The Argentine military plan to murder leaders of Montoneros abroad, according to the CIA

Governments of France and Italy were shocked by the demand. That of Spain had more urgent problems. The three received, in 1977, a request from the de facto presidency of Argentina to carry out operations of kidnapping and badbadination of guerrilla leaders on their territory who were on the outside.

Faced with the refusal, the army decided to freeze the European plan and to consider alternatives. It seems to be about antecedent of Mexican operation: The famous attempt to badbadinate the dome of Montoneros, in Mexico City in 1978, which aborted Tulio ValenzuelaKidnapped by the army and incredibly doomed later by the people that he saved.

The intelligence cable IN205752, "Argentine security agents plan to badbadinate subversive chiefs abroad if possible", tells how the last dictatorship created a special group for this purpose. It belongs to the last pack of declbadified documents in the United States during 1976-1983 and it's a telegram from the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).

"A special team has been formed to kill Mario Firmenich, chief of the Montoneros, and other Argentine subversive chiefs abroad"explains the cable, whose printed header warns fault "sensitive sources and methods of intelligence" were used and "this document should not be reproduced". It has date of May 27, 1977 and list among the countries involved in the information to Argentina, Spain, Mexico, France, Italy and Libya.

"In early May, a operation to try to deceive Firmenich, who was supposed to hide in Spain, to attend a supposedly urgent meeting of subversives in Madrid, "explained the agents. The team used a montonero who, without Firmenich's knowledge, had been arrested try to contact Firmenich and urge him to go to the meeting. "

But the leader of the Peronist guerrillas "obviously suspected of the trap"and did not appear." The Argentine security personality considers that it is highly possible that Firmenich flew to Libya"

An alternative was then launched: "The efforts against Firmenich were abandoned for a moment, and now the plans that are formulated are to badbadinate Rodolfo Galimberti, a leader of montonero who would be in Mexico"

And in this country, a year after this cable, the attempt to badbadinate the dome of montonera, a famous story about which documents were also declbadified in 2009.

One of these groups "collaborates in proposed operations against subversives abroad." The document contains redacted elements that he believes could refer to "group two of the national intelligence center", but seem to refer to the General Intelligence Headquarters II of the Army General Staff.

This two group included "the staff of the armed forces, the 601 Intelligence Intelligence Battalion, the Federal Police and the [Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado] SIDE"According to the US intelligence agency," the real team that implements the operations is staffed by all of these entities, but is dominated by the navy. "

In late April 1977, "Army Intelligence Services (G-2) ordered the formation of a team conducting operations against the main leaders of the Montoneros and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) currently residing in Europe"The chosen individuals, detailed cable, were" specialists in the operations of murder and kidnapping and included members of the Navy, Navy and Argentine side ".

After forming the special team, "they becameto the French, Italian and Spanish authorities to approve the development of operations in their respective countries. "But, contrary to what the army seemed to expect, orders "were firmly rejected by the officials of France and Italy, where most important subversive Argentineans are supposed to reside ".

On the third country, the CIA has distinguished: "The Spanish authorities, although once receptive to Argentine operations in Spain, have recently become less cooperative, mainly because of internal political problems d & # 39; Spain. "

As a result of this refusal, "the general Carlos Martínez, Chief of the G-2 [la Jefatura II de Inteligencia del Estado Mayor del Ejército], He ordered that the proposed operations against Argentine subversives in Europe be suspended, "explained the document.

Martinez was a singular figure: author of the "Directive of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army No. 404", plan of repression, and holder of SIDE between 1978 and 1983It was not reported until 2012, although it dealt with high profile issues. And, according to the cable of the CIA, he thought about re-submit the order of operations kidnapping and murder before the European authorities ", if considered appropriate, in the future".

For the moment, it is only known that the attempt to liquidate Montonero's rulers has been diverted to Mexico. Valenzuela, arrested with his pregnant wife, Raquel Negro, and a son, was detained in Quinta de Funesin Rosario, a clandestine detention center in the orbit of Leopoldo Galtieri at that time.

Funes "has not worked with the type of tortures and torments that have been deployed in the vast majority," detailed the children of Valenzuela and Negro, when they spoke about a movie telling the operation Mexico. "It worked under a different repressive and perverse regime who wanted inmates to change their political identity, arguing for Galtieri's proposal form a party with revolutionary and "recovered" military cadres with future electoral purposes ".

There, Valenzuela has been offered the opportunity to collaborate to perform an operation identical to the one that failed in Madrid: to make Firmenich believe in the legitimacy of a meeting which, in reality, was a trap to kill him. But in the DF. Black and the child would be hostages to guarantee that it would be consistent.

In January 1978, he barely arrived in Mexico, Valenzuela contacted Montoneros, but instead of deceiving the leaders, he revealed the military planswho saved them. His wife, on the other hand, has disappeared; He gave birth to twins in captivity, one of whom regained his identity at age 30.

Although Valenzuela held a press conference to denounce the attempted badbadination of the army, a montonero revolutionary court convicted of collaborating with the enemy, for which he has been degraded. In 1979, he participated in the controversial counter-offensive and was badbadinated.