Martha Holgado, 72; claimed to be daughter of President Juan Peron

Martha Holgado, 72, who fought for recognition as the daughter of the late Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron despite DNA evidence to the contrary, died Thursday in Buenos Aires after an unspecified illness, her lawyer told the Associated Press.

Holgado claimed to be the product of an affair in the 1930s between Peron and her mother, a married socialite.

Holgado made the claim in a 1994 lawsuit filed in an Argentine court and in a book, “Peron, Mi Padre,” released in Argentina in 1993.

Last October, forensic experts were directed by the court to extract DNA samples from Peron’s remains, which had been removed from a Buenos Aires cemetery in preparation for reburial at a new mausoleum. The test found no biological evidence to support Holgado’s paternity claim.

Her lawyer, Santos Cifuentes, said he has asked the court for retesting, citing the findings of a private lab commissioned by Holgado in England that Peron’s bones contained too much formaldehyde to allow reliable results.

Holgado moved to California from Argentina in 1981. During the 1980s she worked in several Los Angeles law firms as an administrative assistant before retiring to San Clemente. In recent years she lived in a Buenos Aires apartment decorated with photographs of Peron, whose three marriages -- including his second, to the glamorous Evita Peron -- produced no children. The legendary leader died in 1974, during his third term as president.

Holgado’s son, Horacio Wieszezuk, plans to continue pressing his mother’s claim in court, Cifuentes said.