\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t A set of previously unknown documents revealed that late Argentine presidents Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n and Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn were Freemasons. The news put an end to decades of rumors about Per\u00f3n\u2019s alleged mason membership, although they also open new questions.<\/p>\n
The documents were made public by the Great Lodge of Argentina of the Free and Accepted Masons, which displayed them for the first time as part of their open-house exhibition at their headquarters during Saturday\u2019s Night of the Museums in Buenos Aires City.<\/p>\n
Argentine Grand Master Pablo L\u00e1zaro told news outlet Infobae that the Great Lodge, which is a federation made up of smaller lodges across Argentina, has been collecting documents for a long time for its general archive, and that\u2019s how they found these records.<\/p>\n
As part of that process, the masons found letters and documents directly mentioning Per\u00f3n and Alfons\u00edn as members of the lodge. Although not much information was revealed, further analysis of the files and potentially new documents could provide a better understanding of their participation in the once secret group.<\/p>\n
Per\u00f3n, finally confirmed freemason Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n was vastly speculated to be involved in masonry, although he publicly and harshly criticized the group during his lifetime. In the 1940s, before becoming president, he was part of a secret military lodge known as GOU which very sternly opposed masons.<\/p>\n
In 1970, Per\u00f3n gave a historic interview during exile to journalist Tom\u00e1s Eloy Mart\u00ednez in which he said masons were part of the \u201cinternational synarchy\u201d that overthrew his government in 1955, along with \u201ccapitalism, Zionism, communism, and the traditional clergy.\u201d In that same interview, however, he acknowledged masonry was key for Argentina to earn its independence from Spain in 1816.<\/p>\n
However, a never-before-seen document states that Per\u00f3n was actually a 33rd degree mason, the highest position a member of the lodge can get. This is mentioned in a letter written by the Great Lodge of Italy, dated April 27, 1958 \u2014 three years after the coup that overthrew him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The letter was sent to Per\u00f3n while he was staying in the Dominican Republic during his exile. It was also sent to Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza and presidents Carlos Armas (Guatemala) and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Lemub (El Salvador), who are mentioned to be 33rd grade masons as well.<\/p>\n
In the letter, Per\u00f3n is mentioned as \u201cSovereign Great Commander and Grand Master\u201d of masonry, meaning Per\u00f3n had reached the highest rankings of the lodge. The Italian masons asked him for financial help to fund the candidacies of some of its members in the legislative elections of that year in their country, saying that the situation was \u201cserious, complex and difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to L\u00e1zaro, Per\u00f3n apparently first started his path in masonry in Switzerland. \u201cDuring his exile, Per\u00f3n entered the Grand Lodge Alpina of Switzerland,\u201d L\u00e1zaro told Infobae. \u201cHe achieved grade 33 a few years later and returns to Argentina as a mason. A lodge that operated in Congress, the National Union Lodge, worked very hard for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Per\u00f3n definitively returned to Argentina in 1973 after almost 18 years of exile and military-enforced proscription, and was elected president for a third time that year.<\/p>\n
Alfons\u00edn, a masonic president Unlike Per\u00f3n, there was little to no information linking Alfons\u00edn to masonry. In 2022, L\u00e1zaro had publicly started Alfons\u00edn had been a mason, but said they lacked documentation to back the claim.<\/p>\n
Among the newly revealed documents is a form filled in by hand with Alfons\u00edn\u2019s details requesting entering the great masonic lodge dated Entre R\u00edos, 1974, complete with a black and white photo of an approximately 47 year-old Alfons\u00edn and his signature. He would become president of Argentina in 1983.<\/p>\n
In addition, the masons found a letter retelling a visit of Alfons\u00edn to the Chilean great lodge in 1983 to request their support for his presidential candidacy. The letter, seemingly written after Alfins\u00edn\u2019s passing in 2009, describes Alfons\u00edn as a \u201cdear brother,\u201d a term used to speak about fellow masons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had not had, since President Salvador Allende and up until now, a dear brother Mason who was a presidential candidate. Therefore, the visit of dear brother Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn was twice as attractive for Chilean brothers,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
For L\u00e1zaro, the documents regarding Per\u00f3n and Alfons\u00edn\u2019s \u201cnot only prove they were members\u201d of the masons, but also show they were active in it.<\/p>\n
Masonry in Argentina Argentina has a long history of masonic leaders, going back to the independence era, during the very beginning of the country as an independent nation. Independence heroes such as Jos\u00e9 de San Mart\u00edn and Manuel Belgrano \u2014 along with many others who worked for Argentina\u2019s independence \u2014 were masons, as well as other important leaders and presidents like Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Bartolom\u00e9 Mitre, Julio Argentino Roca and Bernardino Rivadavia, among many others.<\/p>\n
More modern mason political figures include President Arturo Illia, dictator Emilio Massera and current national deputy Julio Cobos.<\/p>\n
The Argentine Great Lodge describes itself as a \u201cphilanthropic, philosophical and progressive society\u201d dedicated to \u201cmorally and intellectually perfecting people.\u201d On their website, they claim to work to \u201ccontribute to the development of a more equal, fair and inclusive society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lodge is no longer a secret society, but rather \u201cdiscrete,\u201d as L\u00e1zaro described it. Its headquarters \u2014 called Palacio Cangallo, coincidentally on the street Per\u00f3n 1242 \u2014 open its doors to visitors from time to time. It has also been accepting female members for the past 24 years.<\/p>\n
Cover photo: letter from the Italian Grand Lodge confirming Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n was a Freemason.
\nSource: Infobae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A set of previously unknown documents revealed that late Argentine presidents Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n and Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn were Freemasons. The news put an end to decades of rumors about Per\u00f3n\u2019s alleged mason membership, although they also open new questions. The documents were made public by the Great Lodge of Argentina of the Free and Accepted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2137,3063,59,3064],"tags":[3060,3061,86,3062],"class_list":["post-8329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-juan-domingo-peron","category-masonry","category-politics","category-raul-alfonsin","tag-juan-domingo-peron","tag-masonry","tag-politics","tag-raul-alfonsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}