Israel Facts by an Israeli: Could Trump's Dealings With Venezuela Affect Israel?

Nadene Goldfoot

As you can see, Columbia is Venezuela's neighbor that matters

The Trump administration is barely bothering to pretend that its increasingly belligerent stance toward Venezuela is just about tackling narcotics. President Donald Trump wants Nicolas Maduro out of power — and the only question is how much pressure the United States is prepared to deliver to make it so. What's the story behind Venezuela and Israel? Isn't everything blamed on Israel these days? You know, the domino affect.....I look at it this way, how a country treats the Jewish people says something about how they will treat all people sooner rather than later. See if I'm right.

Sephardim Jews were the first Jews in Venezuela, arriving in about 1850.There were anti-Semitic outbreaks at Coro in 1855 and 1902. Ever since 1492 during the Spanish Inquisition in Spain, Jews had been searching for lands to accept Jewish people. The Pope was most powerful then and Jews were not allowed in most places.

This was not yet 1880 when Jews were suffering from pogroms of Eastern Europe which caused the Aliyote of returning to Israel (then Palestine). This settling in Venezuela started in 1850's and you know that their life was being made hell somewhere to pick up and go off to Venezuela, a country by 1811. In 1850, Venezuela was at the beginning of a period of dictatorial rule under the Monagas brothers, following a period of political instability that had started after its secession from Gran Colombia in 1830. While the Liberal Party, which was in power, introduced some social reforms like abolishing slavery and extending suffrage, these laws were largely not implemented, and political and economic corruption was widespread. The nation's credit was poor, and the economy was stagnating.

In the 20th century, Eastern European and German Jews entered the country until barred after WWII. They played a leading role in developing the country's trade and in modernizing the capital, Caracas.

Jewish population in 1990 was 20,000, mostly in Caracas. Some 90% of Jewish youth attend Jewish schools. Venezuela's Jewish population is estimated to be around 6,000 people, based on data from around 2020 and 2021. While some sources provide a slightly different figure, such as 4,500, the number is significantly lower than it was in the past. The Jewish community has shrunk considerably due to emigration, with a peak population of about 25,000 in the 1990s.

Hugo Chavez-big anti-Semite: Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías:( 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) died at age 58, was a Venezuelan politician, revolutionary, and military officer who was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period of forty-seven hours in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until 2012.

The relationship between Venezuela and Jews has evolved from being a refuge for Jewish refugees to a situation where political tensions and economic instability have led to significant Jewish emigration to places like Israel.

Among destinations for the 15–16,000 Jews leaving Venezuela, the prime destination was the United States, particularly Miami, and the rest went to Israel. With the Crisis in Venezuela in the 2010s, Jewish emigration rapidly increased. This time emigrating Venezuelan Jews primarily went to Israel, as the devaluation of their property and other assets effectively closed off the options such as the United States or Panama.

While Venezuela has a history of supporting Israel, recent years have seen increasing antisemitic rhetoric from the government, particularly under the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, as they aligned with groups and nations critical of Israel. The Jewish community in Venezuela is now small and tight-knit, with many members choosing to leave due to ongoing instability and antisemitism.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans during the 2007 Venezuelan protests demonstrating against Chávez's proposed constitutional referendum. On his way to really being an anti-Semite !

Based on reports from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the U.S. Department of State, the Venezuelan government under President Hugo Chávez demonstrated significant anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions in 2010. The government's state-run media, as well as rallies and demonstrations, used anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiments as a pretext for anti-Semitic canards and imagery. 2010 was known as the Bolivarian Revolution.

During an address on Chávez's birthday in 2011, he called on the middle classes and the private sector to get more involved in his Bolivarian Revolution, something he saw as "vital" to its success.

In August of 2011, Chávez announced that his government would nationalize Venezuela's gold industry, taking it over from Russian-controlled company Rusoro, while at the same time also moving the country's gold stocks, which were largely stored in western banks, to banks in allied countries such as Russia, China and Brazil.

