Senator Ben Cardin (D–Md.) was one of four co-sponsors on a Senate resolution approved by the Foreign Relations Committee commemorating the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. As it was 25 years ago, Argentina remains home to the largest Jewish population in Latin America and the sixth-largest by country in the world.
The resolution honored the victims and reiterated the Senate’s “strongest condemnation” of the 1984 attack, which left 85 people dead and hundreds injured and remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina’s history. It also expressed “serious concern about Iran’s influence networks in the Western Hemisphere.” Several Iranian nationals are suspects in the case.
The other co-sponsors of the resolution were Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Todd Young (R–Ind.).
“Today’s passage shows our continued commitment to finding justice for victims of terrorist attacks across the world,” said Senator Bob Menendez (D–N.J.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I look forward to working with my colleagues as we continue to support the government of Argentina in their investigation into the event. Our world has no place for anti-Semitic acts, not then, not now, and not ever.”
“The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations today is sending a clear message of overwhelming support to the families who were forever affected when Iran-backed Hizballah terrorists bombed the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires, killing 85 innocents and injuring hundreds on July 18, 1994,” said Senator Marco Rubio, chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “I thank my colleagues for standing with the Argentine Jewish community in their efforts to seek justice and to commemorate the 25th anniversary of this horrific attack.”
The resolution also recognized the efforts of Alberto Nisman, the Jewish prosecutor who investigated the bombing. Nisman was found dead hours before he was to testify about the efforts of Argentina’s president to cover up alleged Iranian involvement in the bombing.
