Violent clashes mar Peron reburial ceremony

A LAVISH reburial ceremony for Argentine strongman Juan Domingo Peron degenerated into violence, as rival factions hurled rocks and riot police dispersed them with rubber bullets and tear gas.

The fighting between club-wielding groups of men on the fringes of a mostly peaceful crowd of thousands resulted in at least 40 injuries, local media reported.

Televised footage also showed one man who appeared to fire a black handgun four times, the barrel smoking.

The violence was reportedly sparked by members of rival labour factions of the Peronist party angry about not being able to enter the ceremony. Authorities had no immediate confirmation on the motives for the battles and labour leaders later denounced the violence.

Riot police tightly ringed the flag-draped coffin topped by a military cap and sabre, as it neared the new €800,000 mausoleum built to house Peron’s remains on his former estate in San Vicente, a farming community 30 miles south-west of the capital Buenos Aires.

It was the third reburial for Peron since his death in 1974 aged 78. His supporters felt he deserved a more dignified resting place than the crowded urban cemetery where grave robbers broke in and stole his hands in 1987.

As Peron’s body was laid into the mausoleum, hundreds of supporters clapped, raised arms in a V-for-victory salute and yelled “Viva! Long live Peron!”

Before Peron’s body arrived, rival labour groups appeared to begin competing for viewing positions for the ceremony. Scuffles escalated into barrages of rocks, flying bottles, sticks and bricks, and the rival bands drifted to one of the compound’s entrances.

Scores of police, firing tear gas and rubber bullets, restored a tense calm for nearly three hours until a second bout of violence erupted just after Peron’s coffin arrived.