Argentine strongman's corpse disturbed again for DNA samples in paternity claim

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Martha Delgado says even strangers comment that her facial features are strikingly similar to those of former President Juan Peron. But it took until now, at the age of 72, before she got the chance to prove her claim that she is the Argentine strongman's illegitimate daughter. Forensic experts extracted DNA samples on Friday from Peron's formaldehyde-cured body for a paternity test, the latest indignity endured by former leader and his adored wife Evita in their exceedingly strange afterlife. Removing 12 locks and a heavy bulletproof plate that guarded his coffin, investigators took bone samples under the watchful eye of a judge handling the paternity claims of Holgado, who went public long ago saying she was the product of a brief affair between Peron and her mother. Thwarted for decades by Argentina's military leaders and then by Peron's family, Holgado finally got her chance to obtain the DNA now that Peron's body is being moved to new US$1.1 million (€880,000) mausoleum outside of Buenos Aires to honor his legacy. "This for me is the end of a long lapse of time that was real agony, just agony," Holgado told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. "I want to have my identity and to live with my name and my identity that corresponds. It is my human right." Holgado's lawyer Santos Cifuentes and medical adviser Dr. Gustavo Penacino watched workers remove small bone fragments from Peron's leg and other parts of his body — enough material for thorough DNA tests by laboratories in Argentina and abroad that should be complete in six weeks, Penacino said. Peron, who was elected president three times before dying on the job in 1974, radically reshaped economic and political life by founding Argentina's still-dominant Peronist party 61 years ago. An authoritarian leader still widely admired by many and reviled by others, he and his glamorous wife Evita directed their nation's wealth to grateful legions of poor, urban workers. Some 25 federal police officers ringed the tomb in the Buenos Aires cemetery of Chacarita as medical experts got their first detailed look at the body since 1987, when tomb raiders hacked off the general's hands and stole them along with a saber, cap and other items. "Peron is recognizable but ... the body is desiccated," funeral director Dr. Ricardo Peculo said after examining the remains. He pronounced the corpse "very well preserved." "The body still has its features and some of the hair. The skin is still preserved," Peculo added. "Overall, the remains are in good condition save for the fact that the hands were amputated." Peron's body was injected with a formaldehyde solution after death to retard decomposition, he said, but the body was never embalmed like Evita's remains after her 1952 death from uterine cancer. He said no "reconstruction" of the body would be required before the expected cortege on Tuesday by thousands of Peronist faithful to a mausoleum some 60 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires. The move means Peron's remains are being disturbed for the third time since his death, offending some who think he should be left in peace. Others say the new destination is more fitting for a national hero. The new mausoleum also has room for Evita, whose body now rests in her family's crypt in the opulent Recoleta cemetery, a major Buenos Aires tourist attraction. Peron's family hopes to reunite the bodies, a possibility Evita's family has steadfastly rejected. Evita died at 33 and her body laid in state for weeks as thousands thronged to her coffin's open viewing. When military leaders overthrew Juan Peron in 1955, they were apparently so worried about a death cult that they secretly moved Evita's body to an unmarked grave in Italy. In 1971 it was delivered to Juan Peron's home in exile in Spain. Peron returned to power with his third wife, Isabel, and after his death in 1974, she brought Evita's body to rest by his side in the presidential residence in Buenos Aires. But after she too was ousted in a 1976 coup, the military quietly dispatched both bodies to their families' respective crypts. Many Peron followers scoff at Holgado's paternity claim, noting none of Peron's three marriages produced children. "The people are my only descendants," Peron famously said, a phrase even etched on his new mausoleum. Holgado wasn't present Friday, but her son watched workers struggle with the locks and then lift open a 375-pound (170-kilogram) plate installed after the 1987 crypt desecration. Some Buenos Aires lawmakers pressed Friday for investigators to find the missing hands — and the culprits. "It's been nearly 20 years since the mutilation of the remains ... and still this is unsolved," lawmaker Osvaldo Mercuri complained.