The year 1997 ended in Argentina with the desecration of gravestones in two Jewish cemeteries in Buenos Aires, 35 in the La Tablada cemetery on Christmas Eve and 19 in the Liniers cemetery on New Year's Eve. Cemetery desecration is by no means an unusual occurrence in Argentina.¹ A few days before these events a large number of men had been dismissed from the Buenos Aires police force in the course of a major reorganization, following charges of police corruption. Jewish leaders had reason to suspect that some of the discharged policemen were responsible for the vandalism.² As news of the extent of police corruption spread, so too did the suspicion that certain groups within the federal police force were involved in anti-Semitic acts.

The following questions will be dealt with here: 1) Why is anti-Semitism so much more prevalent in Argentina than in other Latin American countries? 2) What lies behind police involvement in anti-Semitic acts?

Argentina's history is marked both by social anti-Semitism and official anti-Semitism. It has been evident in the armed forces for decades, particularly during the 1960s' military regime of Juan Carlos Onganía, known for his pro-Nazi sympathies, and in the anti-Semitic leanings of the Catholic nationalist foreign and interior ministers. Moreover, Enrique Horacio Green, Onganía's son-in-law, served as Buenos Aires' chief of police and carried out a "purification" of the moral climate in the city, through organized anti-Semitic groups.³

Anti-Semites have also held influential positions in the democratic regimes. Jordán Bruno Genta, a lecturer and instructor in the air force, found an interested audience there. He published a book, Guerra contrarrevolucionaria: Doctrina Política, which encouraged the struggle against subversive left-wing forces, of which Jews, described as "unpatriotic foreigners," were clearly a part. Bruno Genta was a disciple of the well-known anti-Semitic priest Julio Meinville, a prolific writer and the spiritual leader of Tacuara, a violent, anti-Semitic group of upper-class young people, active in the 1960s.⁴ This continual and intense ideological framework of beliefs and subsequent acts is unparalleled in other countries in the region.

The 1970s, too, were a period when anti-Semitism in the government and the armed forces was prevalent. In the Peronist government of 1973, Perón's own personal secretary and a close aide of Peron's wife Vice-President María Estela de Perón, was José López Rega, a former member of the AAA (Argentine Anti-communist Alliance), a right-wing, anti-Semitic, paramilitary group.⁵ In 1971 a leaflet appeared among officers in the Argentinean army under the name "Plan Andinia," which accused international Jewry and Zionists of planning to take over southern Argentina. It has been circulating ever since.

The most violent, anti-Semitic eruption of hatred surfaced during the military rule of 1976-83, when Jews were labeled "subversive" and "left wing" and were treated in an especially violent manner. Of the Jews who were arrested and later disappeared, many were students, intellectuals and liberal professionals who were unconnected to the extreme left-wing urban guerrilla movement pursued by the regime. Here, too, groups within the armed forces and the police force played central roles in state terrorism.⁶

The Buenos Aires police force has a long tradition of involvement in corruption, connections to violent, right-wing groups and anti-Semitic acts. When the AMIA Jewish community center was blown up on July 18, 1994, hopes of finding those responsible were not high. It is believed that although the bombing was carried out by Muslim militants, they were aided by the local police, who provided them with the necessary intelligence, vehicles, explosives and immigration documentation.⁷

In 1997, there appeared to be a major breakthrough in the case of the AMIA bombing. Links between the car bomb that blew up the building and the Buenos Aires police force led to the arrest of four police officers. It was discovered that the father of police commander Juan José Ribelli, a retired railway worker, had received 2.5 million dollars prior to the bombing. This sum of money had apparently been given to his sons, who then signed it over to him. Investigators believe that the money was payment for aiding the terrorists. Juan José Ribelli has since been charged with supplying the van used to carry out the attack. Ex-chief of police Pedro Klodczyk, who retired in 1996, admitted that some policemen did make money illegally. He conceded that those under his command were out of control and he called Ribelli a "criminal."

Prosecutors have yet to prove that the 2.5 million dollars came from terrorists. Ribelli was rich long before the bombing of the AMIA, having profited for years from the supervision of illegal police activity. It is not uncommon in Argentina for government and police officials to amass large sums of money illegally and then publicly declare that these riches were a family inheritance. While still not a definite breakthrough, the case against Ribelli is gaining strength.⁸

On December 23, 1997, the governor of Buenos Aires announced that the province's police force would be reformed. The entire framework of the Buenos Aires police force was dismantled. An intervenor was assigned chief of police for 90 days and a number of significant positions were eliminated. The police force was made directly accountable to the Supreme Court of Justice, a measure unprecedented in Argentina. President Menem said the government supported the reform.⁹

Senior officials, in most cases former government employees, were replaced by civilians.¹⁰ It was announced that future investigations, including security and narcotics trafficking investigations, would also be conducted by civil servants. In March 1998, a new Ministry of Security was to have been established. These reforms were supported by all major political forces, but repudiated by the police force.

It is claimed by both Jewish and local leaders that the desecration of the Jewish cemeteries was a direct response to the reforms within the police force. After all, they argue, so many gravestones could not have been smashed without attracting the attention of the police who patrolled the area. But why did the police choose Jewish targets? The answer appears to lie partly in their traditional anti-Semitism, reflected in their repeated attempts to cleanse society of what are perceived to be its darker elements. At the same time, they were attempting to punish the government by attracting negative attention in the international arena.

NOTES

1. See, for example, "Profanan 40 tumbas en cemeterio judío," Diario Popular, 24 Sept.1993; "Sin Pistas sobre profanadores de cemeterio judio," Crónica, 25 Sept. 1993; "La Ofensiva Antisemita", Nueva Sion, 29 Nov.1996..

2. See Informe, DAIA, Dec. 1997 (unpublished report).

3. Haim Avni, "Antisemitismo en la Argentina: las dimensiones del peligro," in El Legado del Antisemitismo, ed. Leonardo Senkman and Mario Sznajder (Buenos Aires, 1995).

4. About Julio Meinvielle and his influence, see Graciela Ben-Dror, "The Catholic Church in Argentine and the Jewish People during the Holocaust, 1933-1945" (Ph..D. Diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1993.[Hebrew]). On Jordán Bruno Genta, see Guerra Contrarrevolucionaria: Doctrina Politica (Buenos Aires, 1965)

5. Leonardo Senkman, "The Restoration of Democracy in Argentina and the Impunity of Antisemitism," Patterns of Prejudice 2/4 (1990), pp. 36-59. pp. 39-40; Leonardo Senkman, "El Antisemitismo bajo dos experiencias democraticas, Argentina 1955-56 y 1973-78," in El Antisemitismo en la Argentina ed. Leonardo Senkman (Buenos Aires, 1989), pp. 109-87.

6. See Edy Kaufmann and Beatriz Cymberknopf, "La Dimensión judía en la represion durante el gobierno militar en la Argentina 1976-1983," in El Antisemitismo en la Argentina, pp. 235-73. See also, Mario Diament, "The Timmerman Affair," Present Tense 6 (Sept-Oct. 1988), pp. 23-7.

7. See La Denuncia, DAIA - AMIA, document presented to Judge José Galeano in September 1997.

8. The New York Times (internat. ed.), 23 Nov. 1997.

9. Clarín, 23 Dec. 1997; "Argentina Grave Desecration," Jerusalem Post, 28 Dec. 1997; "Ex-police Officers Suspected of Vandalizing Jewish Tombs," The Jerusalem Post, 4 Jan. 1998.

10. Informe, DAIA, op. cit.