This past week commemorates 28 years since the horrific bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. To date, this remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Latin American history as well as against any Jewish diaspora outside of Israel since the Holocaust.
On 18 July 1994, 85 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in a Hezbollah-perpetrated bombing attack of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building. Despite the fact that evidence has long pointed to Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah as being responsible for this heinous attack, to this day, the perpetrators have never been brought to justice.
According to Wikipedia, the AMIA bombing has long been marked by accusations of cover-ups. All suspects in the “local connection” (among them, many members of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police) were found to be not guilty in September 2004. In August 2005, the federal judge in charge of the case was impeached and removed from his post on a charge of “serious irregularities” due to his mishandling of the investigation.
Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman formally accused the Iranian government of directing the bombing, and the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah of carrying it out. In 2015, Nisman filed a 300-page document accusing the former Argentine president of covering up Iran’s role in the incident, but he was murdered hours before he was due to testify against the former president.
While the families of the murdered victims have yet to receive justice, Argentina officially designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 2019.
The Latin American Jewish Council (LAJC) teamed up with AMIA to produce approx. 60 videos of survivors’ testimony, describing what happened on the day of the attack, their story of survival, and the impact the event had on their lives. You can view their testimonials here: https://amia.org.ar/sobrevivientes/testimonios/
We will forever remember these innocent victims and continue to demand justice in their honour.
