had parted ways with Pochettino.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino favours a very high-pressing, attacking style of football. He often employs a 4–2–3–1 formation at the clubs he manages. While doing so, he instructs his team to build from the back, intimidate and unsettle opponents with a quick-press system and work the ball into the box.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino is hailed by many pundits for his focus on developing local players from the clubs' youth academies, getting local government and references' support, and a willingness to promote young players in general. It was also noted that many young players under his tutelage went on to play for the England national team, while the manager himself felt that it was his duty to develop English talent, saying "I feel when I arrived in Spain and now in England in which way can we say 'thank you' to the country that opened the door when I didn't speak English. And how people treated me and my family and my staff which was really well. It's a way to say thank you to the Premier League and the people who trust in you".


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Players coached by Pochettino also praised his man-management approach and guidance with his willingness to advise, encouraging the players to take charge of their own development as well as helping them to improve physically, technically and mentally.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino and his wife Karina Grippaldi have two sons, Sebastiano and Maurizio. Sebastiano was Tottenham's first team sports scientist. Maurizio was granted a contract with Tottenham's development squad, scoring his first goal for the under-18 side against Norwich City in October 2018. In early December, he made his debut for the under-23s against VfL Wolfsburg. In January 2021, Maurizio signed for Watford.


title: Mauricio Pochettino

text: Pochettino believes in "energía universal" (), the idea that people, places and things are charged with a hidden energy, positive or negative. "I believe in energía universal", he said. "It is connected. Nothing happens for causality (By accident). It is always a consequence [of something else]. Maybe, it is one of the reasons that Harry [Kane] always scores in derbies. I believe in that energy. For me, it exists".


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 (; stylized as TAIPEI 101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a supertall skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. This building was officially classified as the world's tallest from its opening in 2004 until the 2009 completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. Upon completion, it became the world's first skyscraper to exceed a height of half a kilometer. Taipei 101 is the tallest building of Taiwan.


title: Taipei 101

text: The elevators of Taipei 101 that transport passengers from the 5th to the 89th floor in 37 seconds (attaining ) set speed records. In 2011, Taipei 101 was awarded a Platinum certificate rating under the LEED certification system for energy efficiency and environmental design, becoming the tallest and largest green building in the world. The structure regularly appears as an icon of Taipei in international media, and the Taipei 101 fireworks displays are a regular feature of New Year's Eve broadcasts and celebrations.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101's postmodernist architectural style evokes traditional Asian aesthetics in a modern structure employing industrial materials. Its design incorporates a number of features that enable the structure to withstand the Pacific Ring of Fire's earthquakes and the region's tropical storms. The tower houses offices, restaurants, shops, and indoor and outdoor observatories. The tower is adjoined by a multilevel shopping mall that has the world's largest ruyi symbol as an exterior feature.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 is owned by Taipei Financial Center Corporation. The skyscraper opened on 31 December 2004 to celebrate New Year's Eve.


title: Taipei 101

text: In 1997, led by developer Harace Lin, the Taipei Financial Center Corporation, a team of several Taiwan banks and insurance companies, won the rights to lease the site for 70 years and develop a building, placing the winning bid of NT$20,688,890,000 for the Build Operate Transfer agreement with the city government. The property will return to the city in 2067.


title: Taipei 101

text: The Taipei Financial Center Corporation (TFCC) announced plans on 2 November 2009 to make Taipei 101 "the world's tallest green building" by summer of 2011 as measured by LEED standards. The structure is already designed to be energy-efficient, with double-pane windows blocking external heat by 50 percent and recycled water meeting 20–30 percent of the building's needs. LEED certification would entail inspections and upgrades in wiring, water and lighting equipment at a cost of NT$60 million (US$1.8 million). Estimates show the savings resulting from the modifications would pay for the cost of making them within three years. The project was carried out under the guidance of an international team composed of Siemens Building Technologies, architect and interior designer Steven Leach Group and the LEED advisory firm EcoTech International.<ref name="http://www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com/bt/global/en/Pages/home.aspx">


title: Taipei 101

text: LEED certified: The tallest "green" building in the world. Siemens Building Technologies.</ref> The company applied for a platinum-degree certification with LEED in early 2011. On 28 July 2011, Taipei 101 received LEED platinum certification under "Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance". It displaced the Bank of America Tower in Manhattan as the world's tallest and highest-use green building in addition to the Environmental Protection Agency building in Florida as the world's largest green building. Although the project cost NT$60 million (US$2.08 million), it is expected to save 14.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, or an 18 percent energy-saving, equivalent to NT$36 million (US$1.2 million) in energy costs each year. In 2012, the shopping center at the base is expected to be remodeled. In 2019, it was named among the 50 most influential skyscrapers in the world by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.


title: Taipei 101

text: On 4 January 2020, the building had a condolence message in lights for the victims of a helicopter crash, which included a number of senior government officials. On 8 February 2020, the press said that some passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise liner, quarantined for an outbreak of Covid-19, had visited Taipei 101 on 31 January at which point none exhibited symptoms. On 1 April 2020, the Taipei 101 shopping center said it was reducing business hours due to the Coronavirus pandemic, making the "nation's first to cut back operations due to the pandemic." It had started checking shopper's temperatures in February. On 21 May the building said it would resume normal business hours in June, as the country had effectively limited the spread of COVID-19.


title: Taipei 101

text: Planning for Taipei 101 began in July 1997 during Chen Shui-bian's term as Taipei mayor. Talks between merchants and city government officials initially centered on a proposal for a 66-story tower to serve as an anchor for new development in Taipei's 101 business district. Planners were considering taking the new structure to a more ambitious height only after an expat suggested it, along with many of the other features used in the design of the building. It was not until the summer of 2001 that the city granted a license for the construction of a 101-story tower on the site. In the meantime, construction proceeded and the first tower column was erected in the summer of 2000.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101's roof was completed three years later on 1 July 2003. Ma Ying-jeou, in his first term as Taipei mayor, fastened a golden bolt to signify the achievement. The formal opening of the tower took place on New Year's Eve 2004. President Chen Shui-bian, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng cut the ribbon. Open-air concerts featured a number of popular performers, including singers A-Mei and Stefanie Sun. Visitors rode the elevators to the Observatory for the first time. A few hours later the first fireworks show at Taipei 101 heralded the arrival of a new year.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 is the site of many special events. Art exhibits, as noted above, regularly take place in the Observatory. A few noteworthy dates since the tower's opening include these below:


title: Taipei 101

text: On 28 February 2005, former President of the United States Bill Clinton visited and signed copies of his autobiography. On 19 April 2005, the tower displayed the formula "E=mc" in lights to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Einstein's theory of relativity. The display, the largest of 65,000 such displays in 47 countries, was part of the international celebration "Physics Enlightens the World." On 20 October 2006, the tower displayed a pink ribbon in lights to promote breast cancer awareness. The ten-day campaign was sponsored by Taipei 101's ownership and Estée Lauder.


title: Taipei 101

text: On 25 December 2004, French rock and urban climber Alain Robert made an authorized climb to the top of the pinnacle in four hours. On 12 December 2007, Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartner survived an unauthorized parachute jump from the 91st floor. On 20 November 2005, the First annual Taipei 101 Run Up featured a race up the 2,046 steps from floors 1 to 91. Proceeds were to benefit Taiwan's Olympic teams. The men's race was won by Paul Crake of Australia (10 minutes, 29 seconds), and the women's race by Andrea Mayr of Austria (12 minutes, 38 seconds). On 15 June 2008, Taipei 101 Run Up featured 2,500 participants. The men's race was won by Thomas Dold of Germany (10 minutes, 53 seconds); 2007 champion Marco De Gasperi of Italy finished second and Chen Fu-tsai of Taiwan finished third. The women's race was won by Lee Hsiao-yu of Taiwan (14 minutes, 53 seconds). On 6 December 2014, Japanese idol group HKT48 held a small concert on the 91st-floor observatory as the premiere of their tour in Taiwan.


