Argentina’s ‘Rasputin’ Surrenders in Miami

A Peron-era Cabinet minister and astrologer, sometimes called the “Rasputin of Argentina,” surrendered to the FBI here Thursday for extradition proceedings requested by the Argentine government.

Jose Lopez Rega, 69, is wanted in the South American country on charges including fraud, conspiracy, counterfeiting, theft and malversation, or corrupt conduct.

He wielded influence in the mid-1970s as astrologer, minister and personal adviser to President Maria Estela Peron, widow and successor of President Juan D. Peron.

As social welfare minister, Lopez Rega controlled large amounts of public money. Many Argentines believed that he also exercised undue influence over Maria Peron, just as the Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin is supposed to have influenced Czar Nicholas II.

A former police sergeant, Lopez Rega was persistently accused of sponsoring right-wing death squads made up of off-duty security officers.

Maria Peron was overthrown by a military coup in 1976, and corruption charges began piling up against the fugitive Lopez Rega, who left the country in July, 1975. He lived in exile for several years in Spain, where Peron also lives.

Recently, a woman requested a passport for Lopez Rega at the Argentine Consulate in Miami. When authorities in Argentina learned of the request, they filed extradition papers through the U.S. State Department.

A U.S. district court judge in Miami issued a warrant for Lopez Rega’s arrest, and the FBI began a search. FBI agent Paul Miller said Lopez Rega has had a residence “somewhere in south Florida.”

Lopez Rega was in the Bahamas when “he learned that we were looking for him,” Miller said.

“Contact was made with our agents, which resulted in his agreeing to fly in and surrender,” he said.

Miller did not reveal any terms of the agreement.

A private plane brought Lopez Rega from the Bahamas to Miami International Airport, where he was taken into custody Thursday morning. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Charlene Sorrentino on Thursday and she ordered him to be held without bond.