Tim Kaine's radical roots

According to the media, Tim Kaine took a life transforming "mission" trip to Latin America in 1980. Conveniently left out of these stories, are the radical reality of the Cold War in Latin America and Tim Kaine's Soviet sympathizing mentors. In fact, whatever Kaine's intentions, he more likely met Karl Marx than Jesus Christ while there.

Just how hardcore were his Jesuit teachers? Well, around the time Kaine was there, Jesuits were arrested for gunrunning, and, the next year, the Honduran government banned any more American Jesuits from coming to that country because of their left-wing activism.

They also expelled one American-born Jesuit, who also had to leave that religious community because he was too radical even for them. That priest was Father Jim Carney, and he was the one the New York Times us tells Kaine sought out across the border in Soviet-supported Nicaragua, taking a bus and then walking several miles to meet him.

Carney was a full-blown revolutionary. A recent New York Times report says his death was “murky” and hardened Kaine's distrust of American involvement in the region.

What isn't murky is what led to his death. In 1983, Carney was part of a 96-man unit that invaded Honduras to bring the Nicaraguan Communist revolution there too. The insurgents were Cuban and Nicaraguan trained and led by Jose Reyes Mata, Cuban-educated, and Honduras' top Marxist. Reyes Mata had previously served with Che Guevara in Bolivia.

After a firefight with Honduran troops, Reyes Mata was captured and killed. Carney was reported dead too. Some think he was captured and killed too. Kaine worried about American complicity in an extrajudicial killing, but he didn't seem bothered by Carney's participation in a Communist-sponsored insurgency and invasion of Honduras.

Tim Kaine's radical roots