title: Taipei 101

text: The is hosted at the Taipei City Hall, which also provides a full view of Taipei 101 which is lit up with fireworks. Another popular location for crowds to gather to see the fireworks display is the public square of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. For the first three years (2004–2006), the annual fireworks show at Taipei 101 was preceded by the sequential display of numerals in lights on each section on huge panels displays to count down the last eight seconds to midnight. Since 2007 the building has been completely darkened, then fireworks begin to launch sequentially from the lower to upper sections.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 comprises 101 floors above ground, as well as five basement levels. The first building to break the half-kilometer mark in height, it was the world's tallest building from 31 March 2004 to 10 March 2010. , it is still the world's largest and tallest green building.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 was the world's tallest building, at as measured to its architectural top (spire), exceeding that of the Petronas Towers, which were previously the tallest skyscraper at . The height to the top of the roof, at , and highest occupied floor, at , surpassed the previous records of the Willis Tower: and , respectively. It also surpassed the 85-story, Tuntex Sky Tower in Kaohsiung as the tallest building in Taiwan and the 51-story, Shin Kong Life Tower as the tallest building in Taipei. Taipei 101 claimed the official records for the world's tallest sundial and the world's largest New Year's Eve countdown clock.


title: Taipei 101

text: Various sources, including the building's owners, give the height of Taipei 101 as , roof height and top floor height as and . This lower figure is derived by measuring from the top of a platform at the base. CTBUH standards, though, include the height of the platform in calculating the overall height, as it represents part of the man-made structure and is above the level of the surrounding pavement. Taipei 101 displaced the Petronas Towers as the tallest building in the world by . The record it claimed for greatest height from ground to pinnacle was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is in height. Taipei 101's records for roof height and highest occupied floor briefly passed to the Shanghai World Financial Center in 2008, which in turn yielded these records as well to the Burj.


title: Taipei 101

text: Overall, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world for six years, being surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in 2010. For 12 years it also had the fastest elevator, at 38 miles per hour. It also has the largest wind damper in the world, at 18 feet across. Taipei 101 is currently the eleventh-tallest building in the world, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's official rankings.


title: Taipei 101

text: The Taipei 101 is designed to withstand typhoon winds and earthquake tremors that are common in the area in the east of Taiwan. Evergreen Consulting Engineering, the structural engineer, designed Taipei 101 to withstand gale winds of , (), as well as the strongest earthquakes in a 2,500-year cycle.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 was designed to be flexible as well as structurally resistant, because while flexibility prevents structural damage, resistance ensures comfort both for the occupants and for the protection of the glass, curtain walls, and other features. Most designs achieve the necessary strength by enlarging critical structural elements such as bracing. Because of the height of Taipei 101, combined with the surrounding area's geology—the building is located just away from a major fault line—Taipei 101 used high-performance steel construction and 36 columns, including eight "mega-columns" packed with concrete. Outrigger trusses, located at eight-floor intervals, connect the columns in the building's core to those on the exterior.


title: Taipei 101

text: These features, combined with the solidity of its foundation, made Taipei 101 one of the most stable buildings ever constructed. The foundation is reinforced by 380 piles driven into the ground, extending as far as into the bedrock. Each pile is in diameter and can bear a load of .


title: Taipei 101

text: RWDI designed a steel pendulum that serves as a tuned mass damper, at a cost of NT$132 million (US$4 million). Its ball, the largest damper ball in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates of varying diameters, each thick, welded together to form a ball. Two additional tuned mass dampers, each weighing , are installed at the tip of the spire which help prevent damage to the structure due to strong wind loads. On 8 August 2015, strong winds from Typhoon Soudelor swayed the main damper by —the largest movement ever recorded by the damper.


title: Taipei 101

text: The damper has become such a popular tourist attraction that the city contracted Sanrio to create a mascot: the Damper Baby. Four versions of the Damper Baby ("Rich Gold", "Cool Black", "Smart Silver" and "Lucky Red") were designed and made into figurines and souvenirs sold in various Taipei 101 gift shops. Damper Baby has become a popular local icon, with its own comic book and website.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101's characteristic blue-green glass curtain walls are double paned and glazed, offer heat and UV protection sufficient to block external heat by 50 percent, and can sustain impacts of . The facade system of glass and aluminum panels installed into an inclined movement-resisting lattice contributes to overall lateral rigidity by tying back to the mega-columns with one-story high trusses at every eighth floor. This facade system is, therefore, able to withstand up to of seismic lateral displacements without damage. The facade system is also known as a Damper.


title: Taipei 101

text: The original corners of the facade were tested at RWDI in Ontario, Canada. A simulation of a 100-year storm at RWDI revealed a vortex that formed during a 3-second wind at a height of 10 meters, or equivalent to the lateral tower sway rate causing large crosswind oscillations. A double chamfered step design was found to dramatically reduce this crosswind oscillation, resulting in the final design's "double stairstep" corner facade. Architect C.Y. Lee also used extensive facade elements to represent the symbolic identity he pursued. These facade elements included the green tinted glass for the indigenous slender bamboo look, eight upper outwards inclined tiers of pagoda each with eight floors, a Ruyi and a money box symbol between the two facade sections among others.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101's own roof and facade recycled water system meets 20 to 30 percent of the building's water needs. In July 2011, Taipei 101 was certified "the world's tallest green building" under LEED standards.


title: Taipei 101

text: The height of 101 floors commemorates the renewal of time: the new century that arrived as the tower was built (100+1) and all the new years that follow (1 January = 1-01). It symbolizes lofty ideals by going one better on 100, a traditional number of perfection. The number also evokes the binary numeral system used in digital technology.


title: Taipei 101

text: The main tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures the number eight is associated with abundance, prosperity and good fortune.


title: Taipei 101

text: The repeated segments simultaneously recall the rhythms of an Asian pagoda (a tower linking earth and sky, also evoked in the Petronas Towers), a stalk of bamboo (an icon of learning and growth), and a stack of ancient Chinese ingots or money boxes (a symbol of abundance). Popular humor sometimes likens the building's shape to a stack of take-out boxes as used in Western-style Chinese food; of course, the stackable shape of such boxes is likewise derived from that of ancient money boxes. The four discs mounted on each face of the building where the pedestal meets the tower represent coins. The emblem placed over entrances shows three gold coins of ancient Chinese design with central holes shaped to imply the Arabic numerals "1-0-1". The structure incorporates many shapes of squares and circles to reach a balance between yin and yang.


title: Taipei 101

text: Curled ruyi figures appear throughout the structure as a design motif. Though the shape of each ruyi at Taipei 101 is traditional, its rendering in industrial metal is plainly modern. The ruyi is a talisman of ancient origin associated in art with heavenly clouds. It connotes healing, protection and fulfillment. It appears in celebrations of the attainment of new career heights. The sweeping curved roof of the adjoining mall culminates in a colossal ruyi that shades pedestrians. Each ruyi ornament on the exterior of the Taipei 101 tower stands at least tall.


title: Taipei 101

text: At night the bright yellow gleam from its pinnacle casts Taipei 101 in the role of a candle or torch upholding the ideals of liberty and welcome. From 6 to 10 p.m., the tower's lights display one of seven colors, according to a weekly schedule.


title: Taipei 101

text: From 26 February to 6 March 2022, the typical colors were replaced by blue and yellow in solidarity with Ukraine, in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Taipei 101

text: The adjoining Taipei 101 on the east side connects the landmark further with the symbolism of time. The design of the circular park doubles as the face of a giant sundial. The tower itself casts the shadow to mark afternoon hours for the building's occupants. The park's design is echoed in a clock that stands at its entrance. The clock runs on energy drawn from the building's wind shear.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101, like many of its neighboring buildings, exemplifies the influence of "feng shui" philosophy. An example appears in the form of a large granite fountain at the intersection of Songlian Road and Xinyi Road near the tower's east entrance. A ball at the fountain's top spins toward the tower. As a work of public art the fountain offers a contrast to the tower in texture even as its design echoes the tower's rhythms. The fountain also serves a practical function in "feng shui" philosophy. A "T" intersection near the entrance of a building represents a potential drain of positive energy, or "ch'i", from the structure and its occupants. Placing flowing water at such spots is thought to help redirect the flow of "ch'i".


