Katyn echoes in Argentina

CAROLINA BIERNAT

Varsovia

Conferencia; The Katun Massacre. 75 years of struggles for the truth; 2018

Centrum Polsko-Rosyjskiego Dialogu i Porozumienia

The public reception of the Katyn massacre in Argentina during 1943 must be placed within the framework of the statements of its foreign policy, and how they were used by the different internal political actors. In the first place, it is essential to consider the Argentine neutrality during the Second World War. In the second place, neutralism was not only a fundamental concept of Argentine international policy during the Second World War, but it was an effective mobilizing myth of internal politics, used for opposite purposes by both pro-allies and supporters of the Axis.Thus, for example, the liberal political field supported the government neutralist position in 1939, and only began to demand a war declaration against the Axis after the United States entered the struggle, and begun its pressures at the Pan American Conference in Rio (1942). In addition, when the repressive and excluding policy of President Castillo towards of the opposition became visible in 1943, the liberal political field joined the left and condemned the neutralism to disqualify and fight against the government.On the other hand, although nationalism pronounced itself as neutralist, the justifications for defending it responded to a different ideological position. While the anti-imperialist nationalists wielded it to oppose US interference in local politics and economy, the philo-fascist nationalists did so to support the Axis powers. President Castillo used the support of this last group to resist the onslaught of internal opposition from the democratic front and US pressures (Senkman, 2007). It is in this domestic policy frame that it is interesting to analyse the news coverage about Katyn by the national circulation newspapers.