Argentina has had no formal diplomatic relationship with Iran since the AMIA bombing, and in her speech at the United Nations last year, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner addressed the Iranian delegation to ask for their cooperation in bringing those responsible to trial. Her administration has suggested using a third country as neutral ground for a fair trial, but Tehran rejected the request.

Kirchner has promised that there will be no overtures to Iran until the AMIA case is resolved.

Argentine ambassador to the United States Jorge Argüello urged patience with the judicial process in his speech Wednesday. He pointed to the decades that passed between the end of Argentina’s “Dirty War” and the eventual trials of the military leaders who were responsible for the disappearance of 30,000 people.

“For the prosecution of those responsible for the crimes against humanity committed during the military dictatorship, the Argentines had to wait a long time,” Argüello said. “But today is a reality that makes it clear that in my country there is no space for impunity for those criminals. The same will happen with those responsible for the attack on the AMIA.”

International and local leaders lit 85 candles while a slideshow of photographs of the victims was projected on a screen. As has been the tradition in AMIA memorial services from Argentina to Miami for the past 18 years, people repeated the word “presente” after the name of each victim to affirm their continued presence in the collective memory and the demand for justice.

Anita Weinstein, the survivor, spoke of the resilience of the Jewish community in Argentina and expressed overwhelming gratitude for the solidarity in Aventura. But she said it was “painful and frustrating” to wait for the Argentine government to continue investigating the circumstances of the tragedy.

“We are sure that a society without justice is not a good society,” she said. “A society without justice does not respect life and opens the door to others who might do things to take another life.”