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 is the first record-setting skyscraper to be constructed in the 21st century. It exhibits a number of technologically advanced features as it provides a center for business and recreation.


title: Taipei 101

text: The original 2004 fiber-optic and satellite Internet connections permitted transfer speeds up to a gigabit per second.


title: Taipei 101

text: The double-deck elevators built by the Japanese Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corporation (TELC) set a new record in 2004 with the fastest ascending speeds in the world. At per hour, per second, or 1,010 m/min, the speed of Taipei 101's elevators is 34.7 percent faster than the previous record holders of the Yokohama Landmark Tower elevator, Yokohama, Japan, which reaches speeds of per second (45 km/h, 28 mph). Each elevator features an aerodynamic body, full pressurization, state-of-the art emergency braking systems, and the world's first triple-stage anti-overshooting system. The cost for each elevator is NT$80 million (US$2.4 million).


title: Taipei 101

text: A The damper can reduce up to 40 percent of the tower's movements. The TMD is visible to all visitors on the 87th through 91st floors.


title: Taipei 101

text: Two restaurants have opened on the 85th floor: Diamond Tony's, which offers European-style seafood and steak, and Shin Yeh 101 (欣葉), which offers Taiwanese Hokkien cuisine. Occupying all of the 86th floor is Taiwanese restaurant Ding Xian 101. Din Tai Fung, several international dining establishments and retail outlets also operate in the adjoining mall. The multistory retail mall adjoining the tower is home to hundreds of fashionable stores, restaurants, clubs and other attractions. The mall's interior is modern in design even as it makes use of traditional elements. The curled "ruyi" symbol is a recurring motif inside the mall. Many features of the interior also observe "feng shui" traditions.


title: Taipei 101

text: The number 4 is considered an unlucky number in Chinese culture, so what would have been the 44th floor has been replaced by Level 43, with 42A replacing the actual 43 to compensate for the skipped floor number.


title: Taipei 101

text: As of 1 January 2011, the highest occupied office floor (excluding the observatory and restaurants) was 75. The building appears to be at least 70 percent occupied at this point.


title: Taipei 101

text: The 92nd through 100th floors are officially designated as communication floors, although it is unknown if there are any radio or TV stations currently broadcasting from the top of Taipei 101. The 101st floor indoor/outdoor rooftop observatory opened to the public on 14 June 2019.


title: Taipei 101

text: The top 10 floors are to have stated on their website to contain a radio and television relay station, Emergency system receiving/signaling relay station, telecommunications stations, and an outdoor antenna frame on 96F, which offers power, fire protection, telecom systems, and security related systems, according to their website.


title: Taipei 101

text: The 101st floor is home to a private VIP club named Summit 101, according to the observatory brochure. Before 2014, no information about this club was ever made public. In 2014, photos of the exclusive club were shown on TV for the first time. A Taipei Financial Center Corporation spokesman said that only foreign dignitaries, Hollywood film actors, and high spenders in the Taipei 101 Mall (over NT $1 million in purchases) had been invited to the VIP club.


title: Taipei 101

text: Access to the 101st floor requires two elevator transfers on the 89th and 93rd floors, respectively. There is only one service elevator that facilitates access to the top nine floors (93–101). The 101st floor is divided into three levels: 101F (lower), 101MF (mezzanine) and 101RF (roof). The VIP club exists on the lower level, while 101RF, a mechanical floor, provides access to the 60-meter tall spire, which has 24 levels (numbered R1 through R24) that can only be accessed via ladder.


title: Taipei 101

text: The Taipei 101 includes two high-speed observatory single deck elevators manufactured by Toshiba in cooperation with Kone, which manufactured the machines in almost all of its elevators. Their highest speed is 1,010 meters per minute (about 60.6 kilometers per hour). In 2016, the title for the fastest elevator was taken away by the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai. Shortly after, the title for the world's fastest elevator was passed on yet again to the Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre. The shuttle double deck elevators only serves 35F/36F and 59F/60F.


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 features an indoor observation deck on the 88th and 89th floors, and two outdoor observation decks (91st floor and 101st floor), all offering 360-degree views and attract visitors from around the world. The Indoor Observatory stands above ground, offering a comfortable environment, large windows with UV protection, recorded voice tours in eight languages, and informative displays and special exhibits. Here, one may view the skyscraper's main damper, which is the world's largest and heaviest visible damper, and buy food, drinks and gift items. Two more flights of stairs take visitors up to the Outdoor Observatory. The Outdoor Observatories, at and above ground, is the second-highest observation deck ever provided in a skyscraper and the highest such platform in Taiwan.


title: Taipei 101

text: The Indoor Observatory is open thirteen hours a day (9:00 am–10:00 pm) throughout the week as well as on special occasions; the Outdoor Observatory is open during the same hours as weather permits. Tickets may be purchased on site in the shopping mall (5th floor) or in advance through the Observatory's website and allow access to the 88th through 91st floors via high-speed elevator.


title: Taipei 101

text: In 2019, its 101 top floor opened for the first time to the public, starting 14 June with only 36 people given access each day. The 91st-floor observatory used to be the highest floor that open to the public until 14 June 2019 when it was announced by the building's management team that the 101st floor (at 460 m above sea level) will be opened to the general public, with a quota of 36 people per day and is subject to prior booking. Going onto the outdoor viewing platform requires safety equipment, such as a safety belt buckled to the railing.


title: Taipei 101

text: Many works of art appear in and around Taipei 101. These include: German artist Rebecca Horn's "Dialog between Yin and Yang" in 2002 (steel, iron), American artist Robert Indiana's "1-0" in 2002 and "Love" in 2003 (aluminum), French artist Ariel Moscovici's "Between Earth and Sky" in 2002 (rose de la claret granite), Taiwanese artist Chung Pu's "Global Circle" In 2002 (black granite, white marble), British artist Jill Watson's "City Composition" in 2002 (Bronze), and Taiwanese artist Kang Mu Hsiang's "Infinite Life" in 2013 (aluminum). Moreover, the Indoor Observatory hosts a regular series of exhibitions. The artists represented have included Wu Ching (gold sculpture), Ping-huang Chang (traditional painting) and Po-lin Chi (aerial photography).


title: Taipei 101

text: Taipei 101 was awarded the top award platinum rating, by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the globally recognized green building ranking system of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), making the skyscraper the tallest energy conservation building in the world.


title: Juan Perón

text: Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected President of Argentina three times, serving from June 1946 to September 1955, when he was overthrown by the "Revolución Libertadora", and then from October 1973 until his death in July 1974.


title: Juan Perón

text: During his first presidential term (1946–1952), Perón was supported by his second wife, Eva Duarte ("Evita"): they were immensely popular among the Argentine working class. Perón's government invested heavily in public works, expanded social welfare, and forced employers to improve working conditions. Trade unions grew rapidly with his support and women's suffrage was granted with Eva's influence. On the other hand, dissidents were fired, exiled, arrested and tortured, and much of the press was closely controlled. Several high-profile war criminals, such as Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann and Ante Pavelić, were given refuge in Argentina during this time.


title: Juan Perón

text: Though Perón was re-elected by a wide margin, his second term (1952–1955) was far more troubled. Eva, a major source of support, died a month after his inauguration in 1952. An economic crisis was ongoing, Perón's relationship with a teenage girl, Nelly Rivas, was revealed, and his plans to legalise divorce and prostitution damaged his standing with the Catholic Church. After he deported two Catholic priests and was thought to be excommunicated, pro-Church elements of the Argentine Navy and Air Force bombed Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, where supporters of Perón had gathered, killing more than 300 civilians in June 1955. The event in turn prompted violent reprisals against several churches. Within months, Perón lost his power in a military coup.


title: Juan Perón

text: During the following period of two military dictatorships, interrupted by two civilian governments, the Peronist party was outlawed and Perón was exiled. Over the years he lived in Paraguay, Venezuela, Panama, and Spain. When the Peronist Héctor José Cámpora was elected President in 1973, Perón returned to Argentina and was soon after elected President for a third time (12 October 1973 – 1 July 1974). Argentina joined the Non-Aligned Movement during this term. 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.


title: Juan Perón

text: Although they are still controversial figures, Juan and Eva Perón are nonetheless considered icons by the Peronists. The Peróns' followers praised their efforts to eliminate poverty and to dignify labour, 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.


title: Juan Perón

text: Juan Domingo Perón was born in Roque Perez, Buenos Aires Province, on 8 October 1895. He was the son of Juana Sosa Toledo and Mario Tomás Perón. The Perón branch of his family was originally Spanish, but settled in Spanish Sardinia, from which his great-grandfather emigrated in the 1830s; in later life Perón would publicly express his pride in his Sardinian roots. He also had Spanish, British, and French ancestry.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón's great-grandfather became a successful shoe merchant in Buenos Aires, and his grandfather was a prosperous physician; his death in 1889 left his widow nearly destitute, however, and Perón's father moved to then-rural Roque Perez, where he administered an estancia and met his future wife. The couple had their two sons out of wedlock and married in 1901.


