Eleven suspects arrested over Caracas synagogue attack after WJC visit

Seven Venezuelan police agents and four civilians have been arrested in connection with an attack on the Tiferet Israel synagogue in Caracas, an attack which had sparked international condemnation. President Hugo Chávez referred to the arrests and said the attack was led by a police officer who had worked closely with the rabbi at the synagogue. "What a coincidence, the gang leader is a metropolitan police officer who for the last four years was the personal bodyguard of the synagogue's rabbi," he said during an interview with television station ‘Venevision’ on Sunday.

The arrest followed a meeting on Friday by a World Jewish Congress (WJC) delegation with Venezuelan government officials. The WJC delegation was led by Jack Terpins, president of the Latin American Jewish Congress (LAJC), and Michael Schneider, WJC secretary-general. Claudio Epelman, executive director of the LAJC, and Ariel Isaak of the World Jewish Diplomatic Corps, a WJC subsidiary, also took part in the meetings. During the visit, the offices of the papal nuncio sustained an attack of smoke grenades thrown at the building by drive-by motor cyclists.

The WJC delegation met Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro and Maximiliano Arvelaz, special adviser to Chávez, as well as with other members of the Foreign Ministry. It urged the Venezuelan government seek out and prosecute those responsible for the two attacks and to use its influence to curb inflammatory anti-Semitic statements that are creating a climate of fear among the Jewish community as such an environment made attacks more likely to occur in the future. The WJC delegation called on the government to also condemn attacks against the Catholic Church and reiterated that the World Jewish Congress was against all forms of religious intimidation.

Minister Maduro stated that the government would prosecute the perpetrators with the full force of the law. He stated that he had advised the Caracas Jewish community that the government would not tolerate anti-Semitic acts and would speak out against hate mail. The minister stated that the Jewish community of Venezuela had no reason to fear any deterioration of its status within Venezuelan society and that it was unequivocally entitled to the same civil rights enjoyed by the wider population.

Regarding the situation in the Middle East, the delegation urged the government of Venezuela not to press its tiny Jewish community to condemn Israel on this issue. Israel had a special place in the hearts of the Jewish people worldwide. Jews could not renounce their commitment to Israel’s survival especially when there were calls for its destruction. Both the WJC delegation and Maduro agreed that all sides must work together to seek and attain a situation of lasting peace and mutual tolerance between Israel and the Palestinians.

Meanwhile the Islamic Association for Latin America has condemned the Synagogue attack in a letter
to the Latin American Jewish Congress (Spanish Language, 70Kb)