Overview

This page is dedicated to the 85 victims who lost their lives in the AMIA bombing.

The AMIA bombing was the largest terrorist attack in Argentinian history. On July 18, 1994, a massive white van, driven by a Hezbollah agent, crashed through the front of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association. Inside the van was a powerful explosive device, that had the capability of leveling entire buildings. The van attack was purposely carried out to target the Jewish population of Argentina, especially those living in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and the home to the largest Jewish population in the country. Argentina is home to the largest Jewish population in Latin America, and is the sixth largest community in the world outside Israel. In total, 85 innocent people died that day, which does not include the fatality suffered by the driver of the van. There were more than 300 reported incidents of injury, however that number is expected to be much higher.

The Incident and Context

Prior to the AMIA bombing, on March 17, 1992, a bombing occurred at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires which killed 29 and wounded 242. This attack was claimed by a group operating under Hezbollah and has generally been associated with the later AMIA bombing. However, there has never been any certainly identified perpetrators.

Two years later, when the Hezbollah agent lit off the bomb in the van in the AMIA building, it led to a cascade of rubble as the five-story building toppled downwards as the explosion knocked out the pillars supporting each of the higher floors. The rubble poured out into the street and injured and killed victims both within and out of the building. Argentina followed up the attack by closing its borders, considering the possibility that the terrorists entered through a neighboring country. Israel, the United States, and Argentina all reacted by looking into the incident and starting various investigative efforts.

(Remains of the AMIA after the AMIA Bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photograph. Buenos Aires, Argentina, n.d.)

[courtesy of Google]

Botched Investigation

The investigation as to who the perpetrators of the bombing and plan behind the attack has remained confusing to this day, as investigations have been botched or otherwise considered unreliable by the pubic. Most notably, the investigation has been plagued by corruption and international pressure from various countries since the bombing took place on that fateful day in July of 1994. The investigation was originally assigned to federal judge Juan Jose Galeano, however he was impeached from his position as judge in 2005 due to “serious irregularities and his mishandling of the investigation. Juan Jose Galeano as well as the rest of the Argentinian government assumed complete responsibility for the mishandling of the case.* Nestor Kirchner, the president of Argentina in 2005 declared the entire situation of the unresolved investigation a “national disgrace”. For two decades, the injustice suffered by the Jewish community of Argentina had yet to have been resolved. This incident is just one of many terrible actions that have plagued the Jewish community over the last century.

Alberto Nisman’s Investigation

Special Prosecutor Alberto Nisman was appointed the lead investigator of the AMIA bombing case on September 13, 2004. With the previous investigation attempts being plagued by incidents of corruption and mishandling, Nisman and the Argentinian government were hoping to solve this case as quickly and as properly as possible. Nisman was a terrific choice for this investigation due to his tedious and meticulous work ethic and attention to detail. Slowly and surely, over the course of more than a decade, the facts began to reveal themselves to Nisman. In October of 2006, Alberto Nisman formally accused the government of Iran of sponsoring the attack and Hezbollah of being in charge of carrying out the fatal incident.**

In 2008, Alberto Nisman asked for two people to be put into detention until the investigation was completed. Those two people were former president Carlos Menem, who presided as president of Argentina in the 1990s when the bombing occured, and Juan Jose Galeano, the first man appointed to investigate the AMIA bombings. Many people, especially United States diplomats to Argentina, believed that Nisman did this to get on the good side of president Cristina Kirchner. This was only the beginning of Kirchner’s involvement in the case.

In 2015, with the investigation still ongoing, Alberto Nisman formally accused President Cristina Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and many other Argentinian politicians of covering up Iranian suspects when the investigation was being spearheaded by Juan Jose Galeano.*** Nisman was supposed to present his findings before the Argentinian government on January 19, 2015. Unfortunately, he was never able to declare his findings as he was assassinated on January 18, 2015, the day before he was called to testify in court. Initially, his death was ruled a suicide, noting lack of evidence of any other person being in the room at the time of his death, however the investigators of his death declared on June 1, 2018 that he was the victim of a murder. Former President Cristina Kirchner, and current Vice President, is the prime suspect in Alberto Nisman’s murder and is currently being prosecuted on conspiracy to commit murder by a federal judge.

(Alberto Nisman in Infobae. n.d. Photograph.)

