Isabel de Perón

Isabel de Perón, née María Estela Martínez (1931- ), president of Argentina (1974-1976), born in La Rioja. She was a ballet dancer before she met Juan Perón; she became his third wife in 1961. Elected vice president of Argentina in 1973, she succeeded her late husband as president in 1974. The first woman to head the government of a Latin American nation, she served during difficult, frequently bloody, political turmoil. Deposed by the military in 1976, she was found guilty of embezzlement and kept in detention until 1981, when she went into exile in Spain.