1999 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Argentina

U.S. Department of State – Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 1999: Argentina

Released by the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor -Washington, DC, September 9, 1999

Section II. Societal Attitudes

Relations among the various religious communities are amicable. Interfaith understanding is promoted actively by nongovernmental organizations such as Argentina House in the Holy Land of Israel Ecumenical attendance is common at important religious events, such as the Jewish community’s annual Holocaust commemoration. In 1997 a memorial mural to the victims of the Holocaust, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and the 1994 bombing of the city’s Jewish community center (AMIA) was unveiled in the Chapel of Our Lady of Lujan in the National Cathedral in Buenos Aires.///…

Section III. U.S. Government Policy

U.S. Embassy officers meet periodically with a variety of church leaders, invite them to embassy social functions, and attend events organized by churches and nongovernmental organizations that deal with issues of religious freedom.

In April 1998, an embassy officer attended the ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of the unveiling of the National Cathedral’s memorial mural to the victims of the Holocaust and the Israeli Embassy and Jewish community center bombings. The ceremony was organized by Argentina House in the Holy Land of Israel. The U.S. Embassy also was represented at the presentation in December 1998 of a postal stamp honoring the mural. In September 1998, the U.S. Embassy contributed an article on religious freedom to Argentina House’s Internet site. [End of Document]