On July 18, 1994, an explosives-filled truck detonated at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and wounding 300—the worst terror attack in Argentina’s history. Investigators blamed Hezbollah and its backers in Iran and called for accountability. Thirty years later, justice remains elusive for the victims of AMIA.

In 2006, Argentinian prosecutors called for the arrest of a handful of Iranian officials, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in connection to the attack. The following year, prosecutors named several suspects, including Iran’s then defense minister, General Ahmed Vahidi, who was commander of a special unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1994. According to Argentinian prosecutors, Iran planned and financed the AMIA attack, which Hezbollah then carried out.

In January 2013, Argentina and Iran agreed to a joint investigation into the AMIA attack. According to the memorandum of understanding, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the Iranian government would set up a joint commission to investigate the AMIA bombing. Detractors, including Argentinian Jewish groups and multiple opposition legislators, condemned the deal, arguing that it would hinder the investigation and that Iran could not be trusted. “The bombing is being debated with the Iranian government, which ordered it,” said Ricardo Gil Lavedra of the Argentinian legislature. Guillermo Carmona, president of the Argentine Foreign Relations Committee, called the agreement necessary for Argentinian legal officials to be able to question Iranian suspects in Tehran. Despite Iran’s cooperation in the agreement, Interpol refused to rescind the six arrest warrants issued for Iranian suspects in the bombing, including Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. 

Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman led the investigations. In January 2015, Nisman accused Kirchner and other Argentinian officials of covering up Iran’s role in the bombing. He was found shot to death in his Bueno Aires apartment three days later. Authorities labeled Nisman’s death a homicide in late 2017 after a police report detailed findings that he was beaten and drugged before the murder, which was set up to look like a suicide. The following month, Argentinian Judge Claudio Bonadio indicted former president Kirchner on treason charges for covering up Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing in exchange for trade concessions. Kirchner denied the charge, which Bonadio had based on Nisman’s work. 

On July 18, 2019, the 25th anniversary of the bombing, Argentina finally designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. According to Argentina’s Financial Information Unit, Hezbollah “continues to represent a current and present threat to national security and integrity in the Argentine Republic’s financial economic order.” Hezbollah joined Argentina’s newly unveiled public registry of groups and individuals linked to terrorism.

On June 16, 2023, Argentina issued an international arrest warrant for four Lebanese citizens suspected of involvement in the bombing: Hussein Mounir Mouzannar, Ali Hussein Abdallah, Farouk Abdul Hay Omairi, and Samuel Salman El Reda (El Reda). According to the warrant, the four were employees or operational agents of Hezbollah. El Reda is specifically suspected of the “coordination of the arrival and departure of the operational group.” On December 20, 2023, U.S. federal prosecutors accused El Reda of helping plan the 1994 bombing and of being a Hezbollah operative. El Reda, who remains at large, allegedly connected the 1994 operatives with Hezbollah leaders across Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. 

Since the 1994 AMIA bombing, Hezbollah has continued to carry out deadly terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. On July 18, 2012, the 18th anniversary of the AMIA bombing, a suicide bomber exploded aboard a tourist bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, killing five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver, and wounding 35 Israeli tourists. Bulgarian authorities accused two suspected Hezbollah members, Australian citizen Meliad Farah, a.k.a. Hussein Hussein, and Canadian citizen Hassan El Hajj Hassan, of providing logistical support for the bombing. Bulgaria turned the information over to EU police but planned to try them in absentia beginning in late 2016. Farah and Hassan were tried in absentia and found guilty of being accomplices to the accused suicide bomber. Farah and Hassan were sentenced to life in prison on September 21, 2020. They were also ordered to pay reparations to the families of the victims and those injured in the attack. Farah and Hassan remain at large. 

July 18, 2024, marks the 30th anniversary of the bombing. In October 2022, the Argentinian government admitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that the state had failed to protect victims before the attack and failed to fully investigate it afterward. Argentina is “responsible for all the manifestations of impunity in this case, for the preparation of a false accusation, for the corruption, for the failure to follow up on the lines of investigation, for the unreasonable deadlines, for the secrecy, for the cover-up of the truth and for the political manipulation of the case,” said Natalia D’Alessandro, the coordinator of the AMIA Special Investigation Unit of Argentina’s Justice & Human Rights Ministry.

Earlier this year, on April 12, Argentina’s Court of Cessation concluded that Iran planned the AMIA bombing, and Hezbollah executed the attack. Nonetheless, those directly responsible for the horrific attack have escaped prosecution. In June, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Argentinian government for denying historical truth and justice to the victims and society at large. This month, the Argentinian government introduced a bill to Congress to allow for trials in absentia, which would allow Argentinian authorities to try the perpetrators of the AMIA bombing even as they remain at large.

As we mark the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing and honor the memories of its victims, the Argentinian government is reckoning with its own responsibilities in that terrible attack. At the same time, Hezbollah has launched a near-daily stream of missiles and rockets into northern Israel since October 2023, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands from the region. Hezbollah has also kept Lebanon’s own government from selecting a president and forming a new government. Politically and militarily, Hezbollah has brought devastation and death to Lebanon, Israel, Argentina, Bulgaria, and countless other nations. And yet the world maintains a muted response. Indeed, the European Union and many other countries refuse to recognize Hezbollah as a singular terrorist group, instead artificially dividing it into a terrorist military wing and a non-terrorist political wing, which allows Hezbollah to avoid sanctions and responsibility for its violent actions. It is well past time to act: Hezbollah must be recognized around the world for what it is and for the harm it has done, not just to Argentina and Israel, but to Lebanon and the world.

As we remember the victims of the AMIA bombing this week, let us honor their memories by calling for an end to the organization that murdered them.