NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAILY WEDNESDAY MAY 18, 1977[SANITIZED] - 1977/05/18

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02986746
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: May 18, 1977

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The
National Intelligence
Daily
3.5(c)
ENR
Published by the Director of Central Intelligence for Named Principals Only
WEDNESDAY MAY 18, 1977
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 115
Copy No. 2C1:
3.5(c)
E0 13526
3.3(b)(1)>25Yrs
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THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAILY
WEDNESDAY MAY 18, 1977 3
"*-MINNOMMtgtgitRAFORNANUal
3.5(c)
Argentina: Criticism from Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church in
Argentina has issued its first formal
criticism of the military government. It
is contained in a document signed by 67
of the nation's 84 bishops. Military
hard-liners could react by s i
tougher measures against dissent
In the document, drafted during their
semiannual conference, the bishops
catalog the reasons for their dissatisfac-
tion with political repression in the name
of counterinsurgency. Although expressed
in dispassionate terms, the statement is
unequivocally critical.
As their reason for going directly to the
people, the bishops cite the futility of their
numerous personal, unpublicized appeals
to government and military leaders. In
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perhaps the most telling portion of the
statement, the bishops say that "no theory
of collective security...can justify the
destruction of the human being's rights,
because social order and its
progress...must be subordinated to the
human being and not the reverse."
The bishops probably had difficulty
deciding to express their criticism openly.
Although it has been clear for some time
that many of them have serious mis-
givings about the regime, few sympathize
with leftist extremists. Like most Argen-
tines, the clerics see no real alternative to
the present regime. They are probably
concerned, in fact, that their criticism will
weaken the relatively moderate President
Videla, opening the way to still harsher
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repressive practices.
By going public with their criticism, the
bishops have thus taken a calculated risk.
While they clearly hope to add momen-
tum to the international efforts�notably
by the US�to curb human rights abuses,
their position could prove counter-
productive.
A number of military men will view the
church statement as an unwarranted in-
trusion into secular matters; some officers
may even conclude that the church sup-
ports�or at least sympathizes
with�subversion. The bishops' criticism,
therefore, could well cause military
hard-liners to redouble their efforts to
secure more stringent controls over all
aspects of national life. 3.5(c)
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