New book claims ex-Chilean leader Allende was anti-Semitic

A new book published in Chile claims that Salvador Allende, the country's late Socialist president who ruled from 1970 to 1973 and who is widely thought of as a symbol of the left, was during his youth an anti-Semite.

The author, Victor Farias, bases his claim on Allende's doctoral thesis, which he wrote in 1933 and the contents of which have been kept secret until the present day.

"The Jews are characterized by certain types of crime: fraud, deceit, slander, and usury," Allende wrote in the thesis.

"These facts lead one to assume that this race plays a role in crime," Allende wrote.

In addition, Allende wrote that even though among the Arabs are "hard-working tribes", 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 argues that during his tenure as health minister from 1939 to 1941, Allende proposed castrating and sterilizing certain segments of society - a plan which the author considers more severe than similar ideas raised during the period of Nazi rule in Germany.

The Allende family has accused Farias of manipulating documents.

Allende was elected president in 1970 and committed suicide during a U.S.-backed military coup in 1973, when Chilean air force jets bombed his palace.

The coup brought to power General Augusto Pinochet, who went on to establish a dictatorial regime accused of killing thousands of Chileans.

Ever since the coup, Allende has been considered by many around the world as a symbol of the struggle against military dictatorship and a darling of the left.