Recently I became aware of the fact that certain websites had published a libellous set of assumptions regarding an article I wrote some years ago. I tried to address the issue by writing to the Press Complaints Commission that said that they had no authority to put things right.
Being a Communist is no excuse to be ignorant, but this is something that does not apply to the authors of the said publication that show absolute ignorance regarding the history of Latin America and about how countries like Uruguay and Argentina came to exist.
Both countries were once part of what was called the Virreinato of the Rio de la Plata under Spanish Rule. The official name of Uruguay is Republica Oriental del Uruguay that in everyday English would mean ’Republic to the East of the Uruguay River’ . The inhabitants of Uruguay used to be seen as Eastern Argentine and they shared a common history.
The present country known as Uruguay came to be because of British mediation between beligerant parties – Argentina and Brazil. At a conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1828, a buffer State was created to put an end to a military conflict. All this is history that the said authors of the said publication don’t seem to have a clue about.
Next they say that my family owned slaves. Well, many landowner families during the colonial period in the American Continent owned slaves. I, personally, do not own any slaves. Having lived in Britain, I don’t think British laws would allow me to keep slaves. This is yet another fact that the Communist idiots seem to have overlooked.
Like most empires, including the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire and others, they profitted from slavery and slavery was then one of the tools of colonisation since without manpower the British, the Spanish, the Portuguese and others could not have achieved the aims of empire. Another fact that the Marxist weirdoes also seem to ignore with their delluded concepts about history.
Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States and one of the main authors of the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and other very much admired historic figures owned slaves in what became the United States of America and this was very much the case of many colonial landowner families not just in North America but also in other parts of the American Continent.
The said publication then accuses me of having ‘killed British soldiers in the South Atlantic War of 1982. They imply this without any factual information to prove what they say and acting only on the basis of their distorted views. This is the icing on the cake that goes to show how delluded they are since in fact I never set foot on any British territories before 1989. Their comments in this regard are absolutely libellous.
They then accused me of having a Nazi past. Given the fact that Nazi Germany came to an end in 1945 and that I was born in 1957, it would have been extremely difficult for me to have had a Nazi past and they should know that Dr. Who is just a television series made for the BBC.
There is a distinction between being ‘Pro-Nazi’ and being ‘Pro-German’ . Having said that, the confusion of our Marxist friends is understandable given their obvious levels of ignorance. There were German interests in Latin America long before World War Two.
In actual fact, Germans were involved in education, science, farming and hydroelectric infrastructure in the very same way the British built the railways, were in charge of banking, insurance, gas and meat processing, amongst other economic activities. So World War Two divided entire families and loyalties were divided and this had nothing to do with Nazism.
In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Latin America, and in particular the River Plate Region, was the scene of guerrilla activity and I make no bones about declaring on which side of the conflict I was. Had not been for the military, to the delight of my detractors most countries in Latin America would have been turned into Eastern European Style Oppressive Regimes. Examples are much too obvious and well-known to be mentioned.
