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Monday, December 4, 2023
Argentine president-elect taps ex-Nazi youth as attorney general of treasury
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Argentina’s libertarian president-elect Javier Milei causes a stir days before his inauguration, filling a top legal post with a former justice minister forced to resign in the 1990s over allegations of antisemitism.
Rodolfo Barra, 75, was named Friday as the attorney general of the treasury, responsible for counseling and representing the state in legal matters.
Barra was a judge of the Supreme Court and held several government posts in the 1990s, including that of justice minister from 1994 to 1996 under leftist president Carlos Menem. He was forced to resign from that post over the public outcry that ensued after a photo of him as a teenager, with his arm outstretched in a Nazi-style salute, was splashed across newspapers nationwide.
Several civic groups and opposition politicians are protesting against Barra’s appointment and urging Milei to reconsider.
“If as a youth I was a Nazi, I am sorry,” Barra said in 1996. On Saturday, he told LN+ TV: “I was a teenager, a teenager lacking maturity, knowledge. Many at this teenage age do crazy things, and I did this madness.”
Milei spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today, who thanked him for supporting the State of Israel and invited him to visit.
The Times of Israel Community.