The Argentine government of Cristina Kirchner (Peronist) last week published a searchable database consisting of almost 6,000 public and secret documents made available and declassified by the Foreign Ministry. The diplomatic exchanges expose some of the darkest years of Latin American history, following the seizure of power by Argentine Commander Jorge Rafael Videla. The right-wing dictator headed a military coup in March 1976 that overthrew President Isabel Perón, wife of former President Juan Perón. The media has portrayed the revelation of diplomatic ties between Castro and Videla as an exposé of two equally reprehensible dictators, leaving serious political questions out of readers’ sight. This is not a coincidence, but a deliberate attempt to defame socialism by falsely portraying Castro as a “communist” dictator on a par with fascist military juntas, at a time when workers are engaging in class struggles worldwide. Videla’s regime is forever identified in history with its unspeakable crimes against workers and youth. He erected a violent and repressive police state, killing tens of thousands. Operations like the “Dirty War” and “Operation Condor” became synonymous with mass murder, “disappearances” and torture. Three US administrations (Ford, Carter and Reagan) were complicit in the seven-year bloodbath. Castro, replaced in 2008 by his brother Raul, came to power in 1959 through a petty-bourgeois nationalist revolution, as the collapse of the right-wing Batista regime catapulted him into power. His limited agrarian and social reforms and allegiance to Cuban Stalinism and the Soviet Union provided the foundation upon which he sought to present himself as a staunch opponent of imperialism.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 22:30:00 +0000
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