Anti-Semitic activity and sentiment in Latin American countries have diminished recently and there is a distinct possibility that limited numbers of Jewish displaced persons may gain admission into several South American countries, according to Maximo G. Yagupsky, representative of the Foreign Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee, who recently returned from a two-months tour of Central and South America on behalf of the Committee.
Although the prospects for immigration on a large scale are not too bright, some countries, particularly Brazil, may very likely become a haven for a partion of the refugees, Mr. Yagupsky said. Argentina, however, remains a stronghold of anti-Semitism and its present director of immigration, Dr. Santiago Peralta, with avowed Nazi sympathies, has committed himself to a policy which bars Jews from the country. While political and social anti-Semitism has decreased generally in Latin American countries, there are still strong anti-Jewish currents rooted in religious prejudice which find their most forcible expression among writers and university students in Argentina and in Central America, notably Costa Rica, the Committee representative found.
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