No other country in the world is home to as many people of Palestinian origin as Chile. It is estimated that in this South American country, there are more than 500,000 descendants of those who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century when their land was part of the Ottoman Empire. They started businesses, created social and sports clubs (such as Palestino, founded in 1920, which has twice been champion of the first division of soccer), and quite a few have dedicated themselves to politics. Across the Andes, in Argentina, Jews began to arrive at the end of the 20th century in an influx that intensified after the Holocaust. Today they form one of the largest communities in the world outside Israel. They have also founded social clubs and there are Jews in the political, business, and cultural world. Even a recent left-wing presidential candidate, Myriam Bregman, is of Jewish origin. In that country, one of the largest marches in support of Israel took place this month, organized by the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA), the same Jewish community organization that suffered a brutal bombing in 1994). Also, Argentina is possibly the Latin American country with the highest number of citizens victims of the Hamas attack. At the time of writing, eight Argentines died and 15 are disappeared (there were also reports of deaths, disappearances, and kidnappings from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil). This partly explains why, after the latest escalation of violence that began with the terrorist attack on October 7, President Alberto Fernandez was one of the first to condemn the Islamist group and to express his solidarity with Israel. Expreso mi enérgica condena y repudio al brutal ataque terrorista perpetrado por Hamás desde la Franja de Gaza contra el Estado de Israel. Reciba el pueblo de Israel toda la solidaridad de este presidente y del pueblo argentino. — Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) October 7, 2023 I express my strong condemnation and repudiation of the brutal terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas from the Gaza Strip against the State of Israel. May the people of Israel receive the full solidarity of this President and the Argentine people. But not all Latin American leaders reacted in this way. The differences were particularly more noticeable among leftist leaders, due to the closeness that this segment has historically had with the Palestinian cause. For example, in Chile, former communist presidential candidate Daniel Jadue wrote in X: “The people of Palestine have the right to resist. The international community has been silent for years in the face of the genocide and extermination of women and children. Surely the response of Zionism will be fierce. [The] solution to the conflict is to end the occupation! #FreePalestine.” The left itself criticized his tweet and others like it for avoiding calling Hamas’ actions against Israeli civilians “terrorists.” Los sionistas y las derechas del mundo son iguales. Sueñan que la respuesta a sus crímenes de odio sea siempre la resignación pero no hay pueblo que resista la injusticia para siempre. El que quiera entender que entienda #palestinalibre Unica Solución #finalaocupacion pic.twitter.com/G0SoHKvJtD — Daniel Jadue (@danieljadue) October 8, 2023 The Zionists and the right-wing forces of the world are the same. They dream that the answer to their hate crimes will always be resignation but there are no people who can resist injustice forever. Those who are willing to listen, will. #PalestineFree Only Solution #EndOccupation. Isaac Caro, Ph.D. in American Studies, maintains that in general the countries of the region “have condemned the actions carried out by Hamas and while they have pointed out that Israel has the right to defend itself, they have rejected reprisals when they go beyond humanitarian law or beyond international law.” However, there are significant exceptions: “In the case of Venezuela, its government explicitly defended the attack, and Nicaragua and Cuba have avoided condemning it. It is worth mentioning that these three countries do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.” Another special case is Colombia, whose president, after initially failing to condemn Hamas’ atrocities, “is threatening to break off relations with Israel because Israel cut off its security supplies,” Caro explains. The statement made by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was the most commented for its oddity.