Rock-throwing brawls between rival groups with competing claims on Juan Peron's legacy overshadowed the reburial of Argentina's former strongman, as his remains were hastily placed in a new mausoleum after the ceremony went awry.
"Viva, Peron!" hundreds of activists, politicians and labor leaders chanted on Tuesday afternoon as his flag-draped coffin was hand-carried to an atrium at his former weekend estate outside the capital.
It was the third reburial for Peron, who along with his glamorous wife Eva Peron dominated Argentine political life for decades, since he died in 1974 at age 78.
Supporters of Peron called for his body to be moved to a resting place more befitting a national hero, a place more grand than the crowded urban cemetery where grave robbers broke in and stole his hands in 1987.
But what had been scripted as a lavish ceremony to ensconce the former strongman in a US$1.1 million cement-and-marble mausoleum was disrupted by flying rocks, bricks and bottles, in ugly clashes that injured at least 40 people, according to reports.
Argentine media reported that the fighting between club-wielding groups on the fringes of a large and mostly peaceful crowd apparently involved members of rival labor factions of the Peronist Party angry about positions at the crowded ceremony. TV footage also showed one man who appeared to fire a handgun four times.
Authorities, however, could not immediately confirm the reports on possible causes or involvement by various groups, and labor leaders overnight pointed fingers at each other over responsibility for the violence in San Vicente, a small farming community 45km southwest of Buenos Aires.
Elected president three times, Peron radically reshaped Argentina by redirecting farm wealth to poor urban workers. He and his second wife became the country's leading 20th century power couple.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese