january 16,
2006
Hugo Chavez Scapegoats the Jews
As the economy gets worse in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez needs more than the U.S. to blame for his nation’s problems, so he’s begun to scapegoat the Jews.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has condemned Chavez’ comments in a Christmas Eve speech to the nation in which he said that “…some minorities (read “Jews”), descendants of those who crucified Christ…a minority took the world's riches for themselves.''
I pointed out in a piece last year that an important early advisor to Chavez was an Argentine Holocaust-denier named Norberto Ceresole. Ceresole believed that Latin America must forge alliances with Arab nations to fight against the United States and what Ceresole called "the Jewish financial mafia.”
Iran, although not Arab, has become an important ally to Chavez. Iran is headed by the anti-Semite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has denied the holocaust, threatened to wipe Israel off the map and has suggested Israel be moved to Europe. Ahmadinejad recently announced that Iran will convene a “scientific conference” to examine evidence concerning (read “deny”) the holocaust.
Chavez has funded his so-called Bolivarian (Pro-Castro Socialist) Revolution with oil money, even as he wrecks his oil industry through amazing mismanagement and neglect (See the second half of Mary Anastasia O'Grady’s Wall Street Journal piece). If world oil prices drop further this year as some have forecast, or even if they don’t, analysts project continued falling oil revenues for Venezuela. Watch the wheels begin to come off Chavez’s Bolivarian wagon, And watch for more scapegoating of Venezuela’s Jews.
