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Tony Mendez, a veteran CIA spy, died Saturday in a hospice, his family told the Washington Post. He became known as the spy who brought out six officials from the US State Department of Tehran during the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981, making them believe that it was safe to say that he had been killed. was part of a Canadian film crew.
Mendez suffered from Parkinson's disease. His story became famous in the movie "Argo" of 2012, in which Tony was portrayed by actor Ben Affleck. The film won three Oscars: Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing.
Mendez, author of three books and responsible for orchestrating the operation, became a celebrity after the film and kept his illness with discretion. However, at a symposium of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, an organization that collaborates in the search for treatments against the disease, he decided to speak publicly about the case with his wife, Jonna Hiestand, also a former agent of the CIA.
He worked as a draftsman when recruited by the CIA in 1965 and ran an art studio after his retirement. "I always considered myself first as an artist," he once said, recalling his career, "and for 25 years, I've been a good spy."
After crossing Laos, India and the Soviet Union, he was at the head of the CIA's disguise when the US embbady in Tehran was seized by an Iranian militant group on November 4 1979. The attack took place months after the Islamic revolution forced the country's leader, the Western-backed shah, to leave the country and leave the country. or replaced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Sixty-six Americans, including six CIA agents, were taken hostage, while six other US diplomats managed to escape capture and took refuge in the homes of two Canadians, the ambbadador Ken Taylor and Embbady Agent John Sheardown.
Over the next 444 days, the hostage crisis attracted flawless coverage of the press, weakened Jimmy Carter's presidency and led to the death of eight members of the armed forces during a mission missed rescue in the Iranian desert. Mendez completed his deal on January 28, 1980, but it was not until another year before the last 52 hostages were released on the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration in January 1981.
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