title: Juan Perón

text: His father moved to the Patagonia region that year, where he later purchased a sheep ranch. Juan himself was sent away in 1904 to a boarding school in Buenos Aires directed by his paternal grandmother, where he received a strict Catholic upbringing. His father's undertaking ultimately failed, and he died in Buenos Aires in 1928. The youth entered the National Military College in 1911 at age 16 and graduated in 1913. He excelled less in his studies than in athletics, particularly boxing and fencing.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón began his military career in an Infantry post in Paraná, Entre Ríos. He went on to command the post, and in this capacity mediated a prolonged labour conflict in 1920 at "La Forestal", then a leading firm in forestry in Argentina. He earned instructor's credentials at the Superior War School, and in 1929 was appointed to the Army General Staff Headquarters. Perón married his first wife, Aurelia Tizón ("Potota", as Perón fondly called her), on 5 January 1929.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón was recruited by supporters of the director of the War Academy, General José Félix Uriburu, to collaborate in the latter's plans for a military coup against President Hipólito Yrigoyen of Argentina. Perón, who instead supported General Agustín Justo, was banished to a remote post in northwestern Argentina after Uriburu's successful coup in September 1930. He was promoted to the rank of Major the following year and named to the faculty at the Superior War School, however, where he taught military history and published a number of treatises on the subject. He served as military attaché in the Argentine Embassy in Chile from 1936 to 1938, and returned to his teaching post. His wife was diagnosed with uterine cancer that year, and died on 10 September at age 36; the couple had no children.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón was assigned by the War Ministry to study mountain warfare in the Italian Alps in 1939. He also attended the University of Turin for a semester and served as a military observer in countries across Europe. He studied Benito Mussolini's Italian Fascism, Nazi Germany, and other European governments of the time, concluding in his summary, "Apuntes de historia militar" ("Notes about military history"), that social democracy could be a viable alternative to liberal democracy (which he viewed as a veiled plutocracy) or totalitarian regimes (which he viewed as oppressive). He returned to Argentina in 1941, and served as an Army skiing instructor in Mendoza Province.


title: Juan Perón

text: In 1943 a coup d'état was led by General Arturo Rawson against democratically elected President Ramón Castillo. The military was opposed to Governor Robustiano Patrón Costas, Castillo's hand-picked successor, who was the principal landowner in Salta Province, as well as a main stockholder in its sugar industry.


title: Juan Perón

text: As a colonel, Perón took a significant part in the military coup by the GOU (United Officers' Group, a secret society) against the conservative civilian government of Castillo. At first an assistant to Secretary of War General Edelmiro Farrell, under the administration of General Pedro Ramírez, he later became the head of the then-insignificant Department of Labour. Perón's work in the Labour Department witnessed the passage of a broad range of progressive social reforms designed to improve working conditions, and led to an alliance with the socialist and syndicalist movements in the Argentine labour unions, which increased his power and influence in the military government.


title: Juan Perón

text: After the coup, socialists from the CGT-Nº1 labour union, through mercantile labour leader Ángel Borlenghi and railway union lawyer Juan Atilio Bramuglia, made contact with Perón and fellow GOU Colonel Domingo Mercante. They established an alliance to promote labour laws that had long been demanded by the workers' movement, to strengthen the unions, and to transform the Department of Labour into a more significant government office. Perón had the Department of Labour elevated to a cabinet-level secretariat in November 1943.


title: Juan Perón

text: Following the devastating January 1944 San Juan earthquake, which claimed over 10,000 lives and leveled the Andes range city, Perón became nationally prominent in relief efforts. Junta leader Pedro Ramírez entrusted fundraising efforts to him, and Perón marshaled celebrities from Argentina's large film industry and other public figures. For months, a giant thermometer hung from the Buenos Aires Obelisk to track the fundraising. The effort's success and relief for earthquake victims earned Perón widespread public approval. At this time, he met a minor radio matinee star, Eva Duarte.


title: Juan Perón

text: Following President Ramírez's January 1944 suspension of diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers (against whom the new junta would declare war in March 1945), the GOU junta unseated him in favor of General Edelmiro Farrell. For contributing to his success, Perón was appointed Vice President and Secretary of War, while retaining his Labour portfolio. As Minister of Labour, Perón established the INPS (the first national social insurance system in Argentina), settled industrial disputes in favour of labour unions (as long as their leaders pledged political allegiance to him), and introduced a wide range of social welfare benefits for unionised workers.


title: Juan Perón

text: Employers were forced to improve working conditions and to provide severance pay and accident compensation, the conditions under which workers could be dismissed were restricted, a system of labour courts to handle the grievances of workers was established, the working day was reduced in various industries, and paid holidays/vacations were generalised to the entire workforce. Perón also passed a law providing minimum wages, maximum hours and vacations for rural workers, froze rural rents, presided over a large increase in rural wages, and helped lumber, wine, sugar and migrant workers organize themselves. From 1943 to 1946, real wages grew by only 4%, but in 1945 Perón established two new institutions that would later increase wages: the “"aguinaldo"” (a bonus that provided each worker with a lump sum at the end of the year amounting to one-twelfth of the annual wage) and the National Institute of Compensation, which implemented a minimum wage and collected data on living standards, prices, and wages. Leveraging his authority on behalf of striking abattoir workers and the right to unionise, Perón became increasingly thought of as presidential material.


title: Juan Perón

text: On 18 September 1945, he delivered an address billed as "from work to home and from home to work". The speech, prefaced by an excoriation of the conservative opposition, provoked an ovation by declaring that "we've passed social reforms to make the Argentine people proud to live where they live, once again." This move fed growing rivalries against Perón and on 9 October 1945, he was forced to resign by opponents within the armed forces. Arrested four days later, he was released due to mass demonstrations organised by the CGT and other supporters; 17 October was later commemorated as Loyalty Day. His paramour, Eva Duarte, became hugely popular after helping organize the demonstration; known as "Evita", she helped Perón gain support with labour and women's groups. She and Perón were married on 22 October.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón and his running mate, Hortensio Quijano, leveraged popular support to victory over a Radical Civic Union-led opposition alliance by about 11% in the 24 February 1946 presidential elections


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón's candidacy on the Labour Party ticket, announced the day after the 17 October 1945 mobilization, became a lightning rod that rallied an unusually diverse opposition against it. The majority of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and most of the conservative National Autonomist Party (in power during most of the 1874–1916 era) had already been forged into a fractious alliance in June by interests in the financial sector and the chamber of commerce, united solely by the goal of keeping Perón from the Casa Rosada. Organizing a massive kick-off rally in front of Congress on 8 December, the Democratic Union nominated José Tamborini and Enrique Mosca, two prominent UCR congressmen. The alliance failed to win over several prominent lawmakers, such as congressmen Ricardo Balbín and Arturo Frondizi and former Córdoba governor Amadeo Sabattini, all of whom opposed the Union's ties to conservative interests. In a bid to support their campaign, US Ambassador Spruille Braden published a white paper, otherwise known as the Blue Book accusing Perón, President Farrell and others of Fascist ties. Fluent in Spanish, Braden addressed Democratic Union rallies in person, but his move backfired when Perón summarized the election as a choice between "Perón or Braden". He also rallied further support by responding to the "Blue Book" with his own "Blue and White Book", which was a play on the Argentine flag colors, and focused on the antagonism of Yankee imperialism. He persuaded the president to sign the nationalization of the Central Bank and the extension of mandatory Christmas bonuses, actions that contributed to his decisive victory.


title: Juan Perón

text: When Perón became president on 4 June 1946, his two stated goals were social justice and economic independence. These two goals avoided Cold War entanglements from choosing between capitalism and socialism, but he had no concrete means to achieve those goals. Perón instructed his economic advisers to develop a five-year plan with the goals of increasing workers' pay, achieving full employment, stimulating industrial growth of over 40% while diversifying the sector (then dominated by food processing), and greatly improving transportation, communication, energy and social infrastructure (in the private, as well as public, sectors).


