Argentina's Milei vows justice in 1994 bombing of Jewish community center

By Lucila Sigal and Kylie Madry

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's Jewish community on Thursday commemorated the 30th anniversary of the bombing of a community center that killed 85 people, with President Javier Milei promising to right decades of inaction and inconsistencies in the investigations into the attack.

A bomb-filled van hit the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, the deadliest such incident in the South American nation's history.

"Today we chose to speak out, not stay silent," Milei said in an address on Wednesday evening, ahead of a ceremony at the AMIA building on Thursday. "We're raising our voice, not folding our arms. We choose life, because anything else is making a game out of death." 

In April, Argentina's top criminal court blamed Iran for the attack, saying it was carried out by Hezbollah militants responding to "a political and strategic design" by Iran.

Tehran has denied involvement and refused to turn over suspects, and previous investigations and Interpol arrest warrants have led nowhere. 

Milei, a staunch proponent of both the Jewish community and Israel, said on Wednesday he would propose a bill that would allow for the trial of the attack suspects in absentia.

He also said his government would beef up the national intelligence system to prevent future attacks, while dedicating further resources into investigating the AMIA incident.

Argentine prosecutors have charged top Iranian officials and members of Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah with ordering the bombing, as well as an attack in 1992 against the Israeli embassy in Argentina, which killed 22 people.

"Although they may never be able to serve a sentence, they will not be able to escape the eternal condemnation of a court proving their guilt in front of the whole world," Milei said.

The president called the April decision an "enormous step" in seeking justice in the AMIA case but said there was much more to do because of the "cover-up by the terrorist state of Iran."

Last week, Milei declared Iran-backed militant Islamist group Hamas a terrorist organization for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. 

The president on Wednesday compared the attack on Israel with the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires and demanded that Hamas release all of the hostages it held, including eight Argentines.

Guillermo Francos, Milei's cabinet chief, lashed out on Thursday against an editorial published by the Tehran Times earlier this week, in which the state-aligned newspaper warned that Argentina would "regret (its) enmity with Iran."

"The impunity with which such threats are made is striking," Francos said in a radio interview. "I don't care about the threats, when on this side we are defending the freedom and human rights of many Israelis."

(Reporting by Lucila Sigal and Kylie Madry in Buenos Aires; writing by Stéphanie Hamel; editing by Michael Perry and Paul Simao)