During the first Vargas Era in Brazil (1930-1945), and the first two administrations of Perón in Argentina (1946-1952 and 1952-1955), sport was an important political instrument. The control of the State over sport and its use by political propaganda aimed at creating a link of national identification between sport and government. For that reason, this article establishes a relationship between sport and politics in the two governments, comparing their public events - sports events, civic celebrations -, the production of their main sports periodicals, and State cultural productions, involving sport and the official ideology of the regimes.
political history; sports history; comparative history; varguism; peronism; sport