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón's planning prominently included political considerations. Numerous military allies were fielded as candidates, notably Colonel Domingo Mercante who, when elected Governor of the paramount Province of Buenos Aires, became renowned for his housing program. Having brought him to power, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) was given overwhelming support by the new administration, which introduced labour courts and filled its cabinet with labour union appointees, such as Juan Atilio Bramuglia (Foreign Ministry) and Ángel Borlenghi (Interior Ministry, which, in Argentina, oversees law enforcement). It also made room for amenable wealthy industrialists (Central Bank President Miguel Miranda) and socialists such as José Figuerola, a Spanish economist who had years earlier advised that nation's ill-fated regime of Miguel Primo de Rivera. Intervention of their behalf by Perón's appointees encouraged the CGT to call strikes in the face of employers reluctant to grant benefits or honor new labour legislation. Strike activity (with 500,000 working days lost in 1945) leapt to 2 million in 1946 and to over 3 million in 1947, helping wrest needed labour reforms, though permanently aligning large employers against the Peronists. Labour unions grew in ranks from around 500,000 to over 2 million by 1950, primarily in the CGT, which has since been Argentina's paramount labour union. As the country's labour force numbered around 5 million people at the time, Argentina's labour force was the most unionized in South America.


title: Juan Perón

text: During the first half of the 20th century, a widening gap had existed between the classes; Perón hoped to close it through the increase of wages and employment, making the nation more pluralistic and less reliant on foreign trade. Before taking office in 1946, President Perón took dramatic steps which he believed would result in a more economically independent Argentina, better insulated from events such as World War II. He thought there would be another international war. The reduced availability of imports and the war's beneficial effects on both the quantity and price of Argentine exports had combined to create a US$1.7 billion cumulative surplus during those years.


title: Juan Perón

text: In his first two years in office, Perón nationalized the Central Bank and paid off its billion-dollar debt to the Bank of England; nationalized the railways (mostly owned by British and French companies), merchant marine, universities, public utilities, public transport (then, mostly tramways); and, probably most significantly, created a single purchaser for the nation's mostly export-oriented grains and oilseeds, the Institute for the Promotion of Trade (IAPI). The IAPI wrested control of Argentina's famed grain export sector from entrenched conglomerates such as Bunge y Born; but when commodity prices fell after 1948, it began shortchanging growers. IAPI profits were used to fund welfare projects, while internal demand was encouraged by large wage increases given to workers; average real wages rose by about 35% from 1945 to 1949, while during that same period, labour's share of national income rose from 40% to 49%. Access to health care was also made a universal right by the Workers' Bill of Rights enacted on 24 February 1947 (subsequently incorporated into the 1949 Constitution as Article 14-b), while social security was extended to virtually all members of the Argentine working class.


title: Juan Perón

text: From 1946 to 1951, the number of Argentinians covered by social security more than tripled, so that in 1951 more than 5 million people (70% of the economically active population) were covered by social security. Health insurance also spread to new industries, including banking and metalworking. Between 1945 and 1949, real wages went up by 22%, fell between 1949 and 1952, and then increased again from 1953 to 1955, ending up at least 30% higher than in 1946. In proportional terms, wages rose from 41% of national income in 1946–48 to 49% in 1952–55. The boost in the real incomes of workers was encouraged by government policies such as the enforcement of minimum wage laws, controls on the prices of food and other basic consumption items, and extending housing credits to workers.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón first articulated his foreign policy, the "Third Way", in 1949. This policy was developed to avoid the binary Cold War divisions and keep other world powers, such as the United States and the Soviet Union, as allies rather than enemies. He restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, severed since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and opened grain sales to the shortage-stricken Soviets.


title: Juan Perón

text: U.S. policy restricted Argentine growth during the Perón years; by placing embargoes on Argentina, the United States hoped to discourage the nation in its pursuit of becoming economically sovereign during a time when the world was divided into two influence spheres. U.S. interests feared losing their stake, as they had large commercial investments (over a billion dollars) vested in Argentina through the oil and meat packing industries, besides being a mechanical goods provider to Argentina. His ability to effectively deal with points of contention abroad was equally hampered by Perón's own mistrust of potential rivals, which harmed foreign relations with Juan Atilio Bramuglia's 1949 dismissal.


title: Juan Perón

text: The rising influence of American diplomat George F. Kennan, a staunch anti-communist and champion of containment, fed U.S. suspicions that Argentine goals for economic sovereignty and neutrality were Perón's disguise for a resurgence of communism in the Americas. The U.S. Congress took a dislike to Perón and his government. In 1948 they excluded Argentine exports from the Marshall Plan, the landmark Truman administration effort to combat communism and help rebuild war-torn European nations by offering U.S. aid. This contributed to Argentine financial crises after 1948 and, according to Perón biographer Joseph Page, "the Marshall Plan drove a final nail into the coffin that bore Perón's ambitions to transform Argentina into an industrial power". The policy deprived Argentina of potential agricultural markets in Western Europe to the benefit of Canadian exporters, for instance.


title: Juan Perón

text: As relations with the U.S. deteriorated, Perón made efforts to mitigate the misunderstandings, which were made easier after President Harry Truman replaced the hostile Braden with Ambassador George Messersmith. Perón negotiated the release of Argentine assets in the U.S. in exchange for preferential treatment for U.S. goods, followed by Argentine ratification of the Act of Chapultepec, a centerpiece of Truman's Latin America policy. He even proposed the enlistment of Argentine troops into the Korean War in 1950 under UN auspices (a move retracted in the face of public opposition). Perón was opposed to borrowing from foreign credit markets, preferring to float bonds domestically. He refused to enter the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (precursor to the World Trade Organization) or the International Monetary Fund.


title: Juan Perón

text: Believing that international sports created goodwill, however, Perón hosted the 1950 World Basketball Championship and the 1951 Pan American Games, both of which Argentine athletes won resoundingly. He also sponsored numerous notable athletes, including the five-time Formula 1 world champion, Juan Manuel Fangio, who, without this funding, would have most likely never competed in Europe. Perón's bid to host the 1956 Summer Olympics in Buenos Aires was defeated by the International Olympic Committee by one vote.


title: Juan Perón

text: Economic success was short-lived. Following a lumbering recovery during 1933 to 1945, from 1946 to 1953 Argentina gained benefits from Perón's five-year plan. The GDP expanded by over a fourth during that brief boom, about as much as it had during the previous decade. Using roughly half the US$1.7 billion in reserves inherited from wartime surpluses for nationalizations, economic development agencies devoted most of the other half to finance both public and private investments; the roughly 70% jump in domestic fixed investment was accounted for mostly by industrial growth in the private sector. All this much-needed activity exposed an intrinsic weakness in the plan: it subsidized growth which, in the short term, led to a wave of imports of the capital goods that local industry could not supply. Whereas the end of World War II had allowed Argentine exports to rise from US$700 million to US$1.6 billion, Perón's changes led to skyrocketing imports (from US$300 million to US$1.6 billion), and erased the surplus by 1948.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón's bid for economic independence was further complicated by a number of inherited external factors. Great Britain owed Argentina over 150 million pounds Sterling (nearly US$650 million) from agricultural exports to that nation during the war. This debt was mostly in the form of Argentine Central Bank reserves which, per the 1933 Roca-Runciman Treaty, were deposited in the Bank of England. The money was useless to the Argentine government, because the treaty allowed Bank of England to hold the funds in trust, something British planners could not compromise on as a result of that country's debts accrued under the Lend-Lease Act.


title: Juan Perón

text: The nation's need for U.S. made capital goods increased, though ongoing limits on the Central Bank's availability of hard currency hampered access to them. Argentina's pound Sterling surpluses earned after 1946 (worth over US$200 million) were made convertible to dollars by a treaty negotiated by Central Bank President Miguel Miranda; but after a year, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee suspended the provision. Perón accepted the transfer of over 24,000 km (15,000 mi) of British-owned railways (over half the total in Argentina) in exchange for the debt in March 1948. Due to political disputes between Perón and the U.S. government (as well as to pressure by the U.S. agricultural lobby through the Agricultural Act of 1949), Argentine foreign exchange earnings via its exports to the United States fell, turning a US$100 million surplus with the United States into a US$300 million deficit. The combined pressure practically devoured Argentina's liquid reserves and Miranda issued a temporary restriction on the outflow of dollars to U.S. banks. The nationalization of the Port of Buenos Aires and domestic and foreign-owned private cargo ships, as well as the purchase of others, nearly tripled the national merchant marine to 1.2 million tons' displacement, reducing the need for over US$100 million in shipping fees (then the largest source of Argentina's invisible balance deficit) and leading to the inauguration of the Río Santiago Shipyards at Ensenada (on line to the present day).


