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On Monday 18 July 1994, at 9:53 in the morning,
a Renault Trafic van loaded with explosives crashed against
the building of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA).
This massacre took the lives of 85 people
and left over 300 wounded.
The guarantee for the murderers had been signed two years earlier.
Around 20 blocks away from AMIA, a terrorist attack against
the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires had killed 29 people,
and until then, the investigation had been an embarrassment.
The court case fell into the hands of then Judge Juan José Galeano.
From the start, it was tainted with irregularities and obscure interests.
From the very first moments, those in charge of investigating,
diverted the investigation. Those in charge of leading the search
towards the truth, were instead loyal to the impunity.
The discovery of the motor of a Trafic van among the rubble
directed the investigation towards the search of its owner,
illegal car dealer Carlos Alberto Telleldín.
His testimony was the source of serious contraditions as to
who received the van from Telleldín days before the attack.
Some weeks later, Galeano travelled to Venezuela to interview
an Iranian dissident. Upon his return to Argentina, he claimed:
"You will fall flat on your backs with the information that was given."
After this forceful phrase, Galeano set off towards the
Presidential House in Olivos...we never fell on our backs.
On 1 August 1994, the judge in charge of the investigation commanded
the head of the Antiterrorist Unit of the Federal Police,
Jorge "Fino" Palacios, to search the house of
businessman Alberto Kanoore Edul.
Suspiciously, two phone calls were registered from Palacios'
cell phone to the house that was to be searched.
The search was not thorough, and few documentation was taken.
This announced search was part of a cover-up operation led by
former president Carlos Menem, in order to prevent the investigation
of a line of research that linked people close to the President
to the terrorist attack: the 'Syrian trail' was buried since the first days.
From then on, the only subject of investigation was the responsability
of Hezbollah and Iranian citizens and politicians.
Shortly after the attack, a group of members of the Jewish community,
along with relatives of the victims, created a group called Memoria Activa,
Active Memory.
From that moment, Memoria Activa summoned itself every Monday,
at the same time of the explosion, in Plaza Lavalle, in front of the court.
Through the weeks and the years, Plaza Lavalle became the settings for
the protest against the cover-up and the injustice.
The relatives who were gathered in Memoria Activa started an independent
judicial action in the investigation of the attack in 1996,
because the leadership of the Jewish community, which claimed to
represent the victims, had interests that were different from
the search for the truth.
In 1996, Telleldín testified that he had given the Trafic van
to a group of police officers from the province of Buenos Aires,
led by Juan José Ribelli. For that reason, they were imprisoned.
In 1997, a video surfaced showing how Judge Galeano had negotiated
with Telleldín the payment of 400 thousand dollars coming from
the Intelligence Secretariat in exchange for a false accusation against
the police officers.
It was then clear that there was a coordinated action between
the Judicial Branch, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch
and the Jewish community leadership that did not correspond
with the search for the truth.
In the rally on the anniversary of the attack in 1997, the victims'
relatives accused Menem's government of consenting to the injustice
and of covering up the locals involved.
In that rally, Jewish community leader Beraja was massively
heckled from the audience. Nervous, he faced the crowd and refused
to change his friendly attitude towards Menem's government.
"We will not respond to provocations. I want justice, but I want
the justice of democracy, of the rule of law, of the constitution...
and even if I have to put my life at stake for this to happen,
and even if this makes you dislike me, I will fight without surrender."
After the rally, the strong criticism by the relatives upset
Government officials. In order to mantain good relations,
the leadership of the Jewish community apologized for
the grievance to the President.
In september 2001 the oral trial began. Telleldín and the policemen
from Buenos Aires were accused of being accessories to the attack.
During the trial, given the need of the testimonies of many
Intelligence officials (who were aware of the illegal actions
committed in the investigation and in their Secretariat),
the Argentinean government released them from their obligation
to keep Intelligente secrets, therefore enabling them to provide
their testimony. Even though it was to be expected that the
Intelligence Secretariat would oppose this decision, shockingly,
DAIA (Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations) opposed.
Why would DAIA prefer to defend the right of "the security of the State"
over the right to the truth? Could it be because the testimony
of many of the agents would invalidate the investigation
led by Judge Galeano, that they supported no matter what?
Meanwhile, Memoria Activa succeeded in dismissing Galeano from the investigation.
The ruling from the oral trial was decisive: the Federal Oral Court
number 3 mantained that the investigation of the attack
"was a ploy at the service of the obscure interests of immoral politicians."
The judges ordered the investigation of former Judge Galeano,
former public prosecutors Mullen and Barbaccia, former Minister
of Interior Carlos Corach, former Secretary of Intelligence
Hugo Anzorreguy, several former Intelligence agents
and former President of DAIA, Rubén Beraja.
Years before, Memoria Activa sued the Argentinean State before
the Organization of American States for violating the right to life
and for deprivation of justice. Six years later, in 2005,
the Argentinean government, through decree 812, recognized the State's
responsibility for not preventing the attack and for the cover-up.
Through that decree, Argentina took on the commitment to perform several
actions aimed towards delving deeper into the investigation, the cover-up
and the creation of an Anti-Catastrophe Unit on a national level.
To this day, Argentina has not yet fulfilled many of the promises made.
In 2011, Judge Ariel Lijo took the case of the cover-up, dealing with
the irregularities of the AMIA investigation, to oral trial.
It involves Menem, Corach, Hugo Anzorreguy, Beraja, "Fino" Palacios,
former Judge Juez Juan José Galeano, the former public prosecutors
and Telleldín, among others. In spite of this, to this day
the trial does not have a starting date: the people who diverted the
investigation are still free and are not serving the sentence they deserve.
All of them are responsible for the fact that today we do not have
neither truth nor justice.
Today, 19 years since the *** of 85 people, there is not a single person
in jail for the AMIA attack.
Today, despite the fact that many are working to close the investigation
and forget the attack, we continue to build Memoria Activa - Active Memory.
For those murdered in the Israeli Embassy we demand...
Justice!
For the disappeared we demand...
Justice!
For the children taken from their homes during the military dictorship
we demand...
Justice!
For the impunity we demand...
Justice!
For those murdered in AMIA we demand...
Justice!
Justice, justice we shall pursue. For only thus
will we live in peace and democracy.
Memoria Activa