Argentina’s president was not on hand for the annual demonstration marking the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center.
Neither Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner nor her predecessor and husband, Nestor Kirchner, attended Friday’s street demonstration in front of the rebuilt Buenos Aires center, unlike in previous years.
The event commemorated the 14th anniversary of the July 18, 1994 terrorist attack, which killed 85 and wounded hundreds.
The Argentine government was represented by national Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez, Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri and a few local legislators. Latin American legislators, and Israeli and U.S. officials were among those on hand.
Luis Cyzewski, who lost his 21-year-old daughter Paola in the attack, demanded action from the national government to strengthen Argentina’s demands on the international community to assist in bringing the terrorists to justice.
Cyzewski, of the victims’ relatives group Familiares de las Victimas, criticized Saudi Arabia for its decision not to arrest the suspected Iranian attackers with Interpol arrest warrants.
AMIA’s new president, Guillermo Borger, demanded that Argentina cease commercial relations with Iran, which allegedly was behind the bombing.
Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, at the demonstration said the center will do whatever it can to assist in the case.
“We will collaborate to see the case does not end unpunished,” said Zuroff, who is in Buenos Aires as part of a campaign in Argentina and Chile to locate Aribert Heim, the Nazi known as “Doctor Death” and an assistant to Adolf Eichmann.
