In Argentina, relatives and victims of the AMIA attack commemorate 28 years of the attack

First modification: 07/19/2022 – 02:27

Calling for “memory and justice,” hundreds of people gathered outside the new facilities of the Asociación Mutua Israelita de Argentina (AMIA), located on Pasteur Street in Buenos Aires. The original building was destroyed by a car bomb on July 18, 1994, exactly 28 years ago.

After two years of pandemic and virtual tributes, the commemoration was held again in person. With posters that had images of the victims, the Jewish community in Argentina called for justice for the attack and criticized the prosecution that is in charge of the investigation.

So far no arrest has been made of those responsible for the events, which left 85 dead and more than 300 injured.

The Jewish community in Argentina is one of the largest outside of Israel, it is estimated that around 300,000 people belong to it, being the largest in Latin America.

An investigation with no results

In 2004, then-Argentine President Néstor Kirchner created a special prosecutor’s office for the AMIA case. As a result, in 2006 the prosecutor accused the Iranian government of organizing the crime and Lebanon’s Hezbollah party of executing it. The investigation was carried out with the help of US and Israeli intelligence.

The specialized prosecutor’s office assured that it had identified Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a Lebanese citizen and member of Hezbollah, as the material author of the attack, being the suicide driver of the car bomb, however, 12 years later, the FBI carried out another analysis of the DNA of the body and established that it did not match that identification.

After receiving the accusations, the Government of Iran denied being involved in the attack. In Argentina, the justice of that country charged eight Iranian and one Lebanese officials, issuing a red alert from Interpol, however, so far there have been no arrests.

“The scoundrels, wretches and murderers continue to enjoy their daily lives, walking around the world with total freedom,” said Amos Linetzky, current president of the AMIA on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on Monday.

Ali Rafsanjani, Iranian president at the time, was also charged in the investigation. Every year, Argentina asks for justice in the United Nations General Assembly so that Tehran accepts the facts and suspects can be questioned by Argentine judges.

In 1992, another terrorist attack destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, leaving 29 people dead and 200 injured. On this fact, justice has not been done either.

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Relatives of the victims continue to ask for answers

Although the exact causes of the 1994 attack have not been clarified, there is a theory that Argentina was selected as the target of the attack after learning of the Argentine government’s decision to suspend an agreement to transfer nuclear technology to Iran.

The last movement of the investigation was in 2019, when the United States Treasury Office accused the Colombian citizen Salman Raouf Salman, allegedly a member of Hezbollah, of being the coordinator of the attack. The Bureau offered a $7 million reward for information, to no avail so far.

This case has been marked by controversy, accusations and no answer to endless questions. 28 years later, the relatives of the victims only ask that it be known what really happened.

With AP, AFP and local media