MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador said on Thursday that he was right to compare a prominent Mexican Jew to Adolf Hitler for his political mindset, rejecting protests by the country’s Jewish community.
Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that advertising executive and political analyst Carlos Alazraki, a critic of the president, was “Hitlerite,” prompting the Mexican Jewish community to issue a statement dismissing the remarks as “unacceptable.”
Lopez Obrador referred to Alazraki after a video was shown during the latter’s regular government press conference in a discussion with opposition politicians, who said that Mexico allows undocumented migrants from Venezuela to a new airport. The government denies this.
“He is extremely conservative, like a Hitlerite,” Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Jewish community in Mexico rejected the use of the term “Hitlerite” to refer to anyone: “Any comparison to the most bloodthirsty regime in history is pathetic and unacceptable.”
Hitler’s Nazis killed 6 million Jews during World War II.
Some Mexican opposition politicians have also taken offense. “The president’s comment against Carlos Alazraki not only violates freedom of expression, but is unworthy and out of proportion. To call a prominent member of the Jewish community a “Hitlerite” is extremely grotesque and abnormal, “opposition congressman Santiago Krill said in a tweet.
On Thursday, Lopez Obrador returned to the issue during his regular press conference, saying “Alazraki is a follower of Hitler’s thinking” and pointed to Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels and his use of lies to manipulate public opinion.
“This is the essence of Alazraki’s advertising or propaganda strategy,” said the president, who regularly cites Goebbels when trying to discredit his critics.
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To express his opinion, Lopez Obrador showed a short video from 2021, in which Alazraki said that the key to choosing the ruling National Movement for the Restoration of the President (MORENA) is the use of lies and propaganda against him.
Alazraki told Reuters he could not understand the president’s comments. He said that his remarks in the video were taken out of context and that he illustrated that in order to compete with MORENA, one must use propaganda, as the party did.
Alazraki also posted a video on Twitter on Thursday condemning Lopez Obrador’s remarks, stressing his opposition to his policies. He ended by saying he had forgiven the president for the insults, “because you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Lopez Obrador noted that he has long-standing differences with Alazraki, but expressed respect for the Jewish community.
“I have very good friends in the Jewish community,” he said.
(Report by Valentin Hilaire and Dave Graham in Mexico City; Edited by Matthew Lewis)
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