News From Across the Border – Folha de S. Paulo, June 23, 1974

 

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

 

In my opinion, the current Argentine terrorism cannot be equated with the Castroist type, which spread years ago like erysipelas throughout South America.

Communists are certainly active in today’s Argentine terrorism. However, there is no evidence that they are in the majority. While it is true that the communist cause may reap substantial benefits from the current terrorist offensive in Argentina, these benefits will not be of the same kind as those that would have been brought about years ago by the victory of Cuban-style terror. The latter aimed directly at placing puppets at the head of various Latin American nations and carrying out bloody revolutions like the one in Cuba. The plan failed. Current Argentine terrorism has more subtle and intelligent objectives: to create a pre-communist situation that will only later evolve into declared communism.

I don’t think this maneuver will repeat Allende’s “revolution in freedom,” since that also failed. It must be something new.

What will this “something new” be like? I don’t know. But perhaps we can glimpse it by keeping our eyes on what is happening beyond our borders.

Perón, a dictator, is in power in Argentina. Now, the Catholic left in that country, so hostile to dictatorships during Lanusse’s time, has found a way to establish cordial relations with the current regime in Buenos Aires. With the aim, of course, of taking advantage of the situation to shape some kind of Christian Democratic dictatorship.

Is this it? It seems so…

* * *

From what we can see, Chilean Christian Democrats, astute as ever, are also planning a similar maneuver by playing a double game. One of their wings remains anti-dictatorial to preserve their revolutionary base. With unsurpassed resourcefulness, the other wing seems to be sitting on the steps of the throne occupied by the military Junta, manipulating, for its own benefit, the popularity, power, and police on which the new regime is founded.

I read a few days ago that left-wing Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic criticized his fellow party members who are part of the military junta government. According to him, one minister, four undersecretaries, and several directors-general are Christian Democrats. Tomic accuses these anti-democratic democrats of hypocrisy. This does not prevent them from continuing to sit side by side on the same Christian-Democratic perch.

Isn’t it baffling? Christian Democrats led Chile to communism, and as soon as an anticommunist government comes to power, there they are, smiling and ensconced in prestigious political and administrative positions. In noting this fact, I do not intend to publicly criticize the Chilean Junta, which is worthy of fervent sympathy on many sides. I don’t know what led it to accept this disconcerting Christian Democrat maneuver. Naiveté? Political inexperience? Some tactical need behind the scenes? I prefer to maintain an attitude of sympathy and friendly expectation.

However, I do note the Christian Democrats’ deceitfulness. Years ago, according to some observers, their party presented itself as so excessively democratic that its label’s “demo” element devoured the “Christian” element.

And now, already so unchristian, Christian Democrats show astonishingly anti-democratic tendencies.

What remains of the old, worn-out label?

Christian Democrats are viscerally “Kerenskyan” wherever they are found—among intellectuals, bankers, military personnel, and others. Whether wielding a dictator’s saber, a writer’s pen, a “toad’s” check, or an announcer’s microphone, they always pave the way for a communist regime.

Let’s see how this new form of “Kerenskyism” evolves…