Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known popularly as “Lula,” 77, recently won Brazil’s closely watched presidential election over President Jair Bolsonaro, 67, a right-wing populist and deeply polarizing figure in Latin America’s largest country.
As the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East advances an aggressive anti-Israel agenda bordering on anti-Semitism, Chile is facing constant attacks on its democracy and its heritage of inclusiveness.
On the afternoon of March 17, 1992, Israel’s embassy in Argentina was reduced to rubble by a blast that killed 29 people – four Israelis and 25 Argentinians – and injured nearly 250. A group tied to Hezbollah, a proxy for Iran, claimed responsibility.
Former President Sebastián Piñera won Chile’s presidential election on Sunday, December 17. His triumph demonstrates a turn towards the center-right in a region that has been dominated by leftist movements for over a decade. In 2012, Piñera became the first Chilean president to visit Israel, a fact that sets great expectations for the future of bilateral cooperation.
Together with 15 communities from across Iberoamerica, American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, issued this declaration calling on governments throughout the region to protect local Jewish communities from the growing “atmosphere of targeting and fear” and to prioritize the rebuilding of diplomatic relations with the State of Israel.
