This is a guest post by Carlos T
For the benefit of friends who have been asking about the new pope and the allegations he was in with the dictatorship….
Impossible to be sure but I suspect it’s all bullshit. The government has made great efforts to find something that would gravely compromise him, without much success. Of course as a prominent Jesuit at the time he did have to make nice with the generals, as did everyone else. But if Argentine people are going to have to say sorry for what they did between 1976 and 1983 when the queue to do so is formed he’s going to be well behind many members/supporters of the government.
Bergoglio’s chief sin in the eyes of the govt has been his refusal to chant praise of Néstor and Cristina 24/7 like some other members of the hierarchy do. Had he been willing to join in the chorus there’d be no talk like this.
It’s also important to remember that his chief accuser is Horacio Verbitsky, (prominent revolutionary /terrorist in the 60s and 70s, now said to be one of the advocates of the Iran deal) – in theory a journalist but in fact someone with full access to the state intelligence services, so you’d imagine that if they had anything serious on him it would have come to light by now.
It’s also worth noting that pillars of the human rights struggle like Fernández Mejide and Pérez Esquivel have given a clean bill of health.
As for photographs of him with Videla, there are also photographs of Timerman and Hitchens with Videla and Catholic priests don’t get to pick who they give communion to.
