February 18, 2009

Is a Venezuelan diplomat promoting antisemitism?

By Ed Lasky

It appears that a website fanning the flames of antisemitism is registered to a Venezuelan diplomat posted to the United States. Venezuela's beleaguered Jewish community is currently suffering grave persecution under Hugo Chavez, the left wing demagogue now likely to be president-for-life.


Martin Sanchez is the founder of Aporrea.Org and was one of the volunteers that ran the website. . He is also listed as the registrant for the website. The website is hosted in America. The website, supported by the government of Hugo Chavez, is also a promoter of antisemitism.

There is a Martin Sanchez who is now the Consular General of Venezuela in San Francisco. Before that posting, he served in the same capacity in Chicago.

Might this be the same Martin Sanchez who founded Aporrea.Org?

When Aporrea.Org was registered on the internet, the Martin Sanchez who was the registrant for the site was listed as living in Chicago. This time period also coincides with the time that the Consular General in Chicago was listed as being Martin Sanchez.

Could Consul General Sanchez -- an official of the government of Venezuela -- be the man behind a campaign of antisemitism? The government of Hugo Chavez has been widely alleged to have been stoking antisemitism not just in Venezuela but throughout the region. He has been using government-funded media, including websites, to do so.

There is no doubt that Apporea.Org actively promotes antisemitism. The website regularly features anti-Semitic invective and incitement. These are not just in the comments section but are actually in articles published by the site. In fact, promoting antisemitism seems to be one of the goals of the site.

This is part of a pattern of behavior of Hugo Chavez's. Antisemitism has become a very serious problem in Venezuela; it is often stoked by government-funded media outlets, such as Aporrea.Org may be.

A mere sampling of just some of the antisemitism published on the site, as reported by Andrews Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald:

On Jan. 22, a story by Emilio Silva on www.aporrea.org called for ''publicly denouncing, with their first and last names, members of powerful Jewish groups with a presence in Venezuela.'' It also called for ``publicly demanding that any Jew on any street, commercial center or public square, take a position shouting slogans in support of Palestine and against the abortion-like state of Israel.''

This call to action was recently published on the website after a synagogue was desecrated and the names and addresses of its members stolen:

  • To publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park to take a stand shouting at them slogans in favor of Palestine and against that abortion: Israel."
  • "Denounce publicly, with names and last names the members of powerful Jewish groups present in Venezuela"
  • "...capitalist agents as these Zionist Hebrews are the thing that hurts them most is the pocket (including Jehovah) it is inappropriate to buy their products and go to their stores and to the stores, supermarkets, restaurants, etc., that have relations with them or are owned by them"
  • "...question the existence in Venezuela of educational institutions for Jews only"
  • "...Public, massive, periodic concentrations not only in front of the Israeli embassy but also in front of all Jewish institutions"
  • "Detect and watch, by the intelligence entities of the State and by the social comptroller of the organized peoples, the undercover agents of Mossad and NGOs and other groups of the so called civil society (including the filthy ("escuálidos") students of the private and autonomous universities) that have received advise and financing from the artificial state of israel,"
  • "Purge the government institutions of those filthy officials, that with or without the red beret act in favor of the interests of Zionist groups located in our country."
  • "Nationalization of the companies and confiscation of the assets of the Zionist jews that support the excesses of the nazi fascist state of israel and the immediate donation of said assets to the Palestinians, victims of the present holocaust."
- from ¿Cómo apoyar a Palestina frente al estado artificial de israel? (Translation: How to help Palestine against the artificial state of Israel), January 20, 2009.

Another article criticized the Simon Wiesenthal Center for protesting the police raid of a Jewish children's school. Journalist Afif Tajeldine claimed in his article, A Zionist Challenge to Venezuela, that:

...it was farcical that this "instrument of international Zionism" [the Wiesenthal Center], pretended to defend the Jewish people. The Zionists had succeeded in segregating the Jewish people from the rest of the world and turning a religious nation-state into a bastion of capitalism. "We must remove the masque of Zionism and reveal it as a grotesque, racist, egoistic, segregationist philosophy and the government of the State of Israel as a terrorist state responsible for the new Palestinian holocaust.

Journalist Kathy Saide writes of the developing problem in Venezuela (Kristallnacht in Caracas):

Observers like the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Latin America expert Andres Oppenheimer cite "a well-orchestrated [anti-Semitic] campaign" that has been taking place on Venezuela's government sponsored radio and television stations, newspapers and websites such as Aporrea. Stoking anti-Semitic fervor, such outlets frequently compare Israel to Nazi Germany and denounce "international Jewish conspiracies."

The Anti-Defamation League has a listing of other anti-Semitic outrages published on Aporrea.Org

The question arises: is the Martin Sanchez who founded the website and is still listed as its official registrant, the Consul General for Venezuela in San Francisco? If so, when he was granted accreditation to serve as a diplomat in America was there any knowledge of his involvement in promoting antisemitism?

Certainly we can understand why Hugo Chavez might reward and promote a man who has been active in anti-Semitic agitprop. My sources, who are active in anti-Chavez efforts, have indicated that they believe that the Martin Sanchez who served as the Consul General in Chicago and now serves in that capacity in San Francisco is the same man who is behind Aporea.Org. They also believe it was his Aporrea.Org work that holds him in good stead with Chavez.

Has anyone in the State Department, the ADL, the Jewish community of San Francisco, or the Congressional delegation from California (including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in  whose district the diplomat is posted) inquired about the mysterious Martin Sanchez?

Update:
 
Alek Boyd, an advocate of the Venezuelan people, has just sent us documentary proof that indicates that Martin Sanchez, the Consular General of San Francisco, is the same Martin Sanchez who served in the as Consul General in Chicago. Here is a video of Sanchez (captioned identifies him as the CG in San Francisco) . Here is a video of Martin Sanchez-Consul General of Chicago. Clearly the same person.

Here is more proof that the same person seems to be the man responsible for Aporrea.Org: 

Somebody awfully similar to Martin Sanchez appeared next to Chavez on a balcony in front of Chavez supporters. Is it the same man?

Ed Lasky is news editor of American Thinker.