Peruvian prime minister's praise of Hitler sparks wave of protest
Aníbal Torres said his words were misunderstood but offered to apologize in person to Israeli ambassador Asaf Ichilevich
Dan Collyns in Lima
@yachay_dc
Thu 7 Apr 2022 18.26 EDT
The Israeli embassy in Lima has led a wave of protest after Peru’s prime minister Aníbal Torres praised Adolf Hitler, on the grounds that the fascist dictator turned Germany into the “first economic power in the world”.
In a week in which the government of Pedro Castillo has been engulfed in a political crisis caused by rising fuel and fertiliser prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and the president’s own blundering efforts to calm the unrest – Torres’ inopportune remark on Thursday drew opprobrium from all quarters.
“Regimes of death and terror cannot be a sign of progress,” read the Israeli embassy’s statement. “Hitler was responsible for the death of six million Jews, to praise him is an offense to the victims of that world tragedy.”
Speaking in Huancayo, the Andean town at the centre of the ongoing protests over soaring inflation, Torres praised the road-building initiatives of Hitler and the infrastructure-building example of Italy under wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/07/peruvian-minister-positive-remarks-hitler
= new reply since forum marked as read
