Eva Peron given forced lobotomy after last speech urging Argentinians to "fight the oligarchy" (

As Nijensohn writes:

“Her last public speech, delivered on May 1, 1952, Labour Day in Argentina, was a call against her enemies. She also dictated a 79-page document, ‘My Message', showing evidence of her belligerence and violent state of mind. She spoke about the ‘enemies of the people’ who were ‘insensitive and repugnant,’ and ‘as cold as toads and snakes’. She exalted the ‘holy fire of fanaticism’. She was ‘against those imbeciles’ who called for prudence. She ordered the people of Argentina to ‘fight the oligarchy’.”


These weren’t just hollow threats. From her sick bed – and without her husband’s knowledge – she allegedly ordered 5,000 automatic pistols and 1,500 machine guns, with the aim of arming workers of the trade unions to form workers’ militias. The news would have been enough to tear apart the factions in Juan Peron’s allies, who already objected to Evita’s power and popularity. The country could have soon descended into civil war.



Was a lobotomy the president’s answer?


Since Nijensohn first looked at Evita’s medical records, he has contacted acquaintances of her surgeon, James Poppen, who he believes confirm his suspicions. His correspondents included one of Poppen’s nurses and close confidantes, Manena Riquelme, who admits that the operation took place without Evita’s consent.


Doctors had to create a make-shift operating theatre in a back room of the palace, she says; the security for the secret operation was so tight that an armed guard over-looked the proceedings. Perhaps the most disturbing detail of her account is fact that Poppen had first practiced the lobotomy on prisoners from Buenos Aires, at Juan Peron’s request. Clearly, he wanted his wife to survive the operation.


http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150710-the-gruesome-untold-story-of-eva-perons-lobotomy