In Argentina, despite the disaster of Juan Perón’s return to power in 1973, after an 18-year exile, Perónism was reincarnated in the 1980’s in the presidency of Carlos Saúl Menem, and again with the arrival of President Néstor Kirchner and, later, his wife, current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Fernández’s melodramatic speeches are a transparent attempt to elevate her late husband to saintly status, just as Perón elevated his wife, Evita, to sainthood.