the chief of staff Minister of Peru, Aníbal Torres, raised a wave of repudiation this Thursday by mentioning Hitler’s highway construction program as a model to follow in Nazi Germany.
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“I’ll give you an example: Italy and Germany were the same as us. But on one occasion, Adolf Hitler visits northern Italy and (Benito) Mussolini shows him a highway built from Milan to Bresciasaid Torres, right-hand man of leftist President Pedro Castillo.
“Hitler saw that, he went to his country and filled it with highways and airports and made Germany the first economic power in the world”Torres added during a public session of the cabinet this Thursday in the Andean city of Huancayo, which Castillo later joined.
His words immediately generated the rejection of opposition and official politicians, as well as the German and Israeli embassies in Lima, prompting Torres to apologize hours later.
“Hitler was a fascist and genocidal dictator, in whose name the worst war of all time was carried out from Germany and a genocide of 6 million Jews was committed. Faced with this scenario, Hitler is not an adequate reference as an example of any kind“said the German legation on its Facebook page.
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‘Regimes of death and terror’
The Israeli embassy said that the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler are not examples of prosperity or progress.
“We regret that the Peruvian political discourse includes referents such as Hitler and Mussolini as an example of prosperity. Regimes of death and terror cannot be a sign of progress,” he shared on his Twitter account.
Hours later, at the close of the cabinet session and in the presence of Castillo, Torres said: “To the ambassador of Israel, if I have offended you, I apologize and we are going to talk personally.”
A shame that Prime Minister Aníbal Torres cites as an example a fascist and genocidal like Hitler
“If we had put as an example of the progress of Germany in the communication routes, it is a real fact. That is not to say that Adolf Hitler is not considered a great criminal,” he added.
The head of the Peruvian Congress, the opposition María del Carmen Alva, tweeted that “what was said by Prime Minister Aníbal Torres, praising the genocidal Hitler, has offended thousands of Peruvians.”
“A shame that Prime Minister Aníbal Torres cites as an example a fascist and genocidal like Hitlernow we understand where erroneous measurements come from [del gobierno] like the failed daytime curfew” decreed in Lima on Tuesday, said the ruling party legislator Alex Flores on the same social network.
Hitler launched the construction of highways in 1933. Although the idea was not original, since some had been built in Germany itself, the Nazis highlighted them in their propaganda as a symbol of the greatness of the Third Reich.
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Nearly 4,000 kilometers of “autobahnen” (highways) were built until work was halted in 1941 by World War II.
“We would have preferred that it not make reference to Hitler’s merits as a statesman. It is a nonsense that offends the six million victims of the Jewish genocide,” said the morning host of the RPP channel and radio, Fernando Carvallo.
It is not the first time in his two months in office that Torres, a 79-year-old lawyer, mentions Hitler, since in March he compared the imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori with the Nazi chief, stating that “no one is judged for their good deeds , he is judged for bad deeds.”
AFP
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