[SANITIZED]STAFF NOTES: LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS MARCH 19, 1974 - 1975/03/19

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02693011
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 21
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: March 19, 1975

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No Foreign Dsiirn
Latin American Trends
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March 19, 197
No. 0501/75
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No Foreign Diooem/Background Uric Only
Controlled Dionem
Warning Notice
Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Classified by 005827
Exempt from general declassification schedule
of E. O. 11652, exemption category:
g 50 (1 ), (2); and (3)
Automatically declassified
on: Date Impossible to Determine
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LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS
This publication is prepared for regional specialists In tho Washington com-
munity by tho Western Hemisphere Division, Off ice of Current Intelligence,
with occasional contributions from other offices within tho Directorate of
Intelligence. Comments and queries are walcomo. They should be directed to
tho authors of tho individual articles.
CONTEN TS
March 19, 1975
Argentina: Catholic Church Raps
Lopez Rega
Argentina: New Movement On The
Left
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Argentina: Catholic Church Raps Lopez Rega
As if he did not have enough enemies already,
presidential adviser and confiliant Lopez Rega has
now incurred the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church
in Argentina. According to the papal nuncio, the
church hierarchy was highly offended by Lopez Rega's
recent invitation to an off-beat religious sect to
officiate at a mass dedicating the new "Altar of
the Fatherland"--a monument where Juan and Evita
Peron are to be laid to rest.
Lopez Rega, who is believed to be a practicing
spiritualist, arranged the ceremony presided over
by the American Orthodox Apostolic Catholic Church,
a small group founded by defrocked Catholic priests
who purportedly practice a mixture of spiritualism
and voodoo. This bizarre religious order is head-
quartered in Brazil where Lopez Rega frequently
travels--apparently for pseudo-religious purposes.
Lopez Rega's mysticism is a topic of considerable
public speculation and indignation has been expressed
in military, labor, business, and opposition party
circles.
Lopez Rega's troubles with the church have been
compounded by a quarrel between the federal admin-
istrator of Cordoba Province, Raul Lacabanne, and the
Roman Catholic leadership. Lacabanne, who is under
fire for his high-handed actions and abuse of civil
rights in Cordoba, is a political ally of Lopez Rega.
In a second display of poor judgment last week,
Lopez Rega opened himself to attack from critics on
yet another front. Accompanied by an entourage of
social welfare ministry minions and the presidential
press secretary, he made a brief trip to Misiones
Province, where he turned over seventeen ambulances
to a local hospital and gave several hundred thousand
dollars worth of subsidies and equipment to local
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organizations. Provincial elections are scheduled
early next month, and his trip has been widely in-
terpreted as government interference to ensure a
good showing for the Peronists. Lopez Rega's
blatant partisan gesture has already brought
private mutterings of disgust from some Peronist
politicians, and it is sure to elicit condemnation
from all opposition parties.
The social welfare minister's inveterate dab-
bling in spiritualist hokum and his unabashed ef-
forts to ingratiate himself with the voting public
will have a detrimental impact on Mrs. Peron's
political position and further weaken support from
key social and political sectors. In short, he
continues Jo be a major liability to the President.
(CON TIAL)
March 19, 1975
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Argentina: New Movement On The Left
The split in Peronist ranks was boldly under-
scored last week when an assemblage of dissident
left-wing Peroniuts, including some prominent for-
mer government officials, met in Buenos Aires to
launch the Authentic Peronist Party. To the sur-
prise of almost no one, the government responded
by sending police to diskand the meeting, claiming
that its sponsors had not obtained the proper per-
mit and that it violated the state of siege.
Organizational efforts have been under way for
some time now to put together a coalition of leftist
opponents to President Isabel Peron's rightist-
orien%ed Peronist government. Last week's abortive
rally was timed to coincide with the second anniver-
sary 0,7 the victory of Peron's Justicialist Libera-
tion Front (FREJULI) tn the elections on March 11,
1973. By holding the affair at the Nino Restaurant,
where Peron conducted negotiations with other politi-
cal parties to form FREJULI, the left-wing organizers
clearly hoped to make the point that they are the
legitimate heirs of Peronist doctrine.
Among the key backers the press cited former
president Hector Campora, who is said to be maintain-
ing permanent contact with the new party's supporters.
Campora has been living in self-imposed exile in
Mexico because of his fear of assassination at the
hands of right-wing death squads. His recently pub-
lished book entitled Peron's Mandate is a clear-cut
bid to establish himself as the true disciple of
Peron. Actually, Campora was held in contempt by
Peron and was forced to step down as ambassador to
Mexico whfle Peron was on his deathbed.
In addition to leftist Peronist luminaries such
as the deposed governors of several provinces, the
Authentic party evidently commands strong allegiance
March 19, 1975
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from radical Peronist youth and the Montonero guer-
rilla movement. In its declaration of principles,
the party pledged itseir to a "rwolutionary defini-
tion of Peronism" and denQunced the "commitments
contracted with imperialism behind the people's back."
Strong criticism was hurled at Mrs. Peron's admir-
istration for violating Peronist ideals and adopting
the same principles as the military dictatorships
that the Peronists fought to unseat.
The gatnering at the Nino Restaurant marks the
first endeavor by the fragmented left to unite
against the ruling orthodox Justicialist Party on
the national level. The left embarked on this path
several months ago in Misiones Province, where it
hopes to run candidates in the first electoral con-
test to be held since the Peronists returned to power.
With the elections less than a month away, the govern-
ment is stalling in granting legal recognition. At
first the left tried to gain entry on the ballot as
the Descamisado Party (named after Peron's "shirtless
ones"), but an electoral court prohibited the party
from using Peronist slogans or labels.
The government is apt to continue using all the
power at its discretion to prevent the inscription
of a rival Peronist party that might challenge it at
the polls. While the military will back the govern-
ment's measures to exclude a leftist political move-
ment from political participation, the potential
threat raised by the left will not be lost on of-
ficers who already believe that Mrs. Peron's constit-
uency has eroded considerably. (SC-El)
March 19, 1975
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