The Buenos Aires City Council has blocked plans by the families of the victims of the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings to unveil a memorial sculpture in the plaza across the street from the Argentine Supreme Court.
The Peronist majority in the council nixed the idea, saying that it objected to the location for the monument, not the memorial itself.
The victims’ relatives, members of what is known as the Active Memory group, wanted to unveil the memorial in a July 15 ceremony.
The presentation of the monument, a 1,000-pound slab of marble bearing the names of the bombing victims, was to be the central point of a week of ceremonies and services in memory of those killed.
The Argentine government has failed thus far to find the terrorists that destroyed the Israeli Embassy in March 1992 and the Argentine Mutual Aid Association building in July 1994. The bombings left a total of 115 people dead and more than 400 wounded.
Council member Juliana Marino, acting as spokeswoman for the Peronist majority, said, “Such a memorial in front of the Supreme Court and Central Courthouse building would be embarrassing to our government.”
She added that the group had no problem with erecting the monument in another city plaza.
The victims’ families have insisted on the location near the courthouse because they have gathered there every Monday since the AMIA bombing to demand justice for their loved ones.
“After all we have been through, it is incredible that we have to fight to put up a memorial,” said one woman who lost her husband in the bombing.
The Active Memory group is worried that a permit will not be issued in time for a July 15 ceremony, one member said.
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