CARACAS, Venezuela – Jewish leaders on Tuesday condemned a police raid on a Jewish community center in Caracas, saying the weekend search for weapons was unjustifiable.

The Sunday, pre-dawn raid on the center, which includes a Jewish school and sports club, occurred hours before Venezuelans voted down a referendum on sweeping changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez. The president had warned of violence by opponents in the run-up to the vote, but in the end none was reported.

Agents of the Disip secret police agency left empty-handed after searching the Hebraic Social, Cultural and Sports Center, according to the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations.

“We denounce this new and unjustifiable act against the Venezuelan Jewish community, and we express our rejection and profound indignation,” the associations said in a statement.

The Disip police agency, contacted by The Associated Press, declined comment on the raid.

The World Jewish Congress and its regional branch, the Latin American Jewish Congress, also expressed concern about the incident, calling it “an unjustified act of hostility and intimidation against a peaceful and hardworking community.”

“The harassment of the Venezuelan Jewish community, through one of its central institutions, is ... unacceptable,” the groups said in a statement.

The organizations noted that a similar raid occurred in 2004 at a Jewish primary school in Caracas, where police also found nothing while investigating a car bombing that killed a prominent prosecutor.

“It seems absolutely incomprehensible and irrational,” said Claudio Epelman, of the Latin American Jewish Congress, by telephone from Buenos Aires, Argentina. “It causes profound ... unease in the community.”

The raid occurred about 1 a.m. on Sunday. Epelman said about two dozen police stormed into the center's grounds, located in a leafy neighborhood in eastern Caracas.

In recent years, some Jewish leaders in Venezuela have expressed concerns about Chavez's close relations with Iran and his remarks favoring the Palestinian cause.

Epelman said that according to estimates by the Latin American Jewish Congress, Venezuela's Jewish community has shrunk from an estimated 22,000 people when Chavez took office in 1999 to between 12,000 and 13,000 today, as many have moved away to other countries.

Associated Press Writer Ian James contributed to this report.