FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gestures during a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, June 20, 2022. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday said he was right to compare a prominent Mexican Jewish figure to Adolf Hitler for his political mindset, shrugging off a protest from the country's Jewish community.
Lopez Obrador on Wednesday said advertising executive and political analyst Carlos Alazraki, a critic of the president, was "Hitlerian," prompting the Mexican Jewish community to issue a statement rejecting the remarks as "unacceptable."
Lopez Obrador referred to Alazraki after a video was shown during a regular government news conference of the latter in discussion with opposition politicians who said Mexico was allowing in undocumented migrants from Venezuela at a new airport. The government denies this.
"He is extremely conservative, like Hitlerian," Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Jewish Community of Mexico rejected the use of the term "Hitlerian" to refer to anyone: "Any comparison with the most bloodthirsty regime in history is regrettable and unacceptable."
Hitler's Nazis killed 6 million Jews during World War Two.
Some Mexican opposition politicians also took offense. "The President's comment against Carlos Alazraki not only violates freedom of expression, but is unworthy and out of all proportion. To call a prominent member of the Jewish community 'Hitlerian' is extremely grotesque and aberrant," opposition congressman Santiago Creel said in a tweet.
On Thursday, Lopez Obrador returned to the matter during his regular news conference, saying "Alazraki is a follower of Hitler's thinking," and pointing to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and his use of lies to manipulate public opinion.
"This is the essence of Alazraki's publicity or propaganda strategy," said the president, who has regularly invoked Goebbels when seeking to discredit his critics.
To make his point, Lopez Obrador showed a brief 2021 video clip in which Alazraki said the key to beating the president's ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) electorally was to use lies and propaganda against it.
Alazraki told Reuters he was at a loss to understand the president's comments. He said his remarks in the clip were taken out of context, and that he was illustrating that to compete with MORENA, one had to use propaganda as the party did.
Alazraki also posted a video on Twitter on Thursday condemning Lopez Obrador's remarks, underlining his opposition to his policies. He concluded by saying he forgave the president for the insults "because you don't know what you're doing."
Lopez Obrador observed that he had longstanding differences with Alazraki but expressed respect for the Jewish community.
"I have very good friends in the Jewish community," he said.
(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Dave Graham in Mexico City; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
