Jacobo Kavadloff, director of South American Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, today described Lat in America as “a society in ferment, facing unprecedented challenges of social justice, freedom and violence, along with ongoing terrorism and repression.”
Jews are especially vulnerable in unsettled conditions such as exist in Latin America at present, Kovadloff pointed out. Often, he said, they are victims of endemic anti-Semitism and neo-racism.
Discussing “Current Political Trends in Latin America” at the Forest Hills Jewish Center Institute for Continuing Education, Kovadloff stated that the gap between classes, the friction between developed and undeveloped countries, and the ongoing clashes between guerrillas and armies were among the major problems facing Latin America.
“The conflict between liberalism and conservatism in Latin America is not simple or clearcut, ” Kovadloff said. “It involves aspects of social democracies, Christian democracies, Socialism and Marxism, as well as the rightwing movements of neo-Nazism and indigenous fascists; populism, demagogism and militarism.”
The Spanish heritage, embodying absolutism, monolithical societies and civilian/military regimes, is still strong, Kovadloff stated, adding that “Pan-Americanism remains the un-attained dream.”
Kovadloff formerly directed the AJCommittee South American Office in Buenos Aires, his native city, from which he was forced to flee in June, 1977, as a result of anti-Semitic threats to the lives of himself and his family.
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