Aramburu's 1955 ban on Peronist symbols and expressions

Aramburu's 1955 ban on Peronist symbols and expressions made public remembrance of Juan Perón's government a criminal matter. Issued under the Liberating Revolution, it targeted images, names, and language associated with the deposed president and Eva Perón, while a broader purge recast Argentina's public landscape in the new regime's image.

Political Setting

The ban followed the collapse of Juan Perón's government amid mounting unrest. After the navy blockaded Buenos Aires and threatened the refineries, Juan Perón resigned and escaped aboard a Paraguayan gunboat. A military junta took power; after one general was deposed, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu promised to purge Argentina of Peronism.

The order emerged from this effort to displace the previous political order, not from a settled democratic transition. Its reach into public speech and everyday symbols made the purge more than a change of government: the new authorities sought to restrict how the defeated movement could be named and remembered.

Prohibitions and Penalties

In a radio address, Aramburu's government announced prison sentences of six months to three years for displaying images or sculptures of Juan Perón or his deceased wife, or publicly using words and phrases associated with Peronism and the fallen dictatorship. The prohibited expressions included references to Perón, Peronism, and the third way, as well as praise for the former government.

The rule thus treated both material emblems and spoken language as political acts subject to punishment. A portrait, a sculpture, or a public reference could fall within the same system of prohibition, linking control over visible symbols with control over political expression.

Enforcement and Public Erasure

The ban operated within a wider campaign carried out in the name of the Liberating Revolution. Union leaders were arrested and thousands of officials dismissed. Places named for Juan Perón—including cities, streets, stations, squares, and stadiums—were renamed; girls called Evita were given new first names. The measures extended to the legacy of Eva Perón: her foundation was closed, its sheets burned and cutlery melted down, while statues were toppled.

The authorities also exhibited mopeds and ornaments belonging to the fallen couple as evidence of their alleged vice and greed. These measures were not simply removals of official honors: taken together, they made the rewriting of names, objects, and public associations part of the political campaign. Eva Perón's embalmed corpse disappeared amid this dismantling of the former regime's symbols.

Political Significance

The ban's defining feature was its attempt to make political memory punishable. It reached beyond officeholders and institutions to the language people might use in public and the symbols they might display, while the surrounding purge altered place names and removed monuments and possessions associated with the Peróns.

The measures demonstrate the coercive character of Aramburu's promised purge: the government sought to break with Peronism not only by removing its officials but also by restricting the signs through which its supporters could recognize and invoke it. The resulting campaign made political authority visible in the ordinary vocabulary and landscape of public life.