title: Juan Perón

text: Exports fell sharply, to around US$1.1 billion during the 1949–54 era (a severe 1952 drought trimmed this to US$700 million), due in part to a deterioration in terms of trade of about a third. The Central Bank was forced to devalue the peso at an unprecedented rate: the peso lost about 70% of its value from early 1948 to early 1950, leading to a decline in the imports fueling industrial growth and to recession. Short of central bank reserves, Perón was forced to borrow US$125 million from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to cover a number of private banks' debts to U.S. institutions, without which their insolvency would have become a central bank liability. Austerity and better harvests in 1950 helped finance a recovery in 1951; but inflation, having risen from 13% in 1948 to 31% in 1949, reached 50% in late 1951 before stabilizing, and a second, sharper recession soon followed. Workers' purchasing power, by 1952, had declined 20% from its 1948 high and GDP, having leapt by a fourth during Perón's first two years, saw zero growth from 1948 to 1952. (The U.S. economy, by contrast, grew by about a fourth in the same interim). After 1952, however, wages began rising in real terms once more.


title: Juan Perón

text: The increasing frequency of strikes, increasingly directed against Perón as the economy slid into stagflation in late 1954, was dealt with through the expulsion of organizers from the CGT ranks. To consolidate his political grasp on the eve of colder economic winds, Perón called for a broad constitutional reform in September. The elected convention (whose opposition members soon resigned) approved the wholesale replacement of the 1853 Constitution of Argentina with a new "magna carta" in March, explicitly guaranteeing social reforms; but also allowing the mass nationalization of natural resources and public services, as well as the re-election of the president.


title: Juan Perón

text: Emphasizing an economic policy centerpiece dating from the 1920s, Perón made record investments in Argentina's infrastructure. Investing over US$100 million to modernize the railways (originally built on myriad incompatible gauges), he also nationalized a number of small, regional air carriers, forging them into Aerolíneas Argentinas in 1950. The airline, equipped with 36 new DC-3 and DC-4 aircraft, was supplemented with a new international airport and a 22 km (14 mi) freeway into Buenos Aires. This freeway was followed by one between Rosario and Santa Fe.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón had mixed success in expanding the country's inadequate electric grid, which grew by only one fourth during his tenure. Argentina's installed hydroelectric capacity, however, leapt from 45 to 350 MW during his first term (to about a fifth of the total public grid). He promoted the fossil fuel industry by ordering these resources nationalized, inaugurating Río Turbio (Argentina's only active coal mine), having natural gas flared by the state oil firm YPF captured, and establishing "Gas del Estado". The 1949 completion of a gas pipeline between Comodoro Rivadavia and Buenos Aires was another significant accomplishment in this regard. The 1,700 km (1,060 mi) pipeline allowed natural gas production to rise quickly from 300,000 m to 15 million m daily, making the country self-sufficient in the critical energy staple; the pipeline was, at the time, the longest in the world.


title: Juan Perón

text: Propelled by an 80% increase in output at the state-owed energy firm YPF, oil production rose from 3.3 million m to over 4.8 million m during Perón's tenure; but since most manufacturing was powered by on-site generators and the number of motor vehicles grew by a third, the need for oil imports grew from 40% to half of the consumption, costing the national balance sheet over US$300 million a year (over a fifth of the import bill).


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón's government is remembered for its record social investments. He introduced a Ministry of Health to the cabinet; its first head, the neurologist Ramón Carrillo, oversaw the completion of over 4,200 health care facilities. Related works included construction of more than 1,000 kindergartens and over 8,000 schools, including several hundred technological, nursing and teachers' schools, among an array of other public investments. The new Minister of Public Works, General Juan Pistarini, oversaw the construction of 650,000 new, public sector homes, as well as of the international airport, one of the largest in the world at the time. The reactivation of the dormant National Mortgage Bank spurred private-sector housing development: averaging over 8 units per 1,000 inhabitants (150,000 a year), the pace was, at the time, at par with that of the United States and one of the highest rates of residential construction in the world.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón modernized the Argentine Armed Forces, particularly its Air Force. Between 1947 and 1950, Argentina manufactured two advanced jet aircraft: Pulqui I (designed by the Argentine engineers Cardehilac, Morchio and Ricciardi with the French engineer Émile Dewoitine, condemned in France in absentia for collaborationism), and Pulqui II, designed by German engineer Kurt Tank. In the test flights, the planes were flown by Lieutenant Edmundo Osvaldo Weiss and Tank, reaching with the Pulqui II. Argentina continued testing the Pulqui II until 1959; in the tests, two pilots lost their lives. The Pulqui project opened the door to two successful Argentinian planes: the IA 58 Pucará and the IA 63 Pampa, manufactured at the Aircraft Factory of Córdoba.


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón announced in 1951 that the Huemul Project would produce nuclear fusion before any other country. The project was led by an Austrian, Ronald Richter, who had been recommended by Kurt Tank. Tank expected to power his aircraft with Richter's invention. Perón announced that energy produced by the fusion process would be delivered in milk-bottle sized containers. Richter announced success in 1951, but no proof was given. The next year, Perón appointed a scientific team to investigate Richter's activities. Reports by José Antonio Balseiro and Mario Báncora revealed that the project was a fraud. After that, the Huemul Project was transferred to the Centro Atómico Bariloche (CAB) of the new National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and to the physics institute of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, later named Instituto Balseiro (IB). According to a recently aired History Channel documentary, the secrecy, Nazi connections, declassified US intelligence documents, and military infrastructure located around the remote facility all argue for the more likely objective of atomic bomb development. The Argentine navy actually bombed multiple buildings in 1955 – an unusual method of decommissioning a legitimate research facility.


title: Juan Perón

text: Eva Perón was instrumental as a symbol of hope to the common labourer during the first five-year plan. When she died in 1952, the year of the presidential elections, the people felt they had lost an ally. Coming from humble origins, she was loathed by the elite but adored by the poor for her work with the sick, elderly, and orphans. It was due to her behind-the-scenes work that women's suffrage was granted in 1947 and a feminist wing of the 3rd party in Argentina was formed. Simultaneous to Perón's five-year plans, Eva supported a women's movement that concentrated on the rights of women, the poor and the disabled.


title: Juan Perón

text: Although her role in the politics of Perón's first term remains disputed, Eva introduced social justice and equality into the national discourse. She stated, "It is not philanthropy, nor is it charity... It is not even social welfare; to me, it is strict justice... I do nothing but return to the poor what the rest of us owe them, because we had taken it away from them unjustly."


title: Juan Perón

text: In 1948 she established the Eva Perón Foundation, which was perhaps the greatest contribution to her husband's social policy. Enjoying an annual budget of around US$50 million (nearly 1% of GDP at the time), the Foundation had 14,000 employees and founded hundreds of new schools, clinics, old-age homes and holiday facilities; it also distributed hundreds of thousands of household necessities, physicians' visits and scholarships, among other benefits. Among the best-known of the Foundation's many large construction projects are the Evita City development south of Buenos Aires (25,000 homes) and the "Republic of the Children", a theme park based on tales from the Brothers Grimm. Following Perón's 1955 ousting, twenty such construction projects were abandoned incomplete and the foundation's US$290 million endowment was liquidated.


title: Juan Perón

text: The portion of the five-year plans which argued for full employment, public healthcare and housing, labour benefits, and raises were a result of Eva's influence on the policy-making of Perón in his first term, as historians note that at first he simply wanted to keep imperialists out of Argentina and create effective businesses. The humanitarian relief efforts embedded in the five-year plan were Eva's creation, which endeared the Peronist movement to the working-class people from which Eva had come. Her strong ties to the poor and her position as Perón's wife brought credibility to his promises during his first presidential term and ushered in a new wave of supporters. The first lady's willingness to replace the ailing Hortensio Quijano as Perón's running mate for the 1951 campaign was defeated by her own frail health and by military opposition. A 22 August rally organized for her by the CGT on Buenos Aires' wide Nueve de Julio Avenue failed to turn the tide. On 28 September, elements in the Argentine Army led by General Benjamín Andrés Menéndez attempted a coup against Perón. Although unsuccessful, the mutiny marked the end of the first lady's political hopes. She died the following July.


