Thirty years after the bombing of the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, which left 85 dead and more than 300 wounded, fear of a new attack by the terrorist group Hezbollah and the Iranian regime increases in the region.
A July 8 report by Argentine news site Infobae, based on Israeli intelligence information, indicates that part of the terrorist cell that perpetrated the attack still lives and operates in Brazil. It is the same cell that perpetrated the attack against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, which left 29 dead and more than a hundred wounded.
“Part of that network — which according to a report by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad helped in the financing and logistics of the attack against the Embassy — not only continued to be present in Brazil even after the two massacres, but some of its members have settled there permanently or have companies still in operation,” Infobae reported. This is the case of Hussein Ali Gharib, who has been identified as a member of the Palestine Islamic Jihad. According to the Mossad report, Gharib has a technical assistance and cell phone accessories business in São Paulo and frequently travels to Lebanon.
Another member of the network is Hassan Suleiman Abu-Abbas (registered in Brazil as Hassan Mohamad Sleiman), who arrived in São Paulo in the 1980s from Lebanon. The Mossad report describes him as a “member of Islamic Jihad” and of the “1992 Logistics Cell,” which still “travels to Lebanon from time to time,” Infobae reported.
In addition to Brazil, Hezbollah maintains an active presence in different parts of South America. According to Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, Hezbollah today has cells in the Tri-Border area (between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay), Iquique (northern Chile), and Bolivia. “Today, our border with Bolivia […] is where we have the highest level of alert and security in the country,” Bullrich told the Argentine television channel La Nación+ in April.
Minister Bullrich said the alert level on Argentina’s northern border has increased as a result of the defense memorandum of understanding signed by Bolivia and Iran in July 2023. She also maintained that in the Andean country there are members of the Quds forces — the elite wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Hezbollah is Iran’s proxy. Sometimes it acts alone and sometimes under orders from Iran,” Bullrich said.
The minister also pointed out that the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires “was the center of organization of the bombing” of the AMIA. “At that time, the borders were not immediately closed. Today Argentina has clear protocols regarding what to do preventively, what to do in the face of situations such as the one that happened against Israel [the Iranian drone attack in April] and what to do in case of some kind of problem,” Bullrich said.
Increased threat from Iran
“Iran’s presence in Latin America today is more ominous than when the attack against the AMIA headquarters was perpetrated,” Luis Fleischman, professor of sociology and political science at Palm Beach State University in Florida, told Diálogo. In addition to ties with Hezbollah, the Tehran regime maintains “friendly relations with left-wing extremist governments such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba” and with other Latin American governments, the expert said.
“As there are more Iran-friendly governments in the region, the presence of Iranians or Iranian agents such as Hezbollah increases. As Hezbollah or Iranians are involved with criminal organizations, it multiplies this threat,” said Fleischman, recalling the links between Hezbollah and criminal groups such as Brazil’s First Capital Command in drug trafficking and money laundering activities.
Moreover, Iran has established several networks in the region through Shiite mosques and a propaganda apparatus through the Spanish-language television channel HispanTV, Fleischman said. “HispanTV’s message is frequently broadcast also by the Chavist-controlled Telesur network. The message from Telesur, while more subtle, is equally toxic,” he added.
Still according to Fleischman, Iran uses Latin American citizens who have a Shiite or Muslim background and indoctrinates them to run mosques and spread Iran’s political ideology, which is anti-American, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic. “There is the possibility of criminal and terrorist networks cooperating. Crimes against Israeli or Jewish institutions could be committed using criminal organizations or local gangs with a lot of logistics know-how,” Fleischman said.
In April, Argentina’s Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber (the highest criminal justice body) ruled that both attacks were ordered by the Tehran regime and carried out by Hezbollah. “A state that organizes, plans, programs, finances, arms, and executes a terrorist act in another sovereign state has a responsibility that at some point and in some international court it will have to assume,” Cassation Chamber Judge Carlos Mahiques told the press, according to BBC.
Toma Report
In June, the Argentine justice system unsealed a 2003 intelligence report that alleges that Iran ordered Hezbollah to attack the AMIA. The document, prepared by Argentina’s Secretariat of Intelligence (SIDE, which is today the Federal Intelligence Agency) with the FBI support, is known as the Toma Report in reference to the then head of SIDE, Miguel Ángel Toma.
In an interview with Infobae, Toma explained that the report was “the key to change the perception and understanding of the actions of Islamic terrorism led by Iran and its armed wing, Hezbollah.”
According to the document, the attacks on the Israeli Embassy (1992) and the AMIA (1994) occurred as a retaliation by the Iranian regime to the Argentine government’s decision to suspend nuclear assistance. Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, found dead in 2015, relied on the report to develop his investigation into the bombing.
