For those who believe Hugo Chavez was anything other than an anti-Semitic thug, or even that he 'wasn't so bad,' please consider this account by Ayelet Bar Naim who
lived in Venezuela and was not sorry to see Chavez go.
Chávez's
many anti-Jewish statements in the media, like calling Jews pigs,
denying the Holocaust and accusing Israel of genocide against the
Palestinians, contributed to an atmosphere of anti-Semitism that grew
worse year by year. Suddenly it became frightening to walk down the
street after dark, for fear of being harassed. Our synagogues and Jewish
community buildings were spray-painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic
slogans and there was a feeling that Chávez was egging on the populace
and speaking the "people's language" against the Jews.
He was always quick to
say that Venezuela's large businesses are controlled by Jews "stealing
the nation's money," and we felt the results directly in our bottom
lines. Everyone in the Jewish community felt their financial situation
decline over time. I particularly remember the closing of a large
Jewish-owned shopping mall in Caracas. Chávez decided to nationalize the
property for the benefit of the state. Because many of the mall's shop
owners were Jewish, we felt that the motive was anti-Semitism, pure and
simple.
The Jewish community
did not merely suffer from economic harassment. Government operatives
would frequently follow children from rich Jewish families in order to
kidnap them and demand ransom. In other instances, after Chávez had
gained control of the police and the army, the defense forces would
occasionally place a closure on the Jewish community schools, with the
children inside and their parents unable to gain access to them. The
pretext was that the Jews had hidden weapons inside and that searches
had to be conducted to confiscate them.
The harassment, restrictions and
overall atmosphere made my life as a Jew in Venezuela unbearable. But I
hoped that the nation would have its say and replace Chávez with another
leader. What finally broke my resolve and "persuaded" me to leave
everything behind and accede to my husband's urgent pleas to leave was a
law passed by Chávez concerning children. This law stipulated that
children up to the age of 3 belong to their parents, afterward until the
age of 10 they move to a school that is under control of the
government, and from 10 until age 18 they study in a military boarding
school. From that moment I understood that my future and the future of
my children lies elsewhere. Almost all of our family agreed to come to
Israel with us, and the rest fled to the United States, Spain, Peru and
other countries.
More
here.
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