After the end of WWII and the collapse of the Third Reich, South American countries became notorious as refuges for fleeing Nazis. From Adolf Eichmann to Josef Mengele, thousands of Nazis fled along the “ratlines”. Argentina, where president Juan Peron ordered the smuggling of Nazis and Fascists, became a prime destination for fleeing war criminals.
So, it’s doubly significant that Argentina has elected a president who, for all the media’s gibbering about “far right”, is fervently pro-Jewish. Indeed, Javier Milei, a Catholic by upbringing, has openly expressed an intention to convert to Judaism.
Breaking decades of policy precedent, Milei has gone further in his support of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government than perhaps any other world leader as Israel faces growing isolation over its bombardment and invasion of Gaza that has killed over 36,000 Palestinians and pushed the enclave to the brink of famine.
Of course, as a free-market libertarian, Milei is out of step with the prevailing left-wing character of South American governments — not to mention their hatred of Israel. Characteristically, Milei isn’t apologising.
“Among great nations that should be pillars of the free world, I see indifference in some and fear in others about standing on the side of truth,” Milei told Jewish community leaders at an event last month commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. It was a veiled swipe at Western powers — including the United States — for criticizing Israeli military conduct.
The crowd leapt to its feet in applause […]
As fighting raged in Gaza, Milei flew to Israel for his first foreign visit and praised Netanyahu without reservation. Following in the footsteps of former U.S. President Donald Trump, he pledged to move Argentina’s Embassy from a beachfront bastion near Tel Aviv to the contested capital of Jerusalem — aggravating an emotional issue at the heart of the conflict. Netanyahu called Milei “a great friend.” Hamas called him “a partner of the Zionist occupier.”
Last month, Milei’s government upended Argentina’s traditional recognition of Palestinian statehood, joining the U.S. and Israel to vote against Palestinian membership at the U.N.
The Morning Sun
Milei is also fighting against Iranian tentacles in South America, where it’s alleged that Hezbollah uses the region’s notorious drug trade to raise funds. Iran and Hezbollah are also suspected in 1994 bomb attacks on Jewish centres in Argentina. The “Triple Frontier”, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, has a large diaspora of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants. US and Argentine intelligence have long suspected Islamist activity and sympathies in the area.
Meanwhile, at the other end of Latin America, Mexican voters have elected a Jewish woman as their new president.
Mexican voters have elected the country’s first female president, a Jewish woman named Claudia Sheinbaum who leads the ruling party, Morena […]
She won the presidency with between 58.3 percent and 60.7 percent of the vote, the highest vote tally percentage in Mexico’s democratic history, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority.
The Jewish Press
Unlike Milei, though, Sheinbaum is a left-leaning climate scientist, given to babbling about The Science.
While the federal government was downplaying the importance of coronavirus testing, Mexico City expanded its testing regimen. Sheinbaum set limits on businesses’ hours and capacity when the virus was rapidly spreading, even though Lopez Obrador wanted to avoid any measures that would hurt the economy. And she publicly wore protective masks and urged social distancing while the president was still lunging into crowds.
Her supposed commitment to science, though, hasn’t led her to learn from the failures of other Latin American governments.
She blamed neoliberal economic policies for condemning millions to poverty, promised a strong welfare state and praised Mexico’s large state-owned oil company, Pemex, while also promising to emphasize clean energy.
PBS
Because “committing to clean energy” hasn’t made millions of people poorer anywhere else.
