Argentina: 30 years after AMIA bombing, fears grow over Iran and Hezbollah threat

Thirty years after the bombing of the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, which left 85 dead and more than 300 injured, fears of a new attack by the terrorist group Hezbollah and the Iranian regime are growing in the region.

A July 8 report from the Argentine news site Informationbased on Israeli intelligence information, indicates that part of the terrorist cell that carried out the attack is still alive and operating in Brazil. It is the same cell that carried out the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, which left 29 dead and more than 100 wounded.

“Part of that network – which, according to a report by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, helped finance and logistically manage the embassy attack – not only remained present in Brazil even after the two massacres, but some of its members have settled there permanently or continue to operate businesses there,” Information reported. This is the case of Hussein Ali Gharib, who has been identified as a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the Mossad report, Gharib runs a technical assistance and mobile phone accessories business in São Paulo and travels regularly to Lebanon.

Another member of the network is Hassan Suleiman Abu-Abbas (registered in Brazil as Hassan Mohamad Sleiman), who arrived in São Paulo from Lebanon in the 1980s. The Mossad report describes him as a “member of Islamic Jihad” and of the “1992 Logistics Cell,” which still “travels to Lebanon from time to time,” Information reported.

In addition to Brazil, Hezbollah is also active in several parts of South America. According to Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, Hezbollah currently has cells in the Tri-Border area (between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay), Iquique (northern Chile) and Bolivia. “Today, our border with Bolivia (…) is where we have the highest level of alertness and security in the country,” Bullrich told Argentine television The nation+ in april.

Secretary Bullrich said the alert level on Argentina’s northern border has been raised as a result of the defense memorandum of understanding signed by Bolivia and Iran in July 2023. She also claimed that there are members of the Quds Force, the elite wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the Andean country. “Hezbollah is Iran’s vassal. Sometimes it acts alone and sometimes under Iran’s orders,” Bullrich said.

The minister also pointed out that the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires was “the center of the organization of the bombings” of the AMIA. “The borders were not closed immediately. Today, Argentina has clear protocols on what to do in a preventive sense, what to do in situations like the one against Israel (the Iranian drone attack in April) and what to do in case of a problem,” Bullrich said.

Increasing threat from Iran

“Iran’s presence in Latin America is even more ominous today than it was when the attack on the AMIA headquarters took place,” said Luis Fleischman, a professor of sociology and political science at Palm Beach State University in Florida. DialogueIn addition to ties with Hezbollah, the regime in Tehran maintains “friendly relations with far-left governments such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba” and with other Latin American governments, the expert said.

“As there are more Iran-friendly governments in the region, the presence of Iranians or Iranian agents like Hezbollah increases. As Hezbollah or Iranians get involved in criminal organizations, it multiplies this threat,” Fleischman said, noting Hezbollah’s ties to criminal groups like Brazil’s First Capital Command in drug trafficking and money laundering activities.

In addition, Iran has set up several networks in the region through Shiite mosques and a propaganda apparatus through the Spanish-language television channel HispanTVsaid Fleischman.HispanTVThe message is also regularly broadcast by the Chavis-controlled Telesur network. The message from Telesuralthough more subtle, is equally poisonous,” he added.

Still according to Fleischman, Iran uses Latin American citizens of Shiite or Muslim background and indoctrinates them to run mosques and spread Iran’s political ideology, which is anti-American, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. “There is a possibility that criminal and terrorist networks are working together. Crimes against Israeli or Jewish institutions can be committed with the help of criminal organizations or local gangs with a lot of logistical know-how,” Fleischman said.

In April, Argentina’s Federal Chamber of Cassation (the highest criminal court) ruled that both attacks had been ordered by the Tehran regime and carried out by Hezbollah. “A state that organizes, plans, programs, finances, arms and carries out a terrorist act in another sovereign state has a responsibility that it will have to assume at a given moment and in an international court,” Judge Carlos Mahiques of the Chamber of Cassation told the press, according to BBC.

Toma Report

In June, the Argentine judicial system released a 2003 intelligence report alleging that Iran ordered Hezbollah to attack the AMIA. The document, prepared by the Argentine Secretariat of Intelligence (SIDE, now the Federal Intelligence Agency) with support from the FBI, is known as the Toma Report referring to the then leader of SIDE, Miguel Ángel Toma.

In an interview with InformationToma explained that the report “is key to changing the perception and understanding of the actions of Islamic terrorism led by Iran and its armed wing, Hezbollah.”

According to the document, the attacks on the Israeli embassy (1992) and the AMIA (1994) occurred in retaliation by the Iranian regime for the Argentine government’s decision to suspend nuclear aid. Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in 2015, relied on the report to develop his investigation into the bombing.