Argentina's Milei picks former neo-Nazi for key Treasury Solicitor General post
Argentine President-elect Javier Milei announced that right-wing lawyer and one-time neo-Nazi Rodolfo Barra was tapped as the nation's next Treasury Solicitor General upon taking office on December 10th.
Barra, 75, had earlier served as Justice Minister during the freewheeling Carlos Menem administration, until evidence emerged in 1996 that he had belonged to the neo-Nazi Nationalist Union of Secondary School Students (UNES) during his teens in the 1960s.
Barra then joined the fascist Tacuara Nationalist Movement - of which UNES was a high-school chapter - and on at least one occasion hurled tar balls at a Buenos Aires synagogue.
Tacuara attacked numerous Jewish temples and synagogues following the 1960 detention of Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann. Following a string of robberies and murders, they disbanded in 1966.
Barra's nomination was condemned by DAIA (the nation's foremost Jewish federation), the Argentine Jewish Appeal - and even the Argentine Forum Against Anti-Semitism, which is made up mostly right-wing Jews whose 'Together for Change' coalition has largely joined Milei's incoming far-right regime.
The key post - known in Spanish as the Procuración del Tesoro de la Nación - oversees the country's bar associations and the Argentine federal government's litigation powers, particularly in regards to economic disputes.
The office had most recently been at the center of controversy during right-wing President Mauricio Macri's 2015-19 tenure, when then-Procurador Carlos Balbín was sacked in 2017 after objecting to a $750 million payout to toll road operators in which Macri was a shareholder - and after which he sold his shares at a large profit.
At: https://www-pagina12-com-ar.translate.goog/690992-si-fui-nazi-me-arrepiento-quien-es-rodolfo-barra-el-procurad?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
"Herr Minister": A 1996 Noticias newsweekly cover features then-Justice Minister Rodolfo Barra (in Swastika, and in lower inset) after evidence of his high school-era membership in neo-Nazi groups emerged - leading to his resignation days later.
Relegated mostly to academia in later years - largely in institutions run by the right-wing Catholic sect Opus Dei - Barra re-emerged in public life this week when President-elect Javier Milei tapped him to lead the key Treasury Solicitor General post.
