September 11th, 2008
Impunity in Buenos Aires bombing
Published in The Miami Herald
September 11, 2008
Today we remember the 2,974 lives lost seven years ago at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the United 93 crash. Not that we will ever forget, but anniversaries — whether of loss or happiness — bring back memories in full force.
In July I attended a memorial at the Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami Beach. In 1994, 85 people died after a suicide bomber struck AMIA, the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. As I listened to their names being called and watched as 85 candles were lit, one by one, I decided to write this column.
Bringing closure after such losses is much harder than if death comes naturally. In the award-winning Why We Fight (2005), filmmaker Eugene Jarecki introduces us to Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York City police officer and Vietnam veteran who lost his son, Jason, on 9/11. He thought his pain would ease if the Pentagon put Jason’s name on a bomb that would be used in Iraq.
On April 1, 2003, a 2,000-pound guided bomb inscribed with ”In loving memory of Jason Sekzer” hit its target bull’s-eye. Wilton, however, wasn’t comforted for long. He’d believed that Saddam Hussein had also been behind 9/11. When he realized he’d been led astray, Wilton tells us: “I was mad. The government exploited my feelings of patriotism. I was so insane with wanting to get even, I was willing to believe anything.”
Fourteen years after the AMIA bombing, Argentines are still waiting for the truth to be established beyond reasonable doubt. Until Carlos Menem left the presidency in 1999, the investigation went nowhere. Rumors abounded regarding Iranian-Hezbollah complicity and their local collaborators. In 2004, after three years of proceedings, a three-judge tribunal acquitted the Argentines who were charged.
All the same, the AMIA case didn’t die.
• In 2005, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights issued an authoritative report that underscored the high-level official irregularities in the investigation.
• Then-President Néstor Kirchner recognized the responsibility of the Argentine state in the matter.
• In 2006, an Argentine court requested the extradition of eight former Iranian officials.
• Before the U.N. General Assembly in 2007, Kirchner accused Iran of not cooperating with Argentine justice.
• In May, a federal prosecutor called for the arrest of Carlos Menem, his brother Munir and four other officials for derailing the AMIA investigation.
What happens next is an open question. The AMIA bombing, the bloodiest act of terrorism in Latin American history, wasn’t just a crime against the Jewish community. Impunity has an ugly history in Argentina, which is why the Argentine government must bring the AMIA investigation to a credible closure.
On July 14, hundreds of citizens gathered in front of the new AMIA building to remember the victims. Speakers issued a strong rebuke of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for what they considered her government’s inaction.
One speaker in particular caught my attention as I read the news report of the event. The head of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo told the crowd: “You are our brethren in the search for justice.”
For two decades, the grandmothers have relentlessly sought to find their grandchildren who were either seized by the military regime (1976-1983) or born to their daughters in captivity. Out of approximately 500 children, 87 have been found.
Iran has answers
At issue is the Argentine justice system. Is it capable of shedding light on the serious allegations made against Menem and other high-ranking former officials? At issue as well is the Iranian and Hezbollah presence in Latin America. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez has close ties with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Shouldn’t Fernández ask Chávez for help with Tehran?
Losing a loved one is hard enough. Having all these loose ends that the families, whether in Argentina or the United States, cannot control hinders their process of grieving. Had my father died in an event like AMIA or 9/11, it would have been more difficult to find my peace with his absence.