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Rise in Anti-Semitic Acts in Venezuela
By R. Hofner
The umbrella organization of all the Jewish organizations in Venezuela, CAIV, published its "Report on Anti-Semitism for 2013" in which it described an alarming rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the country during the past year. The report focuses on the government media and online social media in Venezuela. This rise was manifested despite the change in government as a result of the death of the revolutionary leader, Hugo Chavez, who launched anti-Semitic rhetoric and severed all ties with Israel.
The president of the organization, David Bitan, who also serves as vice president of the World Jewish Congress, noted that the sharp rise and frequency of anti-Semitic expression surfaced during the election campaign for the presidency in the spring of 2013, which presented Chavez's successor, Nicholas Madoro, as candidate, vying with the Opposition candidate, Enrico Caprilas Radonsky, who is of Jewish descent. After Madoro's victory, there was a small decline, but anti-Semitism still hung in the air.
"During 2013, we recorded 4,033 anti-Semitic statements through the various media, with a pronounced rise in March through May and a decline during October-December," Bitan revealed in the introduction of his extensive research report. The organization president urged the Venezuelan government to show more clout in the war against anti-Semitism, stating that the publication of this annual report is one of the main purposes of the CAIV organization. "This project would no longer be necessary if all government bodies showed an interest in eradicating Judeophobia, and specifically in our country. There exists the possibility of achieving this - but only if there is a consensus for it. If the government bodies acquired a genuine awareness to the damage being done to the country's image due to a passive policy which accepts the situation, and made steps to change it, I am convinced that the situation would change. I even venture to say that even more harm is caused to Venezuela itself through anti-Semitic manifestation than to its Jewish community."
Political experts claim that even post-Chavez Venezuela is still considered one of the most outspokenly anti-Semitic countries, where anti-Semitism is a definite government agenda serving economic interests as part of its persecution of the middle and upper classes. The emigration stream of Jews is ongoing, as witnessed by the fact that at the beginning of Chavez' tenure, Venezuela had a Jewish population of 25,000, while in 2010 only 9,000 still resided there. Today, there are only between 7,000 to 8,000 Jews remaining. Jews immigrate to such neighboring countries as Panama, Costa Rica, to the U.S. [primarily to Miami] and to Israel. As opposed to Europe, the Venezuelan general population was never really anti-Semitic by nature.
In the past, Madoro denied the accusation of his being anti-Semitic, and even admitted that his grandparents, who immigrated to Venezuela, were Jewish. But nonetheless, he is black-marked for a statement attributed to him that "Israel attempted to assassinate Chavez, just as it poisoned Yasser Arafat." Madoro never denied the statement but said, nonetheless, that he esteems and honors the Jewish people.
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