[courtesy of Google]

A Cultural Legacy

Prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, the AMIA attack was the most prominent example of radicalized Islamist extremism in the New World and often hung over discussion of global terrorism. Beyond Latin America, Israeli and US government interest brought discussions to a wider base. Israel’s Mossad claimed that it eliminated the figures involved in the attack although this was not convincing to the wider international community. The US Congress took interest in the case and blamed Hezbollah for the attack. Congress several times passed resolutions around the anniversary of the bombing expressing concern over the poor progress the Argentine government made in investigating it. In 2007, in relation to the bombing, Congress passed a resolution specifically expressing concern on Iran’s efforts to expand its influence in Latin America and called Latin American governments to work together to combat Islamist terror organizations including Hezbollah, especially by eliminating their financial networks in the hemishphere. In 2005, a petition for justice was headed up by Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis.

Outside of the realm of politics, many social movements rose up among Argentine Jews both for the purposes of mourning and preserving memory as well as ensuring a better sense of community security to both comfort against and help protect against future attacks on the local Jewish community. DAIA (The Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations), the most prominent cultural organization of Argentine Jews which also represents the country in the World Jewish Congress and Latin American Jewish Congress, played a significant role in helping to identify the bodies of victims of the bombing and ensuring they ended up with the families. They also organized to aid Jewish organizations in ensuring security measures were up-to-date to protect against future incidents. DAIA created the CF (Community Fortress) program in order to carry out these safety-related programs. Despite these efforts, many have criticized the organization for not helping the community to grieve properly and also for downplaying the ongoing issues of the investigation.

The organization Memoria Activa has also taken an active stance on keeping public awareness of the event. They have been critical of Argentina’s treatment of the AMIA bombing as a “Jewish problem” and have instead reiterated that it is an Argentine problem at large revealing the problems of antisemitism and other prejudices and corruptions within Argentine government and society.

More recently, a number of documentary and drama films have been made regarding the AMIA bombing and its aftermath. The 2004 docudrama 18-j collected a number of director’s short tributes to the bombing. In 2009, the full-length film Anita focused on the story of a young girl whose mother was lost in the bombing. In 2019, Netflix produced a documentary series on Alberto Nisman titled Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy.

Works Cited

Cohen, Michelle Amy. “Delving into the Ruins: The AMIA Bombing, the Struggle for Justice, and the Negotiation of Jewish Belonging in Argentina.” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 2009.
Feldstein, Federico Pablo and Carolina Acosta-Alzuru. “Argentinian Jews as Scapegoat: A Textual Analysis of the Bombing of AMIA.” Journal of Communication Inquiry, Volume 27, Sage Publications, 2003, pp. 152-170. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carolina_Acosta-Alzuru/publication/249735161_Argentinean_Jews_as_Scapegoat_A_Textual_Analysis_of_the_Bombing_of_AMIA/links/54636c7a0cf2837efdb3074d.pdf
Foster, David William. “Two photographic interpretations of the bombing of the AMIA.” Arizona State University, http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v25/foster.htm, accessed February 19, 2020.
Greenberg, Nathaniel. “War in Pieces: AMIA and The Triple Frontier in Argentine and American Discourse on Terrorism.” A Contracorriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America, vol. 8 no. 1, University of Washington, 2010, pp. 61-93.
Gurevich, Beatriz. “Passion, politics and identity: Jewish women in the wake of the AMIA bombing in Argentina.” Serie Documentos de Trabajo, No. 309, Universidad del Centro de Estudios Macroeconómicos de Argentina (UCEMA), Buenos Aires, 2005. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/84439/1/50384764X.pdf
Sullivan, Mark P. Latin America: Terrorism Issues. Washington DC, Congressional Research Service, 2009. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Tk17UnyZf3sC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=amia+bombing&ots=I4Gv66Zgjq&sig=mYsFbixn3Q6QPOLCzf5uvzUnWK0#v=onepage&q=amia%20bombing&f=false
“19 De Septiembre De 2006.” Prosecution of Juan Jose Galeano. Accessed March 10, 2020. http://juicioamia.infojusnoticias.gov.ar/media/1173/procesamiento-tramo-i.pdf. *
“Jewish Centre Bombing: Argentine Prosecutor Nisman Found Dead.” BBC News. BBC, January 19, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30877296. **
Molina, Federico Rivas. “Cristina Kirchner Faces Investigation over Alleged Cover-up of Bombing.” EL PAÍS, December 30, 2016. https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2016/12/30/inenglish/1483102020_021698.html. ***
Partlow, Joshua, and Irene Caselli. “After 17 Years on Argentine Bomb Case, Prosecutor Was Sure ‘Truth Will Triumph’.” The Washington Post. WP Company, February 1, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/after-17-years-on-argentine-bomb-case-prosecutor-was-sure-truth-will-triumph/2015/02/01/60e7f236-a58a-11e4-a162-121d06ca77f1_story.html.