title: Juan Perón

text: The first to vocally oppose Perón's rule were the Argentine intelligentsia and the middle-class. University students and professors were seen as particularly troublesome. Perón fired over 2000 university professors and faculty members from all major public education institutions. These included Nobel laureate Bernardo Houssay, a physiologist, University of La Plata physicist Rafael Grinfeld, painter Emilio Pettoruti, art scholars Pío Collivadino and Jorge Romero Brest, and noted author Jorge Luis Borges who at the time was head of the National Library of Buenos Aires, was appointed "poultry inspector" at the Buenos Aires Municipal Wholesale Market (a post he refused). Many left the country and migrated to Mexico, United States or Europe. The theologian Herold B. Weiss recalls events in the universities:


title: Juan Perón

text: The labour movement that had brought Perón to power was not exempt from the iron fist. In the 1946 elections for the post of Secretary General of the CGT resulted in telephone workers' union leader Luis Gay's victory over Perón's nominee, former retail workers' leader Ángel Borlenghiboth central figures in Perón's famed 17 October comeback. The president had Luis Gay expelled from the CGT three months later, and replaced him with José Espejo, a little-known rank-and-filer who was close to the first lady.


title: Juan Perón

text: The meat-packers' union leader, Cipriano Reyes, turned against Perón when he replaced the Labour Party with the Peronist Party in 1947. Organizing a strike in protest, Reyes was arrested on the charge of plotting against the lives of the president and first lady, though the allegations were never substantiated. Tortured in prison, Reyes was denied parole five years later, and freed only after the regime's 1955 downfall. Cipriano Reyes was one of hundreds of Perón's opponents held at Buenos Aires' Ramos Mejía General Hospital, one of whose basements was converted into a police detention center where torture became routine.


title: Juan Perón

text: The populist leader was intolerant of both left-wing and conservative opposition. Though he used violence, Perón preferred to deprive the opposition of their access to media. Interior Minister Borlenghi administered "El Laborista", the leading official news daily. Carlos Aloe, a personal friend of Evita's, oversaw an array of leisure magazines published by Editorial Haynes, which the Peronist Party bought a majority stake in. Through the Secretary of the Media, Raúl Apold, socialist dailies such as "La Vanguardia" or "Democracia," and conservative ones such as "La Prensa" or "La Razón," were simply closed or expropriated in favor of the CGT or ALEA, the regime's new state media company. Intimidation of the press increased: between 1943 and 1946, 110 publications were closed down; others such as "La Nación" and Roberto Noble's "Clarín" became more cautious and self-censoring. Perón appeared more threatened by dissident artists than by opposition political figures (though UCR leader Ricardo Balbín spent most of 1950 in jail). Numerous prominent cultural and intellectual figures were imprisoned (publisher and critic Victoria Ocampo, for one) or forced into exile, among them comedian Niní Marshall, film maker Luis Saslavsky, pianist Osvaldo Pugliese and actress Libertad Lamarque, victim of a rivalry with Eva Perón.


title: Juan Perón

text: In 1938, Perón was sent on a diplomatic mission to Europe. During this time he became enamoured of the Italian fascist model. Perón's admiration for Benito Mussolini is well documented. Likewise he took as a model of inspiration the government of Ioannis Metaxas in Greece and Adolf Hitler in Germany, and his exact words in that respect were as follows:


title: Juan Perón

text: During his reign, Perón and his administrators often resorted to organized violence and dictatorial rule. He often showed contempt for any opponents; and regularly characterized them as traitors and agents of foreign powers; subverted freedom of speech and sought to crush any vocal dissidents through such actions as nationalizing the broadcasting system, centralizing the unions under his control and monopolizing the supply of newspaper print. At times, Perón also resorted to tactics such as illegally imprisoning opposition politicians and journalists, including Radical Civic Union leader Ricardo Balbin; and shutting down opposition papers, such as "La Prensa".


title: Juan Perón

text: Most modern scholars categorise Perón as a fascist leader. Carlos Fayt states that Peronism was just "an Argentine implementation of Italian fascism". Paul M. Hayes, meanwhile, reaches the conclusion that "the Peronist movement produced a form of fascism that was distinctively Latin American".


title: Juan Perón

text: Alternate viewpoints, however, do exist: Felipe Pigna, a revisionist historian, believes that no researcher who has deeply studied Perón should consider him a fascist. Pigna argues that Perón was only a pragmatist who took useful elements from all modern ideologies of the time; this included not only fascism but also the New Deal policies of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. To Pigna, therefore, Perón was neither fascist nor anti-fascist, simply realist; the active intervention of the working class in politics, as he saw in those countries, was a "definitive phenomenon."


title: Juan Perón

text: After World War II, Argentina became a haven for Nazi war criminals, with explicit protection from Perón, who even shortly before his death commented on the Nuremberg Trials:


title: Juan Perón

text: Author Uki Goñi alleges that Axis Power collaborators, including Pierre Daye, met with Perón at "Casa Rosada", the President's official executive mansion. In this meeting, a network would have been created with support by the Argentine Immigration Service and the Foreign Office. The Swiss Chief of Police Heinrich Rothmund and the Croatian priest Krunoslav Draganović also helped organize the ratline.


title: Juan Perón

text: An investigation of 22,000 documents by the DAIA in 1997 discovered that the network was managed by Rodolfo Freude who had an office in the Casa Rosada and was close to Eva Perón's brother, Juan Duarte. According to Ronald Newton, Ludwig Freude, Rodolfo's father, was probably the local representative of the Office Three secret service headed by Joachim von Ribbentrop, with probably more influence than the German ambassador Edmund von Thermann. He had met Perón in the 1930s, and had contacts with Generals Juan Pistarini, Domingo Martínez, and José Molina. Ludwig Freude's house became the meeting place for Nazis and Argentine military officers supporting the Axis. In 1943, he traveled with Perón to Europe to attempt an arms deal with Germany.


title: Juan Perón

text: After the war, Ludwig Freude was investigated over his connection to possible looted Nazi art, cash and precious metals on deposit at two Argentine banks, Banco Germanico and Banco Tornquist. But on 6 September 1946, the Freude investigation was terminated by presidential decree.


title: Juan Perón

text: Examples of Nazis and collaborators who relocated to Argentina include Emile Dewoitine, who arrived in May 1946 and worked on the Pulqui jet; Erich Priebke, who arrived in 1947; Josef Mengele in 1949; Adolf Eichmann in 1950; Austrian representative of the Škoda arms manufacturer in Spain Reinhard Spitzy; Charles Lescat, editor of "Je Suis Partout" in Vichy France; and SS functionary Ludwig Lienhardt;


title: Juan Perón

text: Many members of the notorious Croatian Ustaše (including their leader, Ante Pavelić) took refuge in Argentina, as did Milan Stojadinović, the former Serbian Prime Minister of monarchist Yugoslavia. In 1946 Stojadinović went to Rio de Janeiro, and then to Buenos Aires, where he was reunited with his family. Stojadinović spent the rest of his life as presidential advisor on economic and financial affairs to governments in Argentina and founded the financial newspaper "El Economista" in 1951, which still carries his name on its masthead.


title: Juan Perón

text: A Croatian priest, Krunoslav Draganović, organizer of the San Girolamo ratline, was authorized by Perón to assist Nazi operatives to come to Argentina and evade prosecution in Europe after World War II, in particular the Ustaše. Ante Pavelić became a security advisor of Perón. After Perón was overthrown in 1955, Pavelić, fearing extradition to Yugoslavia, left for Francoist Spain in 1957.


title: Juan Perón

text: As in the United States (Operation Paperclip), Argentina also welcomed displaced German scientists such as Kurt Tank and Ronald Richter. Some of these refugees took important roles in Perón's Argentina, such as French collaborationist Jacques de Mahieu, who became an ideologue of the Peronist movement, before becoming mentor to a Roman Catholic nationalist youth group in the 1960s. Belgian collaborationist Pierre Daye became editor of a Peronist magazine. Rodolfo Freude, Ludwig's son, became Perón's chief of presidential intelligence in his first term.


title: Juan Perón

text: Recently, Goñi's research, drawing on investigations in Argentine, Swiss, American, British and Belgian government archives, as well as numerous interviews and other sources, was detailed in "The Real ODESSA: Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina" (2002), showing how escape routes known as ratlines were used by former NSDAP members and like-minded people to escape trial and judgment. Goñi places particular emphasis on the part played by Perón's government in organizing the ratlines, as well as documenting the aid of Swiss and Vatican authorities in their flight. The Argentine consulate in Barcelona gave false passports to fleeing Nazi war criminals and collaborationists.


