The door to the secret SIDE (the Argentine Secret Service) in the calle Bacacay of Buenos Aires looks rather attractive but inside, it contained dozens of very small cells where the kidnapped persons were jailed and tortured till finally disposed. The SIDE had many such "tactical operation centers" in Buenos Aires and other towns. Some survived and recognized the place. This was in 1977 the year I left Argentina for New York. Thanks Providence and my instincts. Now the secrets are becoming public, thanks to the American Law that allows the publication of many secret documents. Above right the copy of the first page of a secret telegram from the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, reporting the kidnapping of an important Ambassador. Interesting how the American Embassy knew who did it, why and where, in real time, including the most intimate secrets of the military dictatorship. One has to assume that the Americans have a similar degree of knowledge about Israel today, if not even more intimate.
Regarding the Ambassador, he was kidnapped by the gang led by Gordon, based in the house in the Bacacay street, without authorization by the SIDE, just as a privateer, freelance kidnapping for profit. In many similar cases, the families paid and the SIDE criminals freed the victims and pocketed the money. We who lived then and there, suspected antisemitism because many of the victims were Jewish, and in fact the SIDE suspected Jews but there was also a profit motive. In the case of the Ambassador, the family did not pay