Javier Milei’s government has suffered a new loss among its officials with the departure of its controversial Secretary of Religion, Francisco Sánchez, a man who, before taking office, had attacked Pope Francis and had fallen out with the Jewish and Muslim communities in Argentina. His replacement, announced by the Foreign Ministry, which is responsible for the area, will be provincial deputy Nahuel Sotelo, 29, a conservative Catholic, a denier of state terrorism and a fervent supporter of Milei. Like his political boss, Sotelo is noted on social media and, from there, in recent days he has drawn attention by calling Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, the Brazilian president, “trash.”
Born in Córdoba in 1995, Sotelo is a deputy in the Buenos Aires legislature and heads the La Libertad Avanza bloc, the party led by Milei. He is married to the Mexican Catholic activist Clara Cuevas.
He often presents himself as one of Milei’s first followers, even before the current president was elected deputy in 2021. He has direct access to the Casa Rosada, both to the president and to his sister, Karina Milei, known as “the boss”, and to the president’s main advisor, Santiago Caputo. His arrival at the Foreign Ministry can be interpreted as a new direct intervention by the presidency in the portfolio in charge of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diana Mondino, who has already seen her powers curtailed.
On his social media, where he is especially active, Sotelo portrays himself as a crusader for the far-right president. “Beacon of the world,” he defined him this Tuesday in a post on X; days before he had considered him “the best president in the world.” Also on that network he stated, last week, after the complaint for gender violence against former president Alberto Fernández, that “feminism at all times and in all places is a movement that deceives and uses women for political and economic ends.” Two days after the elections in Venezuela, on July 30, the imminent official of the Foreign Ministry wrote that “Lula is garbage like any person who supports [Nicolás] Maduro”. Last year it had been exhibited in Buenos Aires with Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula is trash, just like everyone who supports Maduro. No surprise there.
— Nahuel Sotelo (@nsotelolar) July 30, 2024
Denialism and visits to repressors
In the right-wing world, Sotelo became known with the book Letters from the 70s: the pain of the other sidePublished in 2018, the book highlights the victims of political groups that 50 years ago turned to armed struggle and advocates putting them on the same level as the victims of state terrorism implemented by the last military dictatorship (1976-1983). A project he presented as a deputy pointed in that direction, in which he proposed that on the Day of Remembrance the military “murdered by violent groups during the decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s” be remembered.
These are the same ideas promoted by Milei’s government, a discourse built around the premise that in Argentina there was no genocide perpetrated by state power, but rather a civil war. Thus, it seeks to cast doubt on both the judicial rulings and the convictions for human rights violations during the dictatorship and the trials still underway.
With these arguments, Sotelo has acknowledged his visits to prisons to see repressors detained for crimes against humanity, whom he considers “unjustly imprisoned soldiers who were in the last two armed conflicts that our country faced, the fight against subversion and the Malvinas war,” as he detailed on his social networks.
The affinity of officials, legislators and activists of La Libertad Avanza with detained repressors is a sensitive issue for the Catholic Church. Last month, a delegation of six “libertarian” deputies visited the Ezeiza prison and met with those convicted of homicide, kidnapping and torture such as Alfredo Astiz, Raúl Guglielminetti, Adolfo Donda and Antonio Pernías, among others, to discuss possible ways for them to leave prison. Along with the condemnations, requests for sanctions for the legislators and the opening of a judicial investigation, it was learned that the excursion had among its organizers a priest, Javier Olivera Ravasi —son of Jorge Olivera, a military man with three life sentences—.
The ecclesiastical authorities had to clarify, through their spokesperson, that “what was expressed and acted by the priest Javier Olivera Ravasi in relation to the visit of a group of deputies to the Ezeiza prison does not correspond to the thinking or the attitude of the Argentine Episcopal Conference.” In addition, this week the Bishopric of Zárate-Campana —where Olivera Ravasi was serving— withdrew his permission to carry out pastoral activities in the face of “numerous complaints based on his expressions and attitudes that were opposed to Christian testimony.” Pope Francis himself expressed his concern about the visit to convicted repressors and in recent days he met with two relatives of victims of the Argentine dictatorship.
A conflicted predecessor
Francisco Sánchez’s departure from the secretariat that links the Government with religious beliefs was not a surprise. His appointment, at the beginning of Milei’s administration, had already been complex due to his background. The former Neuquén deputy, aged 50, had said about Jorge Bergoglio that he had never seen a Pope who “had done so much harm” and had spoken pejoratively of “international Zionism” and the “Islamic hordes”.
After apologising for these comments, he managed to be appointed as Secretary of Religion at the end of February. But he was never able to establish a good relationship with the main religious communities in the country. The Executive also questioned him for his trips abroad financed by public funds – an issue for which Milei himself is also accused. In total, in five months as Secretary, Sánchez made four trips abroad and two within the country. Last May he had participated in a meeting of the ultra-right party Vox in Spain, where he spoke out against divorce, legal abortion and marriage between people of the same sex, among other things.
Although Sánchez assured that he was leaving the Ministry of Religion for personal reasons, the Rosada let it be known that he was fired.
Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
#Milei #chooses #conservative #Catholic #denier #dictatorship #lead #relations #religious #communities