The Simon Wiesenthal Center has written to Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Fánder Falconi, urging him to order the clean up of antisemitic graffiti which deface the outside wall of the Ministry for the last two weeks. The graffiti read: “Israeli Embassy out of the Country”; “Genocidal Israel” with a Swastika; and “Star of David = Swastika”. “Despite the time elapsed since the graffiti were painted, we believe that the security monitoring...

From the beginning of his rule in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has stridently criticized Israel. In recent months, Chavez has found a more vulnerable target: the Jewish population inside Venezuela. Reports indicate that the Mayor of Miranda’s capital city incited an angry group of Chavez supporters to paint Nazi swastikas on the home of an anti-Chavez Jewish politician, Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski. “We are showing Capriles that …people are opposed to his continuous attacks...

Chile’s Police And U.S. Embassy Are Working Together To Investigate CAM.A radicalized indigenous Mapuche group linked with acts of violent protest is gathering strength and becoming more organized, according to the recently released U.S. State Department’s 2009 report on world terrorism. The Mapuche is Chile’s largest indigenous group. The report says that the group Arauco Malleco Committee (CAM) has shown signs of “improved planning” in its activities and of a...

Mérida -- In response to the fatal clashes between indigenous protestors and the Peruvian government over the weekend, the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry has released a statement expressing its solidarity with both the security forces and the indigenous people killed, while Venezuelan Indigenous Affairs Minister Nicia Maldonado called the Peruvian government's violent repression "terrorism." Over the weekend, an estimated 30 to 50 indigenous activists were killed and...

The Supreme Court of Argentina on Thursday night ordered the reopening of an investigation into a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires' Jewish community center, which left 85 people killed. The court ruled with a four-to-two majority that Carlos Telledín, a former car mechanic, will be tried again for his alleged involvement in the attack at the AMIA center. He is suspected of providing a van loaded with explosives used to carry out the attack. At the time he was arrested, questioned and...

Recent anti-Semitic incidents in Argentina show that "anti-Semitic groups … are working to harm the Jewish community," the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said Thursday. An ADL statement cited a violence attack last week on a crown celebrating Israeli Independence Day in Buenos Aires, and bomb threats against two synagogues. "These groups should not be allowed to create and fuel an atmosphere of intimidation and fear, which undermines the democratic and pluralistic values of...

BUENOS AIRES -- Two Buenos Aires synagogues received bomb threats in the wake of violent anti-Semitic attacks at a public street celebration. Monday's bomb threats on the Amaijai and New Israeli Community synagogues, both located in the highly Jewish-populated neighborhood of Belgrano, proved to be false. Also Monday, hundreds of protesters, mostly women and children, clamored for the release of the five men arrested Sunday during a cultural event organized by the Buenos Aires city...

A violent anti-Semitic demonstration took place in the Argentinean capital Buenos Aires during a public celebration of Israel's 61st anniversary. On Sunday afternoon, shortly after Jewish families and their non-Jewish neighbors began Independence Day celebrations at a "Buenos Aires Celebrates" event, a group of about 20 people came out of a subway depot with anti-Semitic banners and signs and fighting broke out. A number of Jews were beaten and required medical attention, the French...

An administrator at Venezuela's biggest mosque says thieves have ransacked its offices, stealing jewels, computers and other objects and throwing books across the floor. Muhammad Ali Bokhair says it is the second time since September that the Ibrahim Al-lbrahim mosque has been robbed. The theft took place early Monday morning. No suspects have been identified. The mosque is located in downtown Caracas, where a scant police presence makes robberies and murders relatively common. The Ibrahim...

MADRID - A Spanish court official says 14 people have gone on trial charged with involvement with Islamic terrorist groups and recruiting extremists to fight in Iraq. Some of the 14 are also accused of helping suspects in the March 11, 2004 train bombings in Madrid to flee Spain. The 14 suspects, mainly from Morocco, were arrested in a series of raids over recent years, mostly in the northeastern region of Catalonia. They are charged with belonging to or collaborating with Islamic terrorism...