The
AMIA bombing was an attack on the
Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) building. It occurred in
Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds.
It was
Argentina's deadliest bombing ever. Argentina is home to a Jewish community of 200,000, among the largest in Latin America
(around 2% of the population).
Over the years, the case has been marked by incompetence and 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, federal judge Juan José Galeano, in charge of the case, was impeached and removed from his post on a charge of "serious" irregularities due to mishandling of the investigation.
In 2005, Cardinal
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who would later become
Pope Francis, was the first public personality to sign a petition for justice in the AMIA bombing case. He was one of the signatories on a document called “85 victims, 85 signatures” as part of the bombing’s 11th anniversary.
On October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused the government of
Iran of directing the bombing, and the
Hezbollah militia of carrying it out.
According to the prosecution's claims in 2006, Argentina had been targeted by Iran after Buenos Aires' decision to suspend a
nuclear technology transfer contract to Tehran.
This however, has been disputed, because this contract was never terminated, and Iran and Argentina were negotiating on restoration of full cooperation on all agreements from early 1992 until 1994, when the bombing occurred.
The thirteenth anniversary of the bombing was commemorated on July 18, 2007. In addition to nationwide exhibitions and ceremonies, radio and television stations and police cars all across Argentina sounded sirens at 9:53 am, the time of the bombing.
