Isabel Martínez de Perón
María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón (born 4 February 1931), better known as Isabel Martínez de Perón () or Isabel Perón, served as the 42nd President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was the third wife of President Juan Perón. During her husband's third term as president from 1973 to 1974, Isabel served as both vice president and First Lady. Following her husband's death in office in 1974, Isabel served as president of Argentina from 1 July 1974 to 24 March 1976, when the military took over the government and placed her under house arrest for five years, before exiling her to Spain in 1981. She holds the distinction of having been the first woman to have had the title of "President", as opposed to a queen or prime minister.
Isabel Martínez de Perón
Although she lacked Evita Perón's charisma, the grieving widow at first attracted support from the nation. She pledged to uphold the social market economy policies embodied in the 1973 "Social Pact" as well her husband's long-held economic nationalism; her first significant economic policy decisions were the enactment of a new, pro-labor employment contract law and the granting to YPF of a monopoly over filling stations. Even extremist groups, having fallen out with Juan Perón in previous months, publicly offered support to her. However she cancelled meetings with various constituent and political groups, and the sympathy resulting from her husband's death soon dissipated. Her government purged most leftists from university posts and the administration, and (as her husband and other Argentine presidents had done) used Federal intervention powers to unseat leftist governors. Following a string of political murders and a break by the Montoneros with the government, on 30 September Perón signed the Anti-Terrorism Law. This was the first in a series of measures which eroded constitutional rights, ostensibly for the sake of combating leftist violence.