Milei appoints former minister with pro-Nazi past as head of state lawyers

The president-elect of Argentina, the far-right Javier Milei, appointed Rodolfo Barra, a former Minister of Justice forced to resign in 1996 due to his past in pro-Nazi organizations, as the future head of the State’s Attorneys this Friday. The appointment, which will take effect on December 10, generated rejection from the Jewish community in Argentina, the largest in Latin America.

Barra, 75 years old, was in the 1990s one of the most powerful men in the government of Peronist Carlos Menem (1989-1999). After a stint in the Supreme Court, he left his position to take office as Minister of Justice in 1994. Two years later, a Peronist investigation revealed that he had joined the Tacuara organization, with Nazi and ultranationalist tendencies. Noticias magazine published his photo giving the Nazi salute when he was only 13 years old. The newspaper Página 12 revealed days later that he had been detained for a tar attack on a synagogue. Barra resigned on the eve of a large protest demonstration called by the Jewish community in front of the Casa Rosada. The terrorist attacks against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and against the Amia Jewish mutual fund in 1994, which left 85 dead, were still fresh.