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 25
9. Explanations in an Embassy 26
10. Mario 28
11. “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 73
26. 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
The grandson of Irish immigrants, Rodolfo Walsh was born in a small Patagonian town in 1927. He dropped out of high school in Buenos Aires and eventually began writing crime fiction before publishing his monumental work of nonfiction, Operaci n Masacre, in 1957. He traveled to Cuba in the midst of the revolution and launched a newspaper with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 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 Operaci n Masacre for the fourth and final time before joining the radical Peronist group, the Montoneros, the following year. A day after submitting his now famous 1977 "Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta," Walsh was "disappeared" by the state.
"A mesmerizing, prophetic tour de force of investigative journalism
exposing the pervasive thuggishness of the Argentine military
elite. A chilling, lucid work, beautifully translated by
Gitlin, which serves as a great example of journalistic integrity."
—Kirkus Reviews
"This captivating and clear-eyed book, a true crime narrative first
published in Spanish in 1957 and fluently translated here by Gitlin
[...] provides a moment-by-moment account and [Walsh] reveals as
much as he can about the survivors and those who were
executed." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The book is a document of the effort to which a writer will go
simply to hear a person’s story; to question the details; to
construct a narrative that both allows for the inconsistencies of
individual eyewitnesses and yet is not undone by them […] Daniella
Gitlin’s translation is clean, attentive to the subtleties of
Walsh’s prose, and her introduction and notes are very good indeed…
In this moment of anxiety over the flow of information, confusion
over the responsibilities of writers and journalists, the
publication of this volume is well timed." —Los Angeles Review
of Books
"It’d be too cheap to call this required reading for its relevance
to contemporary issues of government dishonesty and violent
military suppression of opposition. It’s more than that: it’s the
introduction to our literature and history of a writer of almost
inconceivable courage, suppressed only by death, and of the
terrible events of a night that must not be forgotten." —Bomb
Magazine, editor's choice
"It is a powerful assertion of the force of testimonial writing
relayed by a literary master. Read it and weep. More importantly,
to understand how terrorism functions in the hands of the powerful,
as an instrument of indiscriminate State manipulation, even
massacre, perpetually dictated by the supposedly paramount demands
of 'national security.'" —The Independent (UK)
"A great publishing event. That Operation Massacre had not been
translated into English before this was shameful; that it is
available to English-readers now is a marvelous thing." —Alma
Guillermoprieto, author of Looking for History: Dispatches
from Latin America
"Rodolfo Walsh's dramatic investigation of extra-judicial murders
in 1950s Argentina was an act of great journalistic courage. Told
in cinematic prose skillfully rendered into English by Daniella
Gitlin, Operation Massacre is a testament to Walsh's tenacity in
his personal search for truth and justice." —Michael
Scammell
"Rodolfo Walsh’s work perfectly synthesized the most hard-hitting
journalism with literature of the highest caliber. His example of
adeptness and dignity in literary reportage lives on beyond his
death at the hands of a military dictatorship." —Eduardo Galeano,
author of Children of the Days
"All of [Walsh's] work demonstrates ... his commitment to reality,
his almost implausible analytical talent, his personal bravery, and
his political ferocity." —Gabriel García Márquez
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