June 2, 2009 | 1:04 am

Swine flu: La Voz de Aztlan blames it on the Jews

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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When we last checked in on La Voz de Aztlan, “the Jew-bashing, gay-trashing” online publication, in the words of Gustavo Arellano, was blaming the Jews for landing “La Causa” host Augustin Cebada in hot water.

Now, Arellano blogs, the La Voz de Aztlan publisher, Hector Carreon is blaming the Jews for something more serious: the spread of swine flu. Arellano writes:

He mentions the recent completion of a project that mapped out the Mexican genome and claims it was probably used to create the swine flu in a laboratory in order to target Mexicans. The principal evildoer? Mexico’s former Minister of Health, Julio Frenk, whom Carreon identifies as a Jew by using the crayons with which all La Voz de Aztlan articles are originally scrawled out to draw a crude yarmulke on a picture of Frenk. Carreon then ties Frenk to neocons at Harvard, whom he ties to Israel, and then provides a grabbag of links in which he previously claimed Jews were trying to destroy Mexico.

Carreon’s article, under the pseudonym Ernesto Cienfuegos, can be read here. It’s wacky, as are all the “Protocols of Zion” conspiracy theories on the Aztlan homepage.

Here is an excerpt from a 2001 article Arellano wrote for The Jewish Journal about the L.A.-based Website:

La Voz’s turn to anti-Semitism began during the 2000 elections, when it blamed the Westside Jewish community for corrupting democracy and—more onerously—creating “Judenrat” Latino politicians who are supposedly owned by Jewish interests. Since then, La Voz has constantly mentioned the concept “Jew” in articles attacking individuals. It referred to Michael Eisner as “the super Jewish mogul” and hinted that prominent Latinas had attained their status because they were married to Jewish men.

In March, La Voz turned its bile specifically toward the Southern California Jewish community with an article titled “La Raza and Jews on Collision Course in Alta California.” La Voz used recent political issues, such as so-called “wealthy Jew” Ron Unz’s passing of Proposition 227 in 1998 as proof that Jews are conspiring to subjugate emerging Latino political power. Regarding the Jewish community, the editorial states, “The sectors that they cannot control directly, they will do it indirectly through the purchase of influence as well as the cunning manipulation of ethnic and other minorities.”

The editorial sparked controversy in the Latino community and brought about letters from Raul Yzaguirre, president of National Council on La Raza (NCLR), and Frank Quevedo, the vice president of Southern California Edison, demanding a retraction. Thomas Saenz, vice president of litigation for Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), also wrote a letter independent of MALDEF. “When I read the Web site, it was late Friday, and I was unable to alert MALDEF about it, so I wrote a letter on my own behalf demanding that La Voz de Aztlan apologize,” Saenz said. “I also requested that I be taken off La Voz’s e-mail list until the Web site apologized for its anti-Semitic remarks.”

Rather than apologize, La Voz noted in “Apologize to the Jewish Community or Else!” (posted April 2) that “sending ‘vendido’ [sell-outs] Hispanics to do their dirty work is a favorite ploy of Jews in Los Angeles.”