By Eduardo Eurnekia - On July 18, 1994, the center of Buenos Aires, the bustling capital of Argentina, was shattered by a huge explosion. A suicide bomber drove his explosives-loaded van into the building of the Jewish Community (AMIA-Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina), killing 85 people and injuring hundreds.
The Argentine Government has created the Public Registry of Persons or Entities Linked to Acts of Terrorism and its Financing (RePET), a tool whereby Hezbollah can be included. So far, local authorities adhered to the list penned by the United Nations, where Hezbollah is not included. President Mauricio Macri also decreed a day of national mourning to mark the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Israeli Social Welfare Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires. In a third measure, Macri gave the victims of that attack 180 days to file for monetary compensation from the state.
The United States and Argentina convened this week a two-day regional summit in Buenos Aires to address the Hezbollah threat in the Western Hemisphere. The summit on Tuesday and Wednesday was held a month ahead of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish centre in the Argentine capital.
Two times Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is launching a book next Friday, a collection of personal anecdotes and momentous experiences of her political life, anticipation of its official presentation in the Buenos Aires Book Fair on 9 May.
The head of Argentina’s main Jewish group said an assault Monday on the country’s chief rabbi was motivated by anti-Semitism. Rabbi Gabriel Davidovich was beaten and seriously injured by assailants who broke into his home while he and his wife were there, taking money and personal effects.
Two of Argentina's leading Jewish entities, the AMIA and the DAIA, this week made public their its difference over a role as a plaintiff in a criminal complaint against former president-cum-senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, involving a controversial Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2013 with the regime of Iran.
Israeli and Jewish leaders on Friday marked the fourth anniversary of Argentine federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s murder by unveiling a memorial plaque in his honour at the Ben Shemen forest in central Israel.
Argentina ex-president and Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will retain her parliamentary immunity for the rest of the year following the ruling coalition's Senate block failed attempt on Tuesday afternoon to address the issue.
President Mauricio Macri reaffirmed, once again, “Argentina's legitimate and imprescriptible sovereign rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and their surrounding maritime spaces”, in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
An Argentine federal appeals court confirmed on Friday that special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, found dead in 2015 while investigating a 1994 Jewish center bombing, was murdered.