Unsolved case · 1982
The short answer
On 26 November 1982, an unidentified attacker planted a dynamite bomb at the Israeli embassy in Quito, Ecuador; the resulting explosion during a police bomb-disposal attempt killed two police officers and a bystander, and no perpetrator was ever charged.
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Suggest coverage for Quito Israeli Embassy bombingOn the morning of 26 November 1982, eyewitnesses saw a youth carrying a suitcase enter the building housing the Israeli embassy in Quito, Ecuador. According to accounts, he began removing sticks of dynamite and lighting them as he reached the third floor, just below the embassy's offices. Someone triggered the building's alarm, allowing Israeli staff to flee outside before the young man dropped his bag and fled the scene.
Police officers Manuel Jimenez and Vincente Jimenez were dispatched to deal with the abandoned device. As they attempted to remove the bomb from the building, and while roughly 4.6 metres (15 feet) from the entrance, the device detonated. Vincente Jimenez, who was carrying the bag, was killed almost instantly in the blast. Manuel Jimenez, who was approaching his partner at the moment of detonation, was severely injured. A nearby woman was thrown against a wall by the force of the explosion but sustained only minor injuries. Separately, the blast caused a woman in a neighboring apartment building to fall from a second-floor window; she died as a result.
Manuel Jimenez was taken to a hospital, where both of his legs were amputated due to the severity of his injuries. He subsequently died from his injuries. In total, the bombing and its aftermath resulted in three deaths: the two police officers and the woman who fell from her window.
In the aftermath, the left-wing group ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! claimed responsibility for the attack. However, authorities discounted this claim after examining the structure and composition of the bomb, concluding instead that it was more likely carried out by a Middle Eastern group. It has generally been understood that the attack was connected to the broader regional conflict later associated with the 1985–2000 South Lebanon conflict, though no individual or group was definitively identified or prosecuted for the bombing.
The Israeli embassy in Quito was targeted again in a subsequent attack several months later, but that incident caused no casualties and substantially less damage than the November 1982 bombing.
This case remains unsolved: no perpetrator has been publicly named, charged, or convicted in connection with the bombing, and responsibility has not been definitively established.
A dynamite device left at the building housing the Israeli embassy in Quito explodes during a police bomb-disposal attempt, killing two police officers; a woman in a neighboring building also dies after falling from a window during the blast.
The Israeli embassy in Quito is attacked again, but the incident causes no casualties and less damage than the November 1982 bombing.
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