Grandfather's Nazi ties haunts Argentina's new Foreign Minister

The sudden resignation of Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein - four days before upcoming midterm elections - sparked fury in the far-right Javier Milei administration.

The announcement left the embattled Milei scrambling for a replacement that would be both credible and might enjoy the approval of U.S. President Donald Trump - who has announced a US$20 billion bailout of the heavily indebted Argentina.

The administration this morning announced that Pablo Quirno - currently Finance Secretary, and, like most of Milei's economic team, a JP Morgan veteran - would be promoted to the post, making him Milei's third foreign minister in two years.

Quirno, 59, has been widely described as Finance Minister Luis Caputo's right-hand man - which allowed Quirno to name two of his sons, Pablo and Marcos, to prominent Finance Ministry posts.

He was likewise at Caputo's right hand during the latter's disastrous 2017-18 run as Finance Minister, during which Argentina was similarly forced to seek Trump's intercession for a record, $56 billion IMF bailout.

Unlike Werthein, Quirno is reportedly well-liked by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other GOP figures. He also shares an alma mater with Trump: The Wharton School, from which he graduated in 1988.

Grandfathered

But replacing Werthein - Argentina's second Jewish Foreign Minister in its history - has created an unexpected controversy: Quirno's grandfather, Avelino Quirno - a onetime associate of a Belgian Nazi war criminal Hugo Byttebier.

Byttebier served in the German SS during World War II and was convicted of war crimes in absentia by a Belgian court in 1946. He escaped to Argentina via Casablanca in 1948 - and upon his arrival met the elder Quirno, then the scion of one of Argentina's prominent landowning families.

Quirno lent Byttebier his downtown Buenos Aires business address for use for legal purposes - an indication of deep personal as well as professional trust, in a country where sharing a business address can be tantamount to legal exposure.

Byttebier, like his two older brothers Michel and Marcel, was convicted of war crimes in relation to his role in the 1942-45 construction of the Atlantic Wall - a massive coastal defense system built by Nazi Germany in which Belgian, Dutch and French civilians were used as slave labor.

He died in Buenos Aires at 79 in 2004 - having never spent a day in court for his war crimes.

At: https://noticiaslainsuperable-com-ar.translate.goog/2023/11/26/quien-es-pablo-quirno-el-hombre-detras-de-caputo-para-ocupar-el-banco-central/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Stepping - some would say, goose-stepping - into his new role, Argentine Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno walks stiffly behind his boss, Finance Minister Luis Caputo.

Quirno was quickly promoted to the post of Foreign Minister - a post for which the JP Morgan veteran has no diplomatic experience - reportedly due to a good rapport with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been shepherding a $20 billion bailout for the bankrupt South American country.

Quirno - who had likewise served as Caputo's right-hand man during the latter's disastrous, 2017-18 run as Finance Minister - has also faced scrutiny over his placing two sons in high-level Finance posts, as well as his grandfather's ties to a convicted Belgian Nazi war criminal.