On December 2, 2007, the Venezuelan state police force entered the "Colegio y Centro Social, Cultural y Deportivo Hebraica" in Caracas.  The motives: none, the intrusion was unjustified and inexplicable. The objectives: most probable the intimidation of a minority incapable of escaping the historic curse of serving as a scapegoat for totalitarian, fascist and retrograde regimes.

For me, this is a personal matter: I am Jewish and Latin and I have the clear impression that the Venezuelan Jewish community is no different from the Mexican Jewish community where I grew up. We share the same language, the same traditions and I can imagine we are organized in a similar way.

My childhood took place between the classrooms and the playgrounds of the Colegio Hebreo Tarbut and our spectacular JCC "Centro Deportivo Israelita". My first formal job was at the Colegio Maguen David and my Fridays were spent with my friends in the youth movement of Moadon Bet-El. These places, together with the others that constitute the Mexican Jewish community are the places where children and youngsters learn, have fun and enjoy a beautiful life. These buildings house the prime of our community: our children and our teachers, they represent everything precious and positive in our lives. In these structures the state police have no place unless they come to protect the safety and integrity of the installations and its inhabitants. Never to intimidate, scare and besiege these peaceful spaces.

What can we expect from a government that openly supports the president of Iran and terrorists organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah? Those who pursue the intellectual separation between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have not yet realized that the State of Israel is the Jew among the nations. The hatred is the same but the scope is national. In Venezuela, where the presidential rhetoric is constantly anti-Zionist the acts of vandalism and verbal aggression against the members of the Jewish community are tolerated and go unpunished.

On December 3rd an article was published in Diario Hispano Venezolano written by radio and news commentator Eleonora Bruzual criticizing the incursion of the armed forces to the Club Hebraica in Caracas. To read her words filled my eyes with tears and my heart with fraternal feelings. Her protestation places her name alongside the list of intellectuals and free thinkers who have taken out their pen (the sword in the cultural army) to denounce these actions by their just name: intimidation. The policies adopted by Chavez put at risk the ideals of democracy and freedom for all Venezuelans, not only for their Jewish population. Eleonora Bruzual demands that civility, self determination and autonomy be reinstated in her country.

Is there a siege against the Jewish community in Venezuela or is this a paranoid Jewish misinterpretation to valid criticism by the Venezuelan government to the policies adopted by the State of Israel? To answer this question we must look at the fact that the acts of transgression and intimidation against Venezuelan Jews have increased and neither condemnation nor disciplinary action on the part of the authorities has taken place. How can the swastikas and the graffiti "Jewish dogs" on the walls of the Jewish institutions be interpreted?

Like many other dictators, Chavez knows that the control of the media is of the outmost importance to retain power. Freedom of speech is the enemy of absolute power; democracy can only flourish within an atmosphere where opposing opinions can be discussed in liberty. Rumors and insinuations of imperialist intrigues by Jewish leaders and rabbis have been spread in the mass media, like a misinformation campaign that disseminates hate speech in order to create a climate of discrimination. In the media, like Diario Vea and El Diario Caracas, in Radio Nacional de Venezuela and in Venezolana de Televisión the discourse is highly critical of Israel and on their covers the Star of David is equated to a swastika. This situation to the interior combined with the close relationship that Chavez sustains with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and with terrorist groups creates a biased attitude towards the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

Mrs. Bruzual ends her article with this paragraph: "There is a systematic campaign against our Jewish Community, there is a systematic campaign against our rabbis, the leaders of our Jewish community … they are demonized, they are accused, they are vilified…They don't show evidence but they can cultivate hate… That is why…I am seriously thinking of placing a yellow Magen David in my chest."

With that she places her name next to Emile Zola's who in 1898 wrote the famed article "J'accuse" where he proved the complot that took Captain Alfred Dreyfus to the Devil's Island for treason, accusation that was totally false and based on anti-Semitism.

To demonstrate a calumny strives to achieve a goal higher than to exonerate the accused. In Emile Zola's words: "I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness".

Señora Bruzual: thank you for your words. I will wear the flag of Venezuela on my chest and pray that soon democracy will prevail in your country.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.