MxM News

Quick Hit:

Argentine President Javier Milei has ordered the declassification of over 1,850 historical documents detailing the presence and activities of Nazi officials in Argentina following World War II. The move grants global public access to once-restricted files on high-profile Nazi figures, including Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann.

Key Details:

• The files are now publicly available online through an Argentine government portal.
• Notable entries document the postwar movements and false identities of infamous Nazi war criminals, such as Mengele and Eichmann.
• The declassified material was delivered to the Simon Wiesenthal Center to assist ongoing investigations into postwar Nazi financial networks.

Diving Deeper:

The decision by President Milei to declassify over 1,850 official records regarding Nazi officials in Argentina is a historic act of governmental transparency, and one that sheds further light on Argentina’s role as a haven for some of history’s most reviled war criminals.

Among the most chilling revelations are detailed police and immigration records concerning Josef Mengele, the SS doctor known as the “Angel of Death.” The files show Mengele arrived in Argentina in June 1949 using a falsified Italian identity under the name “Gregor Helmut,” facilitated by a passport issued by the International Red Cross. He successfully obtained Argentine legal status with help from the German embassy and remained in the country for years under official cover. Reports describe his profession as “manufacturer” and his later attempts to travel to both Chile and West Germany, supported by certificates of good conduct issued by local authorities.

Another document confirms that West Germany had requested Mengele’s extradition to face a life sentence, yet Argentina denied the request, citing procedural technicalities and taking no action—a decision that allowed Mengele to continue living in freedom in South America until his death in Brazil in 1979.

The files also include information on Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust’s “Final Solution,” who lived in Argentina until his dramatic capture by Israeli Mossad agents in 1960. Additionally, declassified material references Martin Bormann, Hitler’s personal secretary, and Walter Kutschmann, a Gestapo officer responsible for mass atrocities in Poland who lived under an alias in Miramar.

The Argentine government stated that these files were compiled through investigations by the Foreign Affairs Directorate of the Federal Police, the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE), and the National Gendarmerie from the 1950s through the 1980s. Until this release, the information could only be viewed in a tightly controlled section of Argentina’s General Archive of the Nation.

The newly declassified files were also handed over to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, supporting its research into financial ties between Nazi officials and institutions like the Swiss-based Credit Suisse. The decision follows a February agreement between President Milei and representatives of the center.

Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos made it clear that this release was at the personal direction of Milei, noting in March, “President Milei gave the instruction to release all documentation [on Nazis who fled to Argentina after World War II] that exists in any State agency, because there is no reason to continue safeguarding that information.”

(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

MxM News

Quick Hit:

During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. is prepared to move forward with a minerals agreement with Ukraine. President Trump has framed the deal as a way to recover U.S. aid and establish an American presence to deter Russian threats.

Key Details:

• Bessent confirmed during a Cabinet meeting that the U.S. is “ready to sign this afternoon,” even as Ukrainian officials introduced last-minute changes to the agreement. “We’re sure that they will reconsider that,” he added during the Cabinet discussion.

• Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko was reportedly in Washington on Wednesday to iron out remaining details with American officials.

• The deal is expected to outline a rare earth mineral partnership between Washington and Kyiv, with Ukrainian Armed Forces Lt. Denis Yaroslavsky calling it a potential turning point: “The minerals deal is the first step. Ukraine should sign it on an equal basis. Russia is afraid of this deal.”

Diving Deeper:

The United States is poised to sign a long-anticipated rare earth minerals agreement with Ukraine, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced  during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. According to Bessent, Ukrainians introduced “last minute changes” late Tuesday night, complicating the final phase of negotiations. Still, he emphasized the U.S. remains prepared to move forward: “We’re sure that they will reconsider that, and we are ready to sign this afternoon.”

As first reported by Ukrainian media and confirmed by multiple Ukrainian officials, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is in Washington this week for the final stages of negotiations. “We are finalizing the last details with our American colleagues,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told Telemarathon.

The deal follows months of complex talks that nearly collapsed earlier this year. In February, President Trump dispatched top officials, including Bessent, to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine to hammer out terms. According to officials familiar with the matter, Trump grew frustrated when Kyiv initially refused U.S. conditions. Still, the two sides ultimately reached what Bessent described as an “improved” version of the deal by late February.

The effort nearly fell apart again during Zelensky’s February 28th visit to the White House, where a heated Oval Office exchange between the Ukrainian president, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance led to Zelensky being removed from the building and the deal left unsigned.

Despite those setbacks, the deal appears to be back on track. While no public text of the agreement has been released, the framework is expected to center on U.S.-Ukraine cooperation in extracting rare earth minerals—resources vital to modern manufacturing, electronics, and defense technologies.

President Trump has publicly defended the arrangement as a strategic and financial win for the United States. “We want something for our efforts beyond what you would think would be acceptable, and we said, ‘rare earth, they’re very good,’” he said during the Cabinet meeting. “It’s also good for them, because you’ll have an American presence at the site and the American presence will keep a lot of bad actors out of the country—or certainly out of the area where we’re doing the digging.”

Trump has emphasized that the deal would serve as a form of “security guarantee” for Ukraine, providing a stabilizing American footprint amid ongoing Russian aggression. He framed it as a tangible return on the billions in U.S. aid sent to Kyiv since the start of Russia’s 2022 invasion.