Relatives of the victims at yesterday?s ceremony.

Relatives and friends of the victims of the AMIA Jewish community centre levelled in a 1994 terrorist attack yesterday gathered to mark the 15th anniversary of the bombing, which left 85 people dead and more than 300 injured.

Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández attended the ceremony and pledged to keep working to bring to justice those responsible for the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history.

Although the traditional ceremony, which has been held every year since the bombing, was postponed due to the H1N1 influenza A epidemic, the ONG Relatives and Friends of the AMIA Victims invited “those who want to come to lay a flower and pray, each one according to their faith.”
There were no speeches. At 9.53 am, the time of the bombing, a minute of silence was observed. Wreaths were laid on the sidewalk and on the wall panels listing the names of the 85 dead.

Asked about the 15 years that have passed without finding any person responsible for the attack, Fernández told journalists that “they should have been found at the time, those who perpetrated this madness as well as those responsible directly or indirectly, because they cooperated, closed their eyes or looked the other way.”

Fernández added that “the stench of complicity which has always been present can be felt and this makes me angry.”

He also criticized Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri’s decision to appoint former Federal Police inspector Jorge Palacios as chief of the new Metropolitan Police. “It’s incomprehensible,” Fernández remarked.

Relatives of the victims and Jewish community authorities were upset by Palacios appointment. Public Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who is probing the AMIA case, has said there is enough evidence to indict the former Federal Police officer on charges of obstructing the investigation.

Buenos Aires City Security Minister stood by Palacios, stressing that the principle of innocence must be respected.

Fernández yesterday pointed out that “even though our legislation says that nobody is guilty until proved otherwise, there are too many elements on the table which point to the need to think twice” about Palacios’ appointment.

Meanwhile, lawyer Claudio Lifschitz, a former secretary of the first judge who probed the AMIA case, Juan José Galeano, yesterday said that at 2.40 am he was shot at three times while driving his car in the Greater Buenos Aires district of Merlo. He added that he saved his life thanks to his bodyguard, a Federal Police officer, who fired back at the aggressor and forced him to escape.

Fernández said that “we are processing the information to find the people responsible” for the attack against Lifschitz.

Source: BuenosAiresHerald.com