MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei underlines 30 years of impunity in AMIA case

Milei promised a Jewish gathering in Buenos Aires that his government would not be like the others before it

Argentine President Javier Milei insisted Wednesday that all those who died or were wounded in the July 18, 1994, bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters were still demanding Justice after “three decades of impunity.” During his appearance at a World Jewish Congress gathering in Buenos Aires, Milei also pledged that, under his administration, a difference would be made compared to previous ones.

“It will be three decades in which politics and justice were either accomplices and accessories to the crime, or impotent actors, who turned their backs on the tragedy while those responsible got away unscathed,” Milei argued. “We are not here to be more of the same. We are promoting a law to extend the trials in absentia,” he also pointed out about a bill submitted to Congress in the past few days. “In a global context of resurgence of anti-Semitism, we have to be firm and inconsequential with terrorism,” he added.

“There is no nuance possible. There is only good and evil. That is why we have declared Hamas a terrorist organization, something that no government dared to do out of diplomatic speculation, despite the fact that it was always a truism for all those who knew anything about the case,” Milei also maintained.

“There can be no doubt that Iranian terrorism is a matter of national interest that directly affects the lives of Argentines,” the Libertarian leader also pointed out. After three decades of impunity, “we chose the word, not silence,” Milei stressed.

Among those offenses the Libertarians' bill would provide for a trial without the defendants' presence are “grave crimes,” including “the financing of terrorism,” Milei also explained while recalling that he had instructed the Justice Ministry “to strengthen the special investigation unit for the AMIA case.”

“We are fortifying the quality of intelligence at the service of our national security,” the head of state also noted this week's announcement that the State's departments handling these affairs should report straight to him. “We have resolved to completely reform our national intelligence system, creating three agencies at the service of the protection of the Argentine people, stripped of particular political interests,” he said.

Also Wednesday, Milei held separate face-to-face meetings with Presidents Santiago Peña of Paraguay and Luis Lacalle Pou of Uruguay who flew to the Argentine capital to participate in Thursday's event marking the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing.

In this scenario, a threat from the Iranian government was received in the Argentine capital. Milei's government was accused of being influenced by Israeli interests. “Tehran will not forget the anti-Iranian policies of Buenos Aires” and although Iran does not play “easily on the enemy's chessboard” it will impose its own game at the right time, the daily Clarín reported.

According to the Tehran Times, Milei has openly become a “puppet of the Zionist regime” by repeating “baseless claims” against Iran. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Buenos Aires' decision to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and freeze its financial assets proved the South American country's “Iranophobic” stance. Hamas accused Milei's government of having a “flagrant bias” and justifying Israel's “crimes of genocide” in Gaza. The organization demanded that Argentina retract its decision and distance itself from the Israeli narrative.

Under Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), Argentina had already declared Hezbollah a terror-associated group.