Argentina’s Federal Police dismantled what it said was a terrorist cell planning attacks on the Jewish community in the city of Mendoza, the country’s National Security Ministry said in a statement on Friday, describing the group as an “Islamist terrorist organization.”
The Argentine Security Ministry said that seven members of the alleged group were arrested. Eight raids were carried out at the homes of the members, resulting in the seizure of firearms, knives and electronic devices, the ministry added.
Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich posted to social media a video of the raid on the cell, which she said was uncovered after one of the members threatened a journalist from the Jewish community.
According to the ministry, the organization had been spreading hate messages, attack plans and content from terror groups such as ISIS and the Taliban.
“We are going to get rid of each and every one of these criminals who intend to sow fear in Argentines and they will pay,” she wrote.
Argentina has Latin America’s largest Jewish population. A 1994 attack on a Jewish community center killed 85 people in what remains the deadliest such incident in the South American nation’s history and an attack against the Israeli embassy in 1992 killed 22 people.
The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has been blamed for carrying out the deadly bombings on Tehran’s orders.
Last month, the country’s libertarian President Javier Milei, a staunch proponent of both the Jewish community and Israel, promised to beef up the national intelligence system to prevent future attacks.
The incident follows arrests in Argentina in January of three people with Syrian and Lebanese citizenship suspected of plotting what the authorities called a terrorist attack.
The incident comes with Jewish communities around the world on heightened alert following the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut by Israel and the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel has not taken credit for killing Haniyeh.
Both Hezbollah and Iran have vowed to respond forcefully to the killings.