To ensure that his Bolivarian Revolution became socially ingrained in Venezuela, Chávez discussed his wish to stand for re-election when his term ran out in 2013, and spoke of ruling beyond 2030. Hugo Chávez died from a massive heart attack following a long battle with an undisclosed form of cancer. He died in 2013 at the age of 58, after undergoing multiple rounds of treatment and surgery in Cuba and Venezuela.

Nicolás Maduro Moros (born 23 November 1962) age 63, is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader who has been serving as the president of Venezuela since 2013. A member of the United Socialist Party (PSUV), he previously served as the 24th vice president under President Hugo Chávez from 2012 to 2013 and was also the minister of foreign affairs from 2006 to 2012. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade union leader before being elected to the National Assembly in 2000.

When interviewed by a female, Christiane Amanpour, he seemed very dense when asked about being a Democratic President. He didn't know what that was, and thought that being elected was enough. Christiane Amanpour has interviewed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at least twice, most notably in a March 2014 interview. She has also interviewed opposition leader Juan Guaidó in January 2019, during the political crisis. I might add that Nicolás Maduro's education is limited; he did not graduate from high school and has no university degree. Instead of formal higher education, he pursued political training in Cuba and became a labor union leader, working as a bus driver in Caracas. He received political and union organizing training at a Communist youth school in Havana.

Due to the death of Chávez, Vice President Nicolás Maduro took over the presidential powers and duties for the remainder of Chávez's abbreviated term until presidential elections were held. Venezuela's constitution specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president cannot be sworn in. Maduro remains in power as president as of 2025.

The Trump administration launched a major military and diplomatic escalation in its new war on drugs, sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America and sanctioning Colombia's president. It comes as the U.S. has increasingly targeted political leaders it opposes across the region, and as the military has launched an unprecedented number of deadly strikes in the Caribbean. Nick Schifrin reports. The Trump administration launched a major military and diplomatic escalation in its new war on drugs, sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America and sanctioning Colombia's president. (What does this mean? Certain crimes perpetrated by businesses, groups, and individuals can pose grave risks for countries—and by extension, businesses. To deter culprits from this behavior and promote compliance with global laws, sanctions are imposed to restrict resource flow to the bad actors.

It comes as the U.S. has increasingly targeted political leaders it opposes across the region, and as the military has launched an unprecedented number of deadly strikes in the Caribbean. Nick Schifrin reports.

There have been successive U.S. strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the international waters off Venezuela, a buildup of military assets in the Caribbean and even an admission from Trump that he had authorized covert CIA action on the ground in Venezuela. Still, Trump claims he’s not pursuing “regime change.”

It's interesting to note that In the 16th century (1500's) when Spanish colonization began in Venezuelan territory, the population of several indigenous peoples such as the Mariches (descendants of the Caribes) declined. Native caciques (leaders) such as Guaicaipuro (c. 1530–1568) and Tamanaco (died 1573) attempted to resist Spanish incursions, but the newcomers ultimately subdued them. The founder of Caracas, Diego de Losada, ultimately put Tamanaco to death.

Christopher Columbus:
While Columbus's voyages opened the door for European exploration of the Americas starting in 1492, his initial belief was that he had reached the East Indies. He did not reach the mainland of South America until his fifth voyage in 1502. Columbus has recently been found to have had a Jewish connection by
a DNA test. I know that the "Jewish Digest: of long ago, like the Readers'
Digest, had an article telling of his letters to his son in Hebrew. He was
on the expedition but in the name of the Pope-a Catholic reason; and
his ship had some Jews leaving Spain working in it.The deal was that what
people they found were to be converted. They did not know of Columbus's
Jewish heritage. This had to be kept a secret.
He was not alone.
The discovery of the South American continent is credited to both the Portuguese expedition led by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 and the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the coast in 1501 and realized it was a "New World," not part of Asia. Indigenous peoples already inhabited the continent for thousands of years before any European arrival.