Jewish campaigners have called for a Venezuelan diplomat to be removed from his post

Jewish campaigners have called for a Venezuelan diplomat to be removed from his post after he allegedly claimed Israeli intelligence and Jews were behind an attempt to overthrow the country’s President Hugo Chavez. Referring to an attempted coup in Venezuela in 2002, Ambassador to Russia, Alexis Rafael Navarro, is quoted as telling the Moscow Times recently that, “The organisers of that coup d'etat were the CIA and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. These foreign secret services had many agents in Venezuela. Furthermore, many Mossad's snipers took part in the coup d'etat. These snipers were citizens of Venezuela but were Jews. After the defeat of the insurgents all these snipers disappeared The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is urging the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, to recall Rojas following the comments. In a joint letter to the minister, Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations, and Sergio Widder, the SWC’s Latin American Representative, accused Rojas of inciting hatred against Jews.