“Pro-Zionist Rats”: Venezuelan Media Attack Chavez Opposition

This article has been adapted from an original communique courtesy of ReporteHonesto, HR’s Latin American affiliate.

With elections approaching in Venezuela, opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski – and especially his Jewish background – has become a lightening rod for criticism from state run media and supporters of Hugo Chavez.

Some of it clearly crosses into anti-Semitism.

Here, HR’s Latin American affiliate, ReporteHonesto takes a look at some of the most virulent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic press generated by the appointment of Radonsk as head of the opposition alliance, Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) / the Coalition for Democratic Unity, who will be competing for the Venezuelan presidency on October 7 against Hugo Chavez.

Chavez supporters have launched an unscrupulous campaign to discredit the opposition candidate. One of the main focuses of these attacks concern Capriles parents’ Jewish religion, and Judaism in connection with Zionism and the State of Israel.

Related content: Chavez Media’s Seeds of Anti-Semitism

Among the articles analyzed by ReporteHonesto’s team, none of the writers evaluates MUD’s policy proposals or Capriles’ plans for government. Instead, the articles are filled with unfounded attacks demonizing and discrediting Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel, with expressions such as “pro-Zionist rats”.

Here are some examples.

1. Venezuelan National Radio published an article entitled: “Zionism is the Enemy: a promise that conceals a pitfall”

It suggests that in order “to understand the interests that embody the candidate of the Venezuelan and transnational oligarchy, Capriles Radonski, it is important to know what Zionism is; the Israeli ideology he covertly represents”.

There follows a vicious attack on Zionism as a colonialist ideology based on racial superiority and Israel as the murderer of “millions” of Palestinians. Zionism is:

undoubtedly the ideology of terror, the most rotten of feelings represented by humanity; supposedly patriotic impulses based on greed… .

Drawing on classic anti-Semitism, the article states:

Zionism is the majority owner of financial institutions in the world, controlling almost 80 percent of the global economy and communications industry almost entirely, while maintaining decision-making positions within the US Department of State and European powers.

Capriles is depicted as an agent of “international Zionism, which threatens to destroy the planet we inhabit”.

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