MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Yet another AMIA bombing anniversary and nobody jailed

“In terms of the fight against terrorism, Argentina is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago,” Linetzky stressed

Relatives of the 85 casualties and the entire Argentine society Monday wondered once again how it could be that 28 years after the bombing of the AMIA welfare Israeli Association nobody has ever been held accountable.

President Alberto Fernàndez's absence at the commemorating ceremony added to the dismay of the attendees, who described the case as a “humiliating failure” for Argentina's judiciary.

“The case is one of the most shameful reflections of Argentine history, one of the great debts of democracy, an image that we hate to look at because it shows us a humiliating failure. Time goes by and we continue without progress in the investigation of the worst terrorist attack suffered in our country,” AMIA President Amos Linetzky said.

“It is clear that the responsibility for the attack lies with senior Iranian government officials of that time, as well as with operative members of Hezbollah,” he added.

He also pointed out there were international arrest warrants out for these suspects who need to remain within the borders of “countries that protect them.”

One of those suspects is Iran's current Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezai, who in January of this year attended the inauguration of President Daniel Ortega in Managua.

“It has not been possible to catch even one of the multiple perpetrators of such an atrocity, the scoundrels, wretches, and murderers of 85 people continue to enjoy their daily lives, walking around the world with total freedom. How can we explain so much impunity?” Linetzky added.

A siren blew at 9.53 am local time, the exact time when in 1994 a car bomb exploded in front of the AMIA headquarters on Pasteur street in Buenos Aires.

President Fernàndez skipped the first in-person ceremony of the last two years following the COVID-19 lockdowns but wrote on social media that “28 years after the AMIA bombing, we say 'present' again. For the 85 people killed that morning, for their families, and for all of Argentina. We have memory. We seek justice.”

Under the motto “We return to Pasteur,” relatives of the victims and survivors of the attack gathered where the association once functioned.

“When was the last time that the Special Prosecutor's Office, in charge of prosecutors Sebastián Basso and Gonzalo Miranda, produced at least one novelty in the case?” Linetzky also wondered. “We are not aware that they have been deprived of resources. Then, why do they spend their days in one of the largest prosecutor offices in the country?” he added.

The Alberto Fernàndez administration was also criticized for the ongoing crisis involving a Venezuelan-Iranian cargo plane: “In terms of the fight against terrorism, Argentina is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago when we suffered the first of the attacks against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. We have learned nothing. Our borders are still porous, our controls weak,” the AMIA chief stressed.