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.
“As longstanding advocates for robust relations between Brazil and Israel, we are especially gratified that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended President Bolsonaro’s inauguration and met with him, as well as with other regional leaders,” said Dina Siegel Vann, Director of AJC’s Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs.
More than 70 leaders from Jewish communities in Latin America, Spain and Portugal, joined by AJC leaders and Latino Jews living in the United States, gathered in Colombia, from November 30 to December 3, for the annual strategic forum of AJC’s Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA).
AJC condemns the unconscionable separation of nearly 2,000 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks and urges immediate congressional action to change the administration’s policy.