CHILE

The Jewish community of Chile, numbering approximately 21,000 out of a total population of 14.5 million, is mostly concentrated in the city of Santiago, with a scattering in the provinces of Valparaíso, Viña del Rancagua, Concepción, Temuco and Valdivia. Most of the Jews are descendants of refugees from Germany and are religiously unaffiliated. The Representative Committee of Jewish Organizations in Chile (CREJ) encompasses all the Jewish communities and organizations in the country.

An international neo-Nazi congress which was to take place in Chile in April 2000, on the date of Hitler’s birthday, was banned by the Chilean parliament and government, partly in response to pressure from the Jewish community. The conference had been organized by Alexis López Tapia, editor of the Chilean Nazi publication Pendragón, in cooperation with the right-wing nationalist Arcania (Centro de Estudios Culturales) and Corporación Ecológica Nueva Era (see General Analysis, “Public Opinion in Chile and the Planned Neo-Nazi Congress”). Instead, on the scheduled day, a group of ten Chileans and two neo-Nazis from other Latin American countries, gathered at a private house in a Chilean resort town.

During 1999 a number of anti-Semitic acts were recorded in Chile. The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Santiago was vandalized by a group of over 20 people, who sprayed two large swastikas and the slogan “Viva Pinochet and the CNI [his security police]” on the outer wall. In addition, there were many phone and mail threats to Jewish individuals, some of them connected with the campaign to ban the neo-Nazi congress. Avner Rovner, editor of the Jewish journal Der Ruf and an active campaigner against the congress, for example, received several anonymous phone threats.

Other incidents included three death threats made to the rabbi of Estadio Israelita in March, by three different people, one of whom was identified. Also in March, the Círculo Israelita Synagogue in Santiago received a false bomb threat. After the opening of an exposition celebrating Israel’s 50th anniversary in the city of Concepción, in June 1999, a Jewish community leader received an anonymous letter containing a swastika, a Magen David and the message: “Jewish pigs – get out of the university; your time is coming again,” which resembled that received in October 1998 by a Jewish staff member of the University of Concepción. It is suspected that ultra-right activists on the university campus were responsible. Concepción is a center for activists of the ultra-nationalist Movimiento Nacionalista de Chile, led by Marcelo Saavedra, and of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario.

PERU

Peru has a Jewish population of 3,000 out of a total of 24 million. Nearly all Peruvian Jews live in Lima, the capital. The Jewish population has been shrinking since World War II when it reached a peak of 6,000. The Asociación Judía del Perú coordinates the activities of the community's three synagogues and other organizations. Most Jewish children attend the community's Hebrew day school.

On 20 April, Hitler’s birthday, Peruvian television Channel 14 broadcast a program on the Holocaust. It claimed, inter alia, that the number of Holocaust victims was 4.3, not 6 million, and that close collaboration between European Jewry and the Nazis had enabled the Holocaust to take place. It also questioned the authenticity of Anne Frank’s diary as well as other historical facts. The Jewish community protested to the director-general of the media company responsible for operating the television station, and Dr. Leon Trachtemberg, a well known Jewish educator, denounced the use made of public platforms to spread prejudice and hate.

An anti-Semitic incident occurred in Lima, in December 1999, when a cab driver shouted “Death to all Jews,” at the Ashkenazi rabbi of the city as the latter was entering the synagogue.

A main source of anti-Semitism in Peru is to be found among Catholic integralists, followers of Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre, who refuse to accept the 1965 Vatican Council II reforms. Throughout the 1990s Dr. Vargas Prada, a prominent member of this school, published articles and broadcast a daily program on Radio Libertad, on international subjects which reflected his anti-Semitism.

GUATEMALA

There are 1,200 Jews in Guatemala out of a total population of 11 million. Most Jews are of German, East European or Middle Eastern origin and nearly all live in the capital Guatemala City. There are three separate Jewish communities which differ in liturgy and area of origin, but are united under the Consejo Central (Central Council).

A neo-Nazi group of some 20 members was reported to be active in Guatemala City. In November 1999, the group were reported to have shouted insults and slogans against Jews. In January 1999, unknown persons carved a swastika and the letters SS on the outer wall of the Sephardi Maguen David synagogue in Guatemala City, as well as the slogan “Achtung Juden!” {Jews beware!} and a drawing of a skull.

PANAMA

Panama has 7,000 Jews out of a total population of 2.7 million. Most Jews in Panama live in Panama City, but there are small communities in Colon, David and the former American Canal Zone. Over the last 20 years the Jewish population has tripled due to a large influx of immigrants, including more than 1,000 Israelis. The Consejo Central Comunitario Hebreo de Panamá represents the Jews of Panama. There are a number of synagogues and two Jewish high schools with an enrolment of over 1,300 students. The community also boasts the largest kosher supermarket outside of Israel.

On Hitler’s birthday a large swastika was drawn on the statue dedicated by the Shalom Association to the State of Israel in Panama City. A month later a swastika was daubed on one of the windows of a kosher supermarket that was under construction, and additional swastikas were discovered in other parts of the city.