Thirty years after a Lebanese suicide bomber aligned with Hezbollah killed 85 people at a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, senior government officials from the U.S. and around the world will gather in Argentina next week to mark the solemn anniversary of the unresolved crime. No one has been brought to justice for the attack, which took place on July 18, 1994, at the Associación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a hub of the Buenos Aires Jewish community. 

The commemoration, set to take place over multiple days and culminating in a major memorial event that will bring together Latin American leaders, members of Congress and antisemitism envoys from more than two dozen nations, will highlight “that there has been no justice for Argentina and for the community,” U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Marc Stanley told Jewish Insider on Monday. 

More than that, the event will serve as a reminder that “terrorism still exists,” Stanley said. “That was dramatically pointed out on Oct. 7 when this time it was Iran and Hamas, versus here in Argentina, it was Iran and Hezbollah. But it’s still happening.”

In April, Argentina’s highest criminal court issued a landmark ruling blaming Iran for the 1994 attack. The ruling came months after the U.S. issued its first indictment related to the attack, charging a Lebanese-Colombian citizen with playing a key role in the bombing. But no one tied to the attack has yet faced extradition or gone on trial. 

“Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah still engage in terrorist attacks, not only against the Jewish community, but in terrorist acts around the world. We need to constantly be vigilant, and we need to constantly shine a light on this terrorism and we need to work to stop it,” Stanley said. “We need to work for justice.” 

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) will be in Buenos Aires for the 30th anniversary events, alongside officials from Israel and the leaders of several international Jewish organizations. Cardin and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a resolution on Wednesday honoring the victims of the bombing and “underscor[ing] the concern of the United States regarding the continuing, decades-long delay in resolving the 1992 and 1994 terrorist attacks in Argentina.”

Argentine President Javier Milei is also expected to attend the official memorial event. Shelley Greenspan, the White House Jewish liaison, will represent the Biden administration at the event. 

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, will spearhead an event at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs to unveil a document she authored with other antisemitism envoys — including Argentina’s — outlining best practices for governments to fight antisemitism. Lipstadt told JI last week that she expects 30 nations to sign onto the document.

Two years before the 1994 bombing, a suicide bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 people. The two events “were the two worst terrorist events in the Western Hemisphere before Sept. 11,” Stanley pointed out. “The U.S. pretty much achieved justice [for Sept. 11]. We took out Bin Laden. We got justice with most of the perpetrators. Here in Argentina it’s still an open wound. There’s been no justice.” In 2015, Alberto Nisman, the Jewish prosecutor who was investigating the case, was shot in his apartment. The case was never solved. 

In his Senate confirmation hearing in 2021, Stanley called for the Argentine government to fully investigate and prosecute the 1994 bombing. 

“It’s one of the things that Congress asked me to do when I came down here,” he told JI on Monday, explaining why the issue is so important to him. “We’re trying to make sure that our efforts against terrorism are clear and that we show a leadership role in countering terrorism.”