MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Jewish community rejects Chavez visit

Representatives from the Argentine Jewish community expressed their “rejection and shame” over this Monday's visit of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez who has strong political ties with Iran that has forecasted the destruction of Israel and is allegedly linked to a deadly attack on a 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish community center.

Angel Schindel, Vice president of a leading Jewish community in Argentina expressed concerns about Chavez links with the Teheran regime and the possibility that these relations could favor the arrival of terrorists in the region. "We must be concerned that close links with the fundamentalist regime of Iran could have negative consequences for Latinamerica", said Schindel adding they could lead to the "terrorist infiltrations in Latinamerica". Schindel added that "we would like Argentina to stop economic relations with Iran", given the "proven links of Teheran with the attack on the Jewish community center, AMIA, in Buenos Aires, as shown in the judicial investigation". According to the Jewish News Agency Venezuela's president "totally supports Iran's policies which call for the elimination of the state of Israel and refuse to allow former government officials to declare in the AMIA attack as requested by the prosecution". "We are most concerned with Chavez stances regarding Israel and the Middle East", said Schindel. President Hugo Chavez arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday to sign energy agreements and to confirm the purchase of a billion US dollars in Argentine sovereign bonds, which Argentina needs to meet financial commitments. Argentina is interested in a re-gasification plant which could supply a daily production of ten million cubic meters of gas and Venezuela has advanced its interest in financing most of the project. Chavez who last visited Argentina in March, besides asserting his influence in the region is expected to ask for a speed up in Venezuela's incorporation to Mercosur which has been stalled since he called Brazilian senators "Washington puppets". The sovereign bonds operation involves a first issue of 500 million US dollars and two other legs of 250 million US dollars each in the next six months. In the last two years Venezuela has purchased 4.2 billion US dollars in Argentina bonds, most of which have been re-circulated. From Argentina Chavez is scheduled to fly to Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador.