Special to JTA Anti-semitic Material in Mexican Magazines Being Exported to U.S.

The Mexican Jewish community is highly concerned over a series of anti-Semitic cartoons appearing in the popular weekly magazine, Los Agachados. The magazine, written in an easy-to-read style and aimed at the “man in the street,” is a favorite in Mexico and among Mexicans living in the United States.

The concern of the Jewish community is especially acute because the kind of anti-Semitic poison contained in these cartoons is reaching hundreds of thousands of Mexicans in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, San Antonio, San Francisco and New York. These extremist anti-Semitic views, along with anti-American views, are not only reaching the people in Mexico and Mexicans in the U.S. but also readers of the magazine in the rest of Latin America where it is widely distributed.

Los Agachados has devoted several issues to promoting strident anti-Semitism by using such material as the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the anti-Semitic views of Henry Ford and articles by Mexican anti-Semitic journalists and writers. The magazine is published by Editorial Posada S.A. and the cartoons are drawn by a group led by a Mr. Rius, a pseudonym. The magazine has received unstinted praise from the old and new left and Third World supporters here for providing the general public with “anti-imperialist” views. Los Agachados, which means the poor or needy masses is edited by Guillermo Mendizabal Lizalde.

Lately, Editorial Posada S.A. has introduced another his weekly magazine called “Los Penitents” (The Penitents) which carries the same type of anti-Semitic material as Los Agachados. The latest issue produced in cartoon form several sentences from the Protocols accusing Jews of combining in a “world conspiracy” against “gentiles.”

Zionism was also condemned as racism as in last year’s United Nations General Assembly resolution and readers were given the impression that discrimination against “racist Jews” was justified. There was also an indirect attack against Mexican officials who were accused of being “Masons” and of helping Jews to “dominate the world.” This magazine, too, is being distributed abroad.

The Jewish community has been unable to take any action because Mexican law provides freedom of the press and “free expression” to all citizens, including anti-Semites. The Jewish community said that the government does not understand its concern. One Jewish delegation was told, “Do the same thing and publish magazines and pamphlets against your enemies. We are living in a free country.”