Book claims Allende was anti-Semitic

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SANTIAGO, Chile, May 14 (UPI) -- A book has claimed Chilean President Salvador Allende, who ruled from 1970 to 1973, was once an anti-Semite, Ha'aretz reported Saturday.

The author, Victor Farias, based the accusation on Allende's 1933 doctoral thesis.

"The Jews are characterized by certain types of crime: fraud, deceit, slander, and issuing loans at reduced rates," Allende wrote. "These facts lead one to assume that this race plays a role in crime."

Allende also wrote that there are "hard-working tribes" among the Arabs but most of them are "adventurers, lacking in wisdom, and lazy with a tendency to steal."

The former Chilean leader also accused those of Italian descent in the south of the country as well as Spanish people of tending to commit "barbaric and primitive crimes of lust and are unpredictable from a sensitive standpoint."

The book also claims that Allende proposed castrating and sterilizing certain segments of society during his tenure as health minister from 1939 to 1941.

Allende was elected president in 1970 and committed suicide during a U.S.-backed military coup in 1973.