New banknote bears Eva Peron's image

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BUENOS AIRES, July 27 (UPI) -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said she wants the country's new 100-peso notes featuring the picture of Eva Peron to be permanent.

Fernandez said the Peron banknotes, which commemorate the 60th anniversary of the former first lady's death, are based on the design of a 5-peso banknote planned to be released following her 1952 death, but went unreleased due to the coup that toppled the regime of her widower, President General Juan Domingo Peron, the Buenos Aires (Argentina) Herald reported Friday.

Eva Peron, also known as Evita, was a popular figure with poor and working class Argentinians during her husband's administration due to her populist views. Fernandez said she would like the Peron banknotes to permanently replace the 100-peso notes bearing the image of controversial former President Julio Roca.

"It's a homage that we don't just owe to her, we owe it to ourselves," the Los Angeles Times quoted Fernandez as saying. "She wasn't perfect, she wasn't a saint. On the contrary ... she was an ordinary woman who had the immense fortune to find her place with a man and with a nation."