Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his followers have sought to harass and intimidate the Catholic Church, the media, university students, political opponents and multinational companies, to name just a few...it can hardly come as a surprise that Chávez would also attack the Jewish community....The point is to bully and discredit institutions that have existed and thrived for years in Venezuela. Perhaps because of their vitality and independence, Chávez sees them as an intolerable threat. ...{Chavez}has, of course, turned public institutions into pawns of his regime. His party controls the legislature, the majority of local governments, unions and the electoral commission....