Operation Massacre

The grandson of Irish immigrants, Rudolfo Walsh was born in a small Patagonian town in 1927. He wrote crime fiction and worked as a translator before publishing Operación Masacre in 1957. Walsh then traveled to Cuba in the midst of the revolution and launched a newspaper in collaboration with Gabriel García Márquez, among others. Upon his return to Argentina in 1961 he was shunned by the journalistic community for his connections to the Cuban Revolution. In 1972, Walsh updated Operación Masacre for the fourth and final time before joining the radical leftist group, the Monteneros, the following year. A day after submitting his now famous 1977 "Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta," Walsh was gunned down in the street by agents of the State.

1956. Argentina has just lost its charismatic president Juán Perón in a military coup, and terror reigns across the land. June 1956: eighteen people are reported dead in a failed Peronist uprising. December 1956: sometime journalist, crime fiction writer, studiedly unpoliticized chess aficionado Rodolfo Walsh learns by chance that one of the executed civilians from a separate, secret execution in June, is alive. He hears that there may be more than one survivor and believes this unbelievable story on the spot. And right there, the monumental classic Operation Massacre is born.Walsh made it his mission to find not only the survivors but widows, orphans, political refugees, fugitives, alleged informers, and anonymous heroes, in order to determine what happened that night, sending him on a journey that took over the rest of his life.Originally published in 1957, Operation Massacre thoroughly and breathlessly recounts the night of the execution and its fallout.

c o n t e n t s Introduction xiii Translator's Note xxiii Prologue 1 part one: the people 9 1. Carranza 11 2. Garibotti 14 3. Mr. Horacio 17 4. Giunta 20 5. Díaz: Two Snapshots 21 6. Lizaso 22 7. Warnings and Premonitions 24 8. Gavino 259. Explanations in an Embassy 26 10. Mario 2811. "The Executed Man Who Lives" 30 12."I'm Going to Work . . ." 32 13. The Unknowns 34 part two: the events 37 14. Where is Tanco? 39 15. Valle's Rebellion 43 16. "Watch Out, They Could Execute You . . ." 47 17. "Cheer Up" 50 18. Calm and Confident 53 19. Make No Mistake . . . 55 20. Execute Them! 59 21. He Felt He was Committing a Sin . . . 60 22. The End of the Journey 65 23. The Slaughter 67 24. Time Stands Still 70 25. The End of a Long Night 7326. The Ministry of Fear 77 27. An Image in the Night 79 28. "They're Taking You Away" 82 29. A Dead Man Seeks Asylum 86 30. The Telegram Guerrilla 92 31. The Rest is Silence . . . 96 part three: the evidence 101 32. The Ghosts 103 33. Fernández Suárez Confesses 106 34. The Livraga File 110 35. Blind Justice 141 36. Epilogue 146 37. Aramburu and the Historical Trial 148 appendices 153 Prologue to the Book Edition (from the first edition, July 1957)Introduction (to the first edition, March 1957) 157 Obligatory Appendix (to the first edition, March 1957) 165 Provisional Epilogue (from the first edition, July 1957) 183 Epilogue (from the second edition, 1964) 187 Portrait of the Dominant Oligarchy (end of the epilogue to the third edition, 1969) 191 Operation in the Movies 193 Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta 197 Notes 211 Glossary 217 Afterword 221 About the Author 231 About the Translator 233 About Seven Stories Press 235