GAZA DEFIANT: LATIN AMERICAN FURY OVER ISRAELIONAZI INVASION

Latin American leaders slam Israel over Gaza

Leaders of Latin American nations, which traditionally eschew warfare, are criticizing Israel over violence in the Gaza Strip.

Buy Photo

Demonstrators in Busnoes Aires protest against Israel’s attack into Gaza

NISSA BENJAMIN/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

• From Nicaragua to India: Protests against Gaza conflict
• GRAPHIC CONTENT | Casualties of war
• Explosions and rubble in Gaza
• Funerals in both Gaza and Israel
• Photo

CARACAS — Opposition to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip is heating up throughout Latin America.

Venezuela has expelled Israel’s ambassador. Guatemala and Colombia have called on Israel to stop fighting and begin immediate peace talks. Demonstrators in Argentina, El Salvador and Bolivia have condemned the action. Brazil is sending aid to victims.

”There is a tradition in Latin America of rejecting violence to solve any international conflict,” said Adrian Bonilla, director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador. “There is also a tradition of supporting the weakest country in a conflict, since most Latin American countries have been part of the Third World network. Another factor is that Israel is a close ally of the United States.”

Not surprisingly, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez has taken the harshest stance. On Tuesday, he kicked out Israel’s ambassador and diplomatic staff. On Wednesday, the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas applauded the move as a “courageous step.”

Chávez on Wednesday showed the photograph of a Palestinian child killed by Israeli bombs and said Israeli leaders should be tried for killing innocent men, women and children.

”Behind Israel is the American empire,” Chávez said.

Chávez questioned why President-elect Barack Obama ”until now hasn’t said anything” about what he called Israel’s aggression.

Abraham Levy, president of the Confederation of Israeli Associations in Venezuela, said Wednesday that he found Chávez’s comments ”worrisome.” He noted that Israel and Venezuela had warm relations until Chávez began seeking close ties with Iran and denounced Israel’s 2006 invasion of southern Lebanon.

About 15,000 Jews live in Venezuela.

The biggest protest in Latin America has taken place in Argentina, where about 20,000 people marched Tuesday from the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires to the Israeli Embassy. Arab and student groups organized the march, along with the Argentine Communist Party and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization.

The protesters carried Palestinian, Iraqi and Lebanese flags and signs reading: ”Israel: Leave Gaza now” and “We are all Palestinians.”

”The fifth-largest army of the world is fighting against a helpless society,” Alejandro Salomon, president of the Confederation of Argentina Arab Entities, said in an interview Wednesday. “We are protesting against the small effort made by the international community to stop this manslaughter.”

Jews are planning a pro-Israel countermarch in Buenos Aires on Thursday, ending at a Jewish community building that was targeted by terrorists in a 1994 car bombing that killed 85. The bombing was blamed on Hezbollah militia working with Iran. With an estimated 240,000 Jews, Buenos Aires is said to be the second-biggest home of Jews in the Americas after New York City.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, Iftaf Curiel, told the Jewish News Agency that Argentinians should support the “moderate elements of the [Middle Eastern] region — Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan — that are confronting the extreme elements of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.”

Israeli officials have said they launched the strikes on Gaza on Dec. 27 as a defensive measure to halt rocket fire from Hamas militants.

Televised images of the carnage have been shown throughout Latin America, especially on Telesur, the region-wide television network financed by the Venezuelan government. The attacks have killed nearly 700 Palestinians, including children.

The military action seems to be winning Israel few friends in Latin America.

Colombia’s foreign minister, Jaime Bermudez, called on Israel to end ”all types of military aggression” and to undertake dialogue with Palestinians.

Guatemala demanded an immediate end to the ground assault in Gaza and said Israel needs to begin respecting international law and allowing greater humanitarian aid to victims.

Lawmakers in Ecuador condemned Israel’s action and called for an international investigation of “crimes against humanity.”

About 100 people in San Salvador, mostly dressed in white, held a peaceful protest in front of the Israeli Embassy on Wednesday. Dozens more protested in Sao Paulo.

In Bolivia, which became a way station for Jews escaping the Nazis during World War II, about 100 Palestinians and Arabs marched on Tuesday to protest the violence