NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is appalled by renewed anti-Semitism in Venezuela, introduced by the reelection campaign of President Hugo Chavez.

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"If President Chavez wants to convince the world that Venezuela is a democracy, he needs to act now to show that there is no room for willful hate," said AJC Executive Director David Harris.

"In December 2008, Chavez joined with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a statement against discrimination and racism," Harris recalled. "Not for the first time, Chavez has made a mockery of this pledge. By his intolerant and anti-democratic actions, he has proven that he is a key part of the problem, and not, regrettably, the solution."

Henrique Capriles, who will face President Hugo Chavez in October´s presidential elections, has been the target of a steady, systematic barrage of attacks in Venezuelan media focusing on his Jewish heritage. Capriles, a practicing Catholic, is the grandson of Polish Jews who fled Nazi persecution. His mother's family perished in the Holocaust.

"The disgraceful use of anti-Semitic canards has been the norm for the Chavez government," said Harris. "Hateful rhetoric can have tragic consequences and must be rigorously opposed."

One recent article, for example, on the National Radio of Venezuela website, set the tone for subsequent attacks. In "The Enemy is Zionism: A Ravine as Promise" by Adal Hernandez, Zionism and Judaism are used interchangeably and in derogatory terms. Traditional anti-Semitic themes, including Capriles' alleged support from "international Zionism," seek to portray him as representing interests contrary to the aspirations of the Venezuelan people.

Harris expressed concern that "unwarranted attacks on Mr. Capriles may encourage an environment that led to the 2009 attack against a synagogue in Caracas." Indeed, on Saturday, a mob occupied another synagogue in the city before police intervened.

AJC has an association agreement with CAIV, the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela. Since Chavez came to power in 1999, AJC, through its Latino and Latin American Institute, has stayed in close touch with CAIV leaders, organized several solidarity missions to Caracas, encouraged wider support for the community, and hosted Venezuelan Jewish leaders at AJC conferences in the United States.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

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