Latin American Jewish Students Urge Worldwide Student Protests; Allende Intercedes

The University Federation of Latin American Zionist Students cabled student organizations in Rome and Geneva urging them to protest the death sentences of two Soviet Jews and urged a worldwide student mobilization to “repudiate the Soviet Union’s attitude toward the Jewish people.” The cable, sent in the name of Jewish students in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, also urged student groups to appeal to Soviet authorities to permit its Jewish citizens to emigrate to Israel. In Santiago, Chile, the left-wing President Salvador Allende instructed the Foreign Secretary Clodomiro Almeyda to ask the Chilean ambassador to Moscow, Oscar Pinochet, to intercede with the Soviet government on behalf of the Leningrad 11 and to ask for the commutation of the death sentences. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Antonio Tito Costa and Herminio Marques Porto, on behalf of the Brazilian Institute of Human Rights, cabled the president of the United Nations Human Rights Commission urging action to maintain the principles of the Human Rights Declaration signed by the Soviet Union.

Jewish businesses in Sao Paulo closed for 15 minutes this afternoon and their owners and employees stood outside in silent protest against the Leningrad sentences. More than 1000 Jews attended a public rally last night demanding freedom for the accused. Three cables were dispatched on behalf of the Confederation of Brazilian Jews. One to President Medici urged the Brazilian government to protest the Leningrad proceedings. Another to President Nikolai Podgorny of the Soviet Union, condemning the “monstrous anti-Semitic act in Leningrad which will bring eternal shame on the Soviet Union.” The third cable appealed to UN Secretary General U Thant to take steps to have the Leningrad sentences annulled and to implement the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate.