CARACAS -- The Venezuelan government "rejected" on Saturday the acts of vandalism perpetrated Friday night against a Caracas synagogue and said that the investigations still have not been able to identify the group of attackers.

"We reject all violent action carried out against any group in Venezuela. We reject this action no matter who did it," Communications Minister Jesse Chacon told the press.

"The investigation has hardly begun, but already some channels are saying that this was done by people close to the government. We reject that statement because the investigation hasn't shown anything like that," the minister said.

A group of unknown persons, made up of approximately 15 individuals, entered a Caracas synagogue overnight, destroyed Jewish religious objects and daubed anti-Israel slogans on the walls, representatives of the Jewish community in Venezuela reported Saturday.

Chacon said that the government's rejection includes both "groups that believe these actions could influence the situation in the Middle East" as well as "groups who are trying to create an atmosphere of tension that might change the trend of surveys in the next 15 days."

The minister suggested the hypothesis that if those who carried out the attack belong to the second group, they would have done so because the surveys are favoring the government position with regard to the coming referendum on Feb. 15.

Chacon said that "one thing is the state of Israel and its policy towards the Palestinians and the Gaza strip, which we vigorously reject, and another thing is the government's relations with the Jewish people who live in Venezuelan and with whom we have excellent relations."

The group of attackers, who according to witnesses were "heavily armed," subdued the guards on the premises and remained in the synagogue more than four hours.

Elias Farache and David Bittan, president and vice president of the Israelite Association of Venezuela, told the local press that the individuals "grabbed and dashed to the ground the sacred scrolls of the Torah and other religious objects."

They also painted the walls with such slogans as "Get out, death to all" and "Cursed Israel, death," and carried away the equipment that records video images from the security cameras.

On Jan. 21 and 22, a group arrived on motorcycles and painted graffiti on the walls outside the same synagogue, located near the downtown Plaza Venezuela, related to the massacre perpetrated in Gaza by the Israeli army.

The case was reported to the Attorney General's Office and, according to Israeli spokespersons, they are waiting for the investigation to identify the guilty parties, who on that occasion were captured by the security cameras.

Venezuela broke off relations with Israel after the attacks on the Gaza Strip in which 1,500 people died, many of them women, children and the elderly.

This week Israel expelled the two officials who were representing Venezuelan interests in that country and in Palestine, and who were received with honors Saturday in Caracas. EFE