Guatemalan Town Threatens to Expel Its Jews

A town in Guatemala has asked its Jewish residents to register with the municipality and warned that they face expulsion, reports the JTA. Approximately 30 Jews live in San Juan La Laguna, in the state of Solola, in a population of under 10,000.

The 10 Jewish families in the town, many of them converts, have been subject to repeated verbal and physical abuse from the town’s residents, according to local Jewish resident Misael Santos.

Santos added that he believes someone is directing the abuse against the Jewish families, including putting fliers under residents’ doors with “misinformation” about the Jewish community, including that the Jews kidnap children and that the town would be overrun with Jews. He said windows of his home have been smashed by rocks and that a firebomb was thrown at his home.

From VIN News:

An investigation was opened this week by The Counter-Terrorism Foundation against the mayor of San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala, for inciting violence against Jewish families living there.

Rodolfo López is being investigated for instigating non-Jewish community members to commit acts of violence and threaten Jewish residents of the municipality for the past six months as reported by Prensa Libre.

The suit was filed with the Criminal Judicial Management Agency.

The offenses alleged against him are instigation of genocide, abuse of authority, threats, abuse of power and violating the Constitution.

As previously reported by Prensa Libre on May 25, Misael Santos, a convert to Judaism, has lived in San Juan La Laguna for six years and says for the past six months he, his family and other Jewish residents have experienced verbal abuse and racist insults from the community. The anti-Semitism reached heights when community members requested the approximately 30 Jews leave the village.

Mayor López ordered a Jewish registry to be created, said Santos, allegedly to keep note of tourism in the town, but the Jewish community became wary of the registry and the reasons behind its creation. That, in addition to physical violence – including stoning and throwing explosive devices – against Jewish community members sparked the investigation against the mayor.