The bad news in Argentina is that anti-Semitic, right-wing extremists there are threatening both Jews and the Argentine government, according to the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith in the current issue of its Latin American Report.
The good news is the passage of civil rights legislation there that will provide severe penalties for attempts to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, ideology or social status, a move hailed by ADL’s parent organization, B’nai B’rith International.
B’nai B’rith in Argentina and internationally had lobbied hard for the sweeping landmark legislation that will provide stern punishment for discriminatory behavior. The bill passed both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and was headed for President Raul Alfonsin for his signature.
Marcos Nizevenky, president of B’nai B’rith Argentina, saluted the passage of the legislation, “which strengthens the fabric of pluralism and democracy.”
Nonetheless, the news of anti-Semitic and other right-wing extremist activity in Argentina is unsettling. Alfonsin, in a recent radio and television address, said that “Nazis and extremists of every type… have brought this country to within one step of a coup.”
Alfonsin declared, however, that “democracy will not be destroyed.” He promised that the “only ones to be destroyed are the Nazis and ultras of any kind who try to create confusion, uncertainty and fear — and then sit down and wait for democracy to be overthrown.”
The article in Latin American Report also mentions recent remarks by Dr. David Goldberg, president of the DAIA, the representative body of Argentine Jewry.
SEEDS OF CHAOS
Goldberg said that the neo-Nazi organization Alerta Nacional (national alert) “has moved from anti-Semitic actions to terrorist violence … (and) its only interest is to plant the seeds of chaos in order to break the peace and therefore fracture the democratic process of the nation.”
According to the ADL report, “The relationship between anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism is evident.”
It cites the discovery in June of two right-wing terrorist cells in the province of Cordoba. Several members confessed to having bombed the newly dedicated Plaza of the Republic of Israel and a store which they thought was owned by a Jew.
The find also unearthed plans to attack leaders and members of the Jewish community in Cordoba, which is Argentina’s second largest. Also on the terrorists’ hit list was the Argentine-Soviet Cultural Exchange.
The DAIA said that “behind the attacks on the (Jewish) community is concealed a clear strategy to attack democratic institutions.”
On March 30, 200 ultranationalists assembled in Buenos Aires’ Plaza de Mayo to demand the immediate release of Lt. Col. Aldo Rico, who was imprisoned after an unsuccessful coup attempt last year.
The group chanted “death to traitors, cowards and Jews” and called for “an end to the Radical synagogue.”
The ADL report says that Alejandro Biondini, the leader of the Alerta Nacional, was among those who led the chanting of anti-Semitic slogans.
Biondini’s aide, Luis Alberto Vera, was shot dead April 6 by police when he threatened them with a hand grenade as they tried to arrest him.
In Vera’s room were found extreme right-wing literature, ammunition and more than two pounds of explosives, connecting Vera with bombings in downtown Buenos Aires.
Biondi subsequently threatened a five-for-one revenge of death for every one of his group that is killed.
Argentine police chief Gen. Juan Pirker described Biondini’s threat as “a general call to violence.”
The National Council of the Justicialist Party, a Peronist party, publicly denounced the Alerta Nacional’s “anti-democratic and totalitarian preaching which exalts racism and anti-Semitism,” and initiated legal proceedings to prevent the group from using Peronist traditional symbols.
The National Council of Attorneys disavowed any present or past association with the right-wing group.
The ADL report states that “The Alfonsin administration has undertaken several initiatives to strengthen democratic forces and curb anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination,” including the anti-discrimination law.
In addition, says the report, the Argentine government has created a National program of Democratization of the Culture to expedite better social relations in Argentina.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
