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This Happened

This Happened—December 20: A Devastating Car Bomb In Madrid

On this day in 1973, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, the prime minister of Spain was killed in Madrid after a massive bomb exploded under his car.

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Why was Carrero Blanco killed?

Carrero Blanco was killed in Madrid by the Basque separatist group ETA, targeted due to his support for the Franco regime and his attempts to suppress Basque autonomy and culture. The attack was seen as a major blow to the regime, especially as the health of longtime ruler Francisco Franco was failing. The Spanish opposition in exile didn't condemn the killing.

What was the aftermath of Carrero Blanco death?

Deputy Prime Minister Torcuato Fernández Miranda proclaimed himself prime minister, in accordance with the dispositions laid out in the Organic Law of the State. Fearing an uprising, he demanded that his security detail not hesitate to use deadly force if any clash occurred. Franco would die shortly after.

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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