The Milei doctrine: Explaining Argentina's sanctioning of Hamas

On 12 July, the Office of Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, declared that it was designating Hamas as an “international terrorist group”.

The sanctioning of Hamas continues a trend initiated by the preceding administration of Mauricio Macri, with Milei's announcement made on the eve of commemorations for the 1994 terrorist attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA).

The attack, the deadliest in Argentina’s history, killed 85 people and injured over 300 when a truck loaded with explosives drove into the Jewish centre. It has never been claimed or solved, but Buenos Aires, and Israel, have long claimed Hezbollah carried it out on Iran’s request.

Milei’s decision was facilitated by the Macri administration’s issuance of Decree 489/2019, which established the Public Registry of People and Entities Linked to Acts and Financing of Terrorism (RePET). RePET compiles organisations linked to terrorist activities based on the UNSC Consolidated List, the Ministry of Justice, and the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF).

In theory, Argentine law allows the freezing of assets of those included on the list. It differs from the US Department of State’s Foreign Terrorist Organisations list in its capacity to designate terrorist entities and individuals. In practice, the decree allows Argentina to circumvent the politics governing the UNSC Consolidated List and align closer with policies adopted by other Global North countries.

The sanctioning of Hamas is unexpected because the organisation has never been associated with terrorist attacks that have occurred in Argentina. So, why did Argentina sanction the Palestinian group?

Politicising the AMIA investigation

The Macri administration developed a pattern of announcements around every commemoration of the AMIA attack, which took place on 18 July 1994, none of which did much to advance the ongoing investigation.

However, such statements increased the likelihood of extracting benefits from the US by openly leveraging a pro-Israel foreign policy.

In 2016, the AMIA Special Investigation Unit (AMIA-SIU) published a report detailing all lines of investigation, describing the challenges faced, and elaborating on future scenarios. It concluded with a warning about “the limited possibilities of criminal law…to offer a full response to the many demands for justice still unsatisfied are undeniable”.

In 2017, the AMIA-SIU announced the identification of a new DNA sample without mentioning the identity of the individual. Nevertheless, the press reported that it belonged to Lebanese citizen Ibrahim Hussein Berro, while Hezbollah reported that he died fighting the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon in September 1994.

A year later, Argentina’s Financial Information Unit (UIF) ordered “the freezing of assets and money of the members of an alleged criminal organisation linked to Hezbollah, which would be operating at the area known as the ‘Tri-Border Area’”.

However, according to professor Juan Gabriel Tokalián, since 2001 there has been no evidence to show the presence of terrorist groups in Argentina or Latin America.

In 2019, the Argentine government created the RePET and the UIF ordered the freezing of Hezbollah assets - despite Hezbollah having no known assets in Argentina.

Professor Alejandro Simonoff explains the decision as part of Argentina’s realignment to be closer to the US under the Macri administration.

These largely symbolic actions on the eve of the AMIA attack commemorations held little significance for the ongoing investigation into the attacks.

Nevertheless, they secured the support of domestic pro-Israeli sectors and contributed to Argentina’s international realignment by addressing post-9/11 US security concerns. The sanctioning of Hamas by the Milei administration must be understood against the same background.

Personalising foreign policy

Milei has identified with a blend of liberal-libertarian and anarcho-capitalist beliefs. He frequently cites economists Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek, and Argentine political theorist Juan Bautista Alberdi, as inspirations for his policies.

His stated desire to convert to Judaism, admiration for Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, and quotations from the Torah also indicate Christian-Zionist inclinations.

These ideological stances are central to Milei’s political ideology and deeply influence Argentina’s foreign policy due to his personal style of leadership.

Accompanied by General Laura Richardson, chief of the United States Army Southern Command (SouthComm), Milei in April announced a foreign policy “new doctrine” centred on common 'Western ideals': human life, individual liberty, and private property, or default alignment with the “Free World, Israel, and the USA”.

Due to Argentina’s limited resources, the Milei administration’s decisions regarding Israel are largely symbolic.

First, the Milei administration abandoned a long-standing equidistant foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then, president Milei travelled to Israel during his first state visit to support Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, confirming his intentions to relocate Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem.

Additionally, Milei cancelled state visits in Europe, suggested creating an emergency committee, and declared Argentina’s “unwavering support for Israel” following Iran’s retaliatory actions in April. He also is the first Argentine president in 20 years to attend a commemorative event for the attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992.

Furthermore, the Milei administration promoted orthodox rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish as Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, and the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation overstepped its original mandate to rule on concealment during the AMIA attack investigation to accuse Hezbollah and Iran.

The Milei administration accomplished all that in six months, reflecting the influence of Milei’s political ideology and personalist leadership. In practice, this means Argentina’s closer alignment to the US through non-negotiable backing of an Israeli regime accused of apartheid and war crimes.

Even Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged Milei’s political shift, calling him a “great friend of the Jewish state”.

Securitising Hamas

Hamas has no known role or connection with any of the terrorist attacks against Israeli institutions in Argentina. Nevertheless, both the Israeli ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela, and Milei have framed the events of 7 October as a new episode of violence against Argentine society.

At the commemoration of the 1992 Israeli embassy attack, Sela said, “The terrorist organisation Hamas entered Israel and killed over 1,200 women, children and elderly, and once again wrote with blood the history of dozens of Argentines and Israelis who were murdered or kidnapped”.

A day before the commemoration of the 1994 AMIA attack, at the ‘Building a Safer Future’ conference organised by the World and Latin American Jewish congresses, Milei argued, “the lash of extreme terrorism on Argentine Jewish lives transcends the AMIA and Israeli embassy tragedies, ​​and most recently [October 7], added a new sad chapter”.

Transforming Hamas into a security threat to Argentina by falsely connecting past terrorist attacks in the country to the 7 October attacks on Israel justified the sanctioning of the group in the eyes of many in Argentine society.

However, the political manipulation of violent acts in Argentina is not new. In 2011, researcher Daniel Blinder concluded that “accusing Iran and Hezbollah [for the AMIA attack] implies a strategic positioning aligned with the United States and Israel”.

This accusation can be traced back to a coordinated effort by then-president Carlos Menem and Israeli ambassador to Argentina Dov Schmorak to present a unified narrative on the event in 1994.

The sanctioning of Hamas by the Milei administration has simply added a new chapter to the politicisation of the AMIA investigation and Argentina-US bilateral relations while bringing no justice to victims and contributing to 30 years of deliberate concealment.

Jodor Jalit is an Argentine journalist, lecturer, and researcher currently based in the Middle East. He founded the digital platform El Intérprete Digital to amplify Arab voices in Spanish. His areas of interest are regional dynamics and security governance. His work has been published in Revista Estudios Internacionales, Página 12, Syria Untold, Middle East Eye, and other publications.