Tomas Eloy Martinez

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Tomas Eloy Martinez, an Argentine author and journalist famed for his writings about former President Juan Domingo Peron and his glamorous wife Eva, died Sunday. He was 75.

Martinez died in Buenos Aires after a long battle with cancer, family friend Carlos Diuk told the Associated Press.

Martinez was a columnist for The New York Times, Spain's El Pais newspaper and Argentina's La Nacion daily.

He lived a large part of his life in the United States, where in the late 1990s he headed the Latin American Studies program at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Some of his best-known works include "Santa Evita," "The Flight of the Queen" and "The Peron Novel" - combining fiction and reality about Argentina during and after the rule of the Peron's, the glamorous power couple that dominated the nation's politics in the 20th century.

"Santa Evita" was translated into more than 30 languages. He also wrote "The Passion According to Trelew" about the killing of members of a guerrilla group.

In 1975, Martinez was forced into exile by a right-wing paramilitary group created during the government of Isabel Peron. He went to Venezuela, where he became the editor of the El Nacional and founded the El Diario de Caracas.

He had a degree of Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Tucuman.

It was unclear when his funeral would be held.


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