Pope Francis, CIA and ‘Death Squads’

by Robert Perry Consortium News 2013

The election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis brings back into focus the troubling role of the Catholic hierarchy in blessing much of the brutal repression that swept Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, killing and torturing tens of thousands of people including priests and nuns accused of sympathizing with leftists.

The Vatican’s fiercely defensive reaction to the reemergence of these questions as they relate to the new Pope also is reminiscent of the pattern of deceptive denials that became another hallmark of that era when propaganda was viewed as an integral part of the “anticommunist” struggles, which were often supported financially and militarily by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

It appears that Bergoglio, who was head of the Jesuit order in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s grim “dirty war,” mostly tended to his bureaucratic rise within the Church as Argentine security forces “disappeared” some 30,000 people for torture and murder from 1976 to 1983, including 150 Catholic priests suspected of believing in “liberation theology.”

Much as Pope Pius XII didn’t directly challenge the Nazis during the Holocaust, Father Bergoglio avoided any direct confrontation with the neo-Nazis who were terrorizing Argentina. Pope Francis’s defenders today, like apologists for Pope Pius, claim he did intervene quietly to save some individuals.

But no one asserts that Bergoglio stood up publicly against the “anticommunist” terror, as some other Church leaders did in Latin America, most notably El Salvador’s Archbishop Oscar Romero who then became a victim of right-wing assassins in 1980.

Indeed, the predominant role of the Church hierarchy from the Vatican to the bishops in the individual countries was to give political cover to the slaughter and to offer little protection to the priests and nuns who advocated “liberation theology,” i.e. the belief that Jesus did not just favor charity to the poor but wanted a just society that shared wealth and power with the poor...

read more here

Pope Francis and the long shadow of Argentina's "Dirty War"

from Religion News

...

Led by Jorge Videla, the military government orchestrated a reign of terror that plucked political enemies from their homes and sent then to sadistic torture centers where they were often raped, drugged and subjected to mock executions before they were killed. A common practice was to throw victims out of planes flying over the ocean.

The victims are called “los desaparecidos” or “the disappeared,” and number as high as 30,000. Argentinians today are still searching for the remains of the disappeared and their living offspring – scores of babies were born in their parents’ torture chambers and given to military families to adopt.

Since the late 1970s, the so called “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” have gathered regularly in a famed Buenos Aires square to press for information about their children’s fate, and that of grandchildren they never met.

The Catholic Church in Argentina did not take a uniform stand on the Dirty War. Some priests backed the military, but others worked against it and died for their outspokenness.

But Bergoglio has been outspoken more recently. Argentina’s bishops apologized last year for failing to protect the junta’s victims. But the apology itself drew criticism, because it also blamed the leftists who — sometimes violently — opposed the  junta.

The apology left open the question, The Associated Press reported at the time, as to how much Catholic leaders knew of the junta’s atrocities. As pope, it still may be one that Francis will be called to answer.

 read more here

As Above So Below

by Scott Creighton

Fascist on parade in Argentina coming soon to a street near you. 

The leader of Argentina, a straight-up fascist named Javier Milei, made an appearance at CPAC to give The Elon a chainsaw he could figuratively use to do the same illegal hack-job to our country that he is doing to his.

Elon Musk waggled it around over his head in his ketamine-induced stupor (hence the sunglasses indoors on stage) promising to tear it all down as the crowd of pill-popping anarcho-capialists cheered on in a fevered potential-profit related orgasmic ecstasy.

Meanwhile, this is a photo of a retired person in Argentina protesting Milei's IMF-demanded cuts to pensions across the country. You see how the fascist regime deals with peasants over there. Get used to seeing it here.

The brave fascist cop points a loaded pump action riot gun at the head of an old lady. Such brave fascists am I right? 

Ketamine Junkie Elon Musk Shares Stage with Neoliberal Criminal Javier Milei at CPAC

by Scott Creighton

So high on his prescribed Ketamine, Elon Musk had to wear sunglasses on stage at CPAC so the cameras wouldn't pick up on his saucer-sized pupils. 

He gave a talk with some moderator guy in which Elon was clearly off his rocket high.

Then in the grand finale, criminal cryptoscammer Javier Milei brought out a chainsaw for Elon to wave around like the Texas Chainsaw killer. 

That's a good look: a criminal about to be impeached for corruption in Argentina gives a chainsaw to a tweaked-out robber baron live on stage.

No wonder the crowd hardly reacted at all.

 

Neoliberal Austerity Under Milei in Argentina Causes Massive Protests

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: and they recently did away with free universities. 

This is the same neoliberal Milton Friedman brick Trump and his cabinet of billionaires is going to dump on us here at home. Pay attention folks.

Their neoliberal 'libertarian' government has shut off access to medications in their previously universal plan that the aging retirees paid into their entire lives.

This will cause untold suffering and deaths. The U.S. media doesn't seem to notice. The Biden admin doesn't seem to care.

Putin outlines objectives for Russia’s BRICS presidency

from RT

Russia has assumed the one-year rotating presidency of BRICS following its groundbreaking expansion in 2023. President Vladimir Putin has vowed that Moscow will do its best to promote cooperation within the economic bloc.

In a statement released by the Kremlin on Monday – the first in 2024 – Putin hailed the expansion of BRICS, calling it “a strong indication of the growing authority of the association and its role in international affairs.”

In August, the bloc, which at the time included Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, agreed to admit Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates, while leaving the door open to accepting new members. Argentina, however, officially declined the invitation after its newly-elected president, Javier Milei, opposed the move, promising that the country would not “ally with communists” on his watch...

read more here

Billionaires' Neo-liberal Revolutionary: Javier Milei and Billionaire Revolution

An evaluation of Argentina's new Neo-liberal path an enlightening video by Shahid Bolsen.

Javier Milei Drops Pure Neoliberal Economic Brick on Argentina

by Scott Creighton

Javier Milei and the new 'economic reforms' he passed by decree. Pure Milton Friedman neoliberal economic brick stuff being forced on the people of Argentina.  Here are the first 29 of his 300 royal dictates that promise to cripple the economy for the general population while making the nation's super-rich even richer.

New Argentine president warns of ‘worse’ times ahead

from RT

In his first speech as Argentina’s president, Javier Milei gave his supporters some sobering news, warning that the country’s economic crisis will get worse before a recovery can begin because his predecessors left behind a nation mired in hyperinflation and fiscal shambles.

The self-described “anarcho-capitalist” warned that after a century of leftist rule, it won’t be easy to turn around Argentina’s wrecked economy. Austerity measures, including drastic cuts to government spending, will need to be employed immediately, which will result in even tougher economic conditions in the short term, he said.

“Today, it’s the start of a new era for Argentina,” Milei said on Sunday in his inaugural address in Buenos Aires. “Today we close a long and sad history of decadence and decline, and we take the road of reconstruction of our country.”...

...“There is no alternative to a shock adjustment,” Milei said, adding that the economy would worsen in the short term. “There is no money.”

The new president campaigned on pledges to fight corruption, eliminate the country’s central bank and replace Argentina’s volatile currency with the US dollar. He said voters had given him a mandate for “change that has no turning back.”..

read more here

Capitalism is failing all over the Americas! (Caleb Maupin video)