{"id":5725,"date":"2013-03-06T12:49:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T18:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=5725"},"modified":"2013-03-07T05:44:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T11:44:44","slug":"hugo-chavez-anti-israel-president-of-venezuela-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/hugo-chavez-anti-israel-president-of-venezuela-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugo Chavez, anti-Israel president of Venezuela dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (JTA) &#8212; Hugo Chavez, the longtime president of Venezuela who spouted anti-Israel rhetoric and befriended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, died yesterday, March 5.<\/p>\n<p>Chavez, who ruled the South American country for 14 years, died Tuesday following a long battle with cancer, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech. Chavez was 58.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5735\" style=\"width: 232px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5735\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5735 lazyload\" title=\"President of Venezuela Attends High Level Plenary\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez-760x1024.jpg 760w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 222px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 222\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5735\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5735 \" title=\"President of Venezuela Attends High Level Plenary\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Hugo-Chavez-760x1024.jpg 760w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5735\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Copenhagen attending the U.N. Conference on Climate Change, December 2009. (UN Photo\/Mark Garten)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>An anti-capitalist, Chavez was first elected in 1999, rising to power with the massive support of the country\u2019s poor. Despite battling cancer, Chavez was reelected last year. He underwent four surgeries in Cuba, his last one on Dec. 11.<\/p>\n<p>The Jewish community of Venezuela has had strained relationships with the government following a flood of attacks against Jewish houses of worship in 2009. Venezuelan police officers were among those implicated in the attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela severed ties with Israel following Israel&#8217;s three-week Gaza operation Cast Lead launched in December 2008, expelling the Israeli ambassador and staff.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2010, following Israeli Navy clashes with a flotilla trying to evade the country&#8217;s blockade that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish activists, Chavez called Israel a \u201cgenocidal state\u201d in a national broadcast and said the Mossad was trying to kill him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael is financing the Venezuelan opposition. There are even groups of Israeli terrorists, of the Mossad, who are after me trying to kill me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In the same speech, Chavez sent \u201cgreetings and respect\u201d to the local Jewish community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey know they have our affection and respect,&#8221; he said, adding, &#8220;I doubt very much that a Venezuelan Jew would support such an atrocity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Along with befriending Ahmadinejad, Chavez also was an ally of the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n<p>Chavez, who was anti-American, was a socialist leader who was credited with reducing poverty and expanding access to health care, food and education to Venezuela\u2019s poor while undermining the democratic country\u2019s system of checks and balances and repressing its media.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Hugo%20Chavez%2C%20anti-Israel%20president%20of%20Venezuela%20dies\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2165,184,8781,8790,8795,8788,2166,2167],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5725"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5737,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725\/revisions\/5737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}