True Crimes: Rodolfo Walsh: The Life and Times of a Radical Intellectual

by Michael McCaughan, Eduardo Galeano (Foreword)

Rodolfo Walsh was a writer of crime novels, a tireless investigative journalist who uncovered real political crimes, an instant historian of a turbulent and violent era in Argentinian and Latin American politics. He was in Cuba in 1960, participating in setting up the first revolutionary press service in Latin America, "Prensa Latina," when a coded telex arrived in their offices by mistake. After sleepless nights and with one cryptography manual, Walsh deciphered the plans for the US invasion of Cuba being planned in Guatemala by the CIA. Walsh was active in the Montonero guerrilla in Argentina, co-ordinating information and intelligence work. In that capacity he made public the existence of ESMA, the Naval Mechanics School which was the main military torture centee. In his own name he wrote an Open Letter to the Military Junta, a year from the coup and a day before his death, denouncing the dirty war. He was gunned down in the streets of Buenos Aires by a military death squad. This is an account of Rudolfo Walsh's life. It includes extended excerpts from his varied writings.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Professor Weasel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography, as well as a very clever way to anthologize Walsh's fiction and journalism translated into English. There's a very good reason why Naomi Watts cited this book so much in "The Shock Doctrine."