Rodolfo Walsh (1927–1977)

Walsh was an investigative journalist and true crime writer who ran afoul of the right wing Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983). His daughter María Victoria--an active member of the guerrilla group the Montoneros had previously been killed in a shootout with Argentine military forces. Walsh himself was accosted by members of the Argentine Navy on a Buenos Aires street on March 25, 1977 shortly after having mailed off copies of his 'Open letter from a writer to the military junta'. The regime was known for disappearing people and Walsh had vowed in the event of his being arrested--not to be taken alive. He had good reason as many of his friends and colleagues had already disappeared. He fired at his assailants-wounding one and was himself shot. Eyewitnesses had him then being thrown in the trunk of a Ford Falcon and driven away (dead? alive?) most probably to ESMA (The school of Naval Mechanics) then being used as a prison and torture center and where bodies were often thrown in an incinerator. ESMA was located in a residential area of Buenos Aires. Walsh's daughter Patricia is a politician in Argentina.