title: Juan Perón

text: Tomás Eloy Martínez, writer and professor of Latin American studies at Rutgers University, wrote that Juan Perón allowed Nazis into the country in hopes of acquiring advanced German technology developed during the war. Martínez also noted that Eva Perón played no part in allowing Nazis into the country. However, one of Eva's bodyguards was in fact an ex-Nazi commando named Otto Skorzeny, who had met Juan on occasion.


title: Juan Perón

text: The German Argentine community in Argentina is the third-largest immigrant group in the country, after the ethnic Spanish and the Italians. The German Argentine community predates Juan Perón's presidency, and began during the political unrest related to the 19th-century unification of Germany. Laurence Levine writes that Perón found 20th-century German civilization too "rigid" and had a "distaste" for it. Crassweller writes that while Juan Perón preferred Argentine culture, with which he felt a spiritual affinity, he was "pragmatic" in dealing with the diverse populace of Argentina.


title: Juan Perón

text: While Juan Perón's Argentina allowed many Nazi criminals to take refuge in the country following World War II, the society also accepted more Jewish immigrants than any other country in Latin America. Today Argentina has a population of more than 200,000 Jewish citizens, the largest in Latin America, the third-largest in the Americas, and the sixth-largest in the world. The Jewish Virtual Library writes that while he had sympathized with the Axis powers, "Perón also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and in 1949 established diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, the first Latin American government to do so. Since then, more than 45,000 Jews have emigrated to Israel from Argentina."


title: Juan Perón

text: Fraser and Navarro write that Juan Perón was a complicated man who over the years stood for many different, often contradictory, things. In the book "Inside Argentina from Perón to Menem" author Laurence Levine, former president of the US-Argentine Chamber of Commerce, writes, "although anti-Semitism existed in Argentina, Perón's own views and his political associations were not anti-Semitic..." Perón appointed several Jewish Argentinians as government advisers, such as his economic advisor, José Ber Gelbard. He favoured the creation of institutions such as New Zion (Nueva Sión), the Argentine-Jewish Institute of Culture and Information, led by Simón Mirelman, and the Argentine-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Also, he named Rabbi Amran Blum as the first Jewish professor of philosophy in the National University of Buenos Aires. Perón appointed Pablo Mangel, a Jew, as Argentina's first ambassador to that Israel. In 1946 Perón's government allowed Jewish army privates to celebrate their holidays, which was intended to foster Jewish integration.


title: Juan Perón

text: Argentina signed a generous commercial agreement with Israel that granted favourable terms for Israeli acquisitions of Argentine commodities, and the Eva Perón Foundation sent significant humanitarian aid. In 1951 during their visit to Buenos Aires, Chaim Weizmann and Golda Meir expressed their gratitude for this aid.


title: Juan Perón

text: U.S. Ambassador George S. Messersmith visited Argentina in 1947 during the first term of Juan Perón. Messersmith noted, "There is not as much social discrimination against Jews here as there is right in New York or in most places at home..." According to Raanan Rein, "Fewer anti-Semitic incidences took place in Argentina during Perón’s rule than during any other period in the 20th century.”


title: Juan Perón

text: Facing only token UCR and Socialist Party opposition and despite being unable to field his popular wife, Eva, as a running mate, Perón was re-elected in 1951 by a margin of over 30%. This election was the first to have extended suffrage to Argentine women and the first in Argentina to be televised: Perón was inaugurated on Channel 7 public television that October. He began his second term in June 1952 with serious economic problems, however, compounded by a severe drought that helped lead to a US$500 million trade deficit (depleting reserves).


title: Juan Perón

text: Perón called employers and unions to a Productivity Congress to regulate social conflict through dialogue, but the conference failed without reaching an agreement. Divisions among Peronists intensified, and the President's worsening mistrust led to the forced resignation of numerous valuable allies, notably Buenos Aires Province Governor Domingo Mercante. Again on the defensive, Perón accelerated generals' promotions and extended them pay hikes and other benefits. He also accelerated landmark construction projects slated for the CGT or government agencies; among these was the 41-story and 141 m (463 ft) high Alas Building (transferred to the Air Force by a later regime).


title: Juan Perón

text: Opposition to Perón grew bolder following Eva Perón's death on 26 July 1952. On 15 April 1953, a terrorist group (never identified) detonated two bombs in a public rally at Plaza de Mayo, killing 7 and injuring 95. Amid the chaos, Perón exhorted the crowd to take reprisals; they made their way to their adversaries' gathering places, the Socialist Party headquarters and the aristocratic Jockey Club (both housed in magnificent turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts buildings), and burned them to the ground.


title: Juan Perón

text: A stalemate of sorts ensued between Perón and his opposition and, despite austerity measures taken late in 1952 to remedy the country's unsustainable trade deficit, the president remained generally popular. In March 1954, Perón called a vice-presidential election to replace the late Hortensio Quijano, which his candidate won by a nearly two-to-one margin. Given what he felt was as solid a mandate as ever and with inflation in single digits and the economy on a more secure footing, Perón ventured into a new policy: the creation of incentives designed to attract foreign investment.


title: Juan Perón

text: Drawn to an economy with the highest standard of living in Latin America and a new steel mill in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, automakers FIAT and Kaiser Motors responded to the initiative by breaking ground on new facilities in the city of Córdoba, as did the freight truck division of Daimler-Benz, the first such investments since General Motors' Argentine assembly line opened in 1926. Perón also signed an important exploration contract with Standard Oil of California, in May 1955, consolidating his new policy of substituting the two largest sources of that era's chronic trade deficits (imported petroleum and motor vehicles) with local production brought in through foreign investment. Arturo Frondizi, who had been the centrist Radical Civic Union's 1951 vice-presidential nominee, publicly condemned what he considered to be an anti-patriotic decision; as president three years later, however, he himself signed exploration contracts with foreign oil companies.


title: Juan Perón

text: As 1954 drew to a close, Perón unveiled reforms far more controversial to the normally conservative Argentine public, the legalization of divorce and of prostitution. The Roman Catholic Church's Argentine leaders, whose support of Perón's government had been steadily waning since the advent of the Eva Perón Foundation, were now open antagonists of the man they called "the tyrant." Though much of Argentina's media had, since 1950, been either controlled or monitored by the administration, lurid pieces on his ongoing relationship with an underage girl named Nélida Rivas (known as Nelly), something Perón never denied, filled the gossip pages. Pressed by reporters on whether his supposed new paramour was, as the magazines claimed, thirteen years of age, the fifty-nine-year-old Perón responded that he was "not superstitious."


title: Juan Perón

text: Before long, however, the president's humor on the subject ran out and, following the expulsion of two Catholic priests he believed to be behind his recent image problems, a 15 June 1955 declaration of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation (not of Pope Pius XII himself, who alone had authority to excommunicate a head of state) was interpreted as declaring Perón excommunicated. The following day, Perón called for a rally of support on the Plaza de Mayo, a time-honored custom among Argentine presidents during a challenge. However, as he spoke before a crowd of thousands, Navy fighter jets flew overhead and dropped bombs into the crowded square below before seeking refuge in Uruguay.


title: Juan Perón

text: The incident, part of a coup attempt against Perón, killed 364 people and was, from a historical perspective, the only air assault ever on Argentine soil, as well as a portent of the mayhem that Argentine society would suffer in the 1970s. It moreover touched off a wave of reprisals on the part of Peronists. Reminiscent of the incidents in 1953, Peronist crowds ransacked eleven Buenos Aires churches, including the Metropolitan Cathedral. On 16 September 1955, a nationalist Catholic group from both the Army and Navy, led by General Eduardo Lonardi, General Pedro E. Aramburu, and Admiral Isaac Rojas, led a revolt from Córdoba. They took power in a coup three days later, which they named "Revolución Libertadora" (the "Liberating Revolution"). Perón barely escaped with his life, leaving Nelly Rivas behind, and fleeing on the gunboat ARP "Paraguay" provided by Paraguayan leader Alfredo Stroessner, up the Paraná River.


title: Juan Perón

text: At that point Argentina was more politically polarized than it had been since 1880. The landowning elites and other conservatives pointed to an exchange rate that had rocketed from 4 to 30 pesos per dollar and consumer prices that had risen nearly fivefold. Employers and moderates generally agreed, qualifying that with the fact the economy had grown by over 40% (the best showing since the 1920s). The underprivileged and humanitarians looked back upon the era as one in which real wages grew by over a third and better working conditions arrived alongside benefits like pensions, health care, paid vacations and the construction of record numbers of needed schools, hospitals, works of infrastructure and housing.