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Just a few hours after the death of Argentina’s famous first lady in July 1952, Dr. Pedro Ara began embalming her body.
The plan was grand: to preserve Evita’s remains (as the people affectionately called her) using the latest technologies — paraffin and glycerin — much like Soviet specialists had embalmed Lenin and Stalin. Eva’s body was placed in the Ministry of Labor building, where a monument to the workers with a crystal sarcophagus at its base was planned.
However, in September 1955, her husband, President Juan Perón, was overthrown in a military coup and fled the country. The new military regime decided to “kidnap” Evita’s body, setting off a grim 16-year odyssey spanning several countries and continents, BBC reports.
A symbol they sought to destroy
During her lifetime, the former actress from a poor provincial family became a true spiritual leader of Argentina’s working class. For General Pedro Aramburu’s junta, which was trying to completely eradicate Peronism, Evita’s embalmed body posed a mortal threat — it could become an immensely powerful symbol of resistance.
The head of army intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Moori Koenig, kept moving the coffin around Buenos Aires, fearing attacks by Perón’s supporters. The body was hidden in a van on the capital’s streets, behind a movie theater screen, and even in the city waterworks building. But wherever the coffin ended up, fresh flowers and burning candles immediately appeared nearby.
Over time, Koenig moved the body into his office, placing the coffin upright. According to colleagues’ recollections, the officer literally went mad and became obsessed with the first lady’s remains. In 1957, he was removed from service, and the task of eliminating all traces was entrusted to Colonel Héctor Cabanillas.
The mysteries of Milan and the return to Madrid
Eva Perón’s body was secretly transported to Italy and buried in a cemetery in Milan under the false name María Maggi de Magistris (María Maggi de Magistris).
Despite the secrecy, Argentina did not forget its beloved figure: graffiti reading “Where is Eva Perón’s body?” constantly appeared on walls in Buenos Aires, and the demand to return her remains became the opposition’s main slogan.
In 1971, trying to reduce political tensions before a return to democracy, the military authorities agreed to return the remains to Juan Perón. The galvanized sarcophagus was delivered to the former president’s villa in a suburb of Madrid, where he was living in exile with his third wife, Isabel.
Legends grew around the Madrid period. According to one of them, the scandal-ridden minister and occultist José López Rega made Isabel lie next to Evita’s open coffin so that the first lady’s “political magic” would pass to Perón’s new wife.
Final resting place: a bunker 5 meters underground
In 1973, Juan Perón returned to Argentina and again took the helm of the country, but Evita’s body remained in Spain. Only after Perón’s sudden death in 1974 were the first lady’s remains finally transferred to Buenos Aires.
Restorer Domingo Tellechea, who was tasked with putting the body back in order after its many years of wandering, recalled that the work was смертельно dangerous: he received constant threats from ultra-right death squads that did not want the cult of Evita to return. Later, the craftsman even had to flee the country.
The final burial took place only in October 1976 at Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
To ensure that the remains would never be disturbed again:
The Duarte family vault was turned into a real underground bunker.
A hidden hatch was made in the marble floor, leading to the first underground chamber.
From there, a second hatch led even lower — to the chamber where the coffin was installed 5 meters below ground.
Even a quarter century after Eva Perón’s death, the power of her image and symbolism remained so strong that the authorities found it necessary to hide her body beneath several layers of reinforced concrete.
