Don't cry for me Argentina, and all that

I knew that Eva Perón was loved. I knew that she was controversial. I didn't know that she was so hated that her detractors celebrated her death in 1952 by writing "hurray, cancer!" in the streets, or that she was so loathed and feared by the anti-Peronist government that they would go to such lengths as stealing her remains and shipping them off to Italy.

When, in 1955, Juan Perón's government was overthrown by a military dictatorship, images of the Peronist era were seen as a threat to the new regime and systematically removed. Perón himself was sent into exile, their private home in the Recoleta neighborhood was razed (it's now the site of the public library) and Evita's beautifully preserved and iconic body was relocated so that it could not be used to rally support against them. 

The site where Eva actually died is now a public library

...with a cat

The same officers who helped overthrow the Peronist government stole Evita's remains, kept them in the offices of Military Intelligence for about a year, until (with help from the Vatican) they were buried in Milan under a decoy name. Fast forward about 15 years to another military coup. That dictator got Juan Perón, then living in Spain, to support the new government by (among other things) giving Evita back to him. Her body was with him in Spain for a few more years until he was re-elected to the presidency in Argentina. When he died, his third wife (president Isabel Perón) brought the body back to Argentina to help boost the image of her presidency. 

Images of Evita are allowed again

It didn't work. Another military coup happened in 1976, and Evita was finally buried 26 years after her death. She is in the Duarte family mausoleum at the beautiful Recoleta Cemetery.

Evita´s grave

The ironic part there is that some of the most wealthy families of Buenos Aires (read: Evita haters) are buried there as well. They say that she is buried among some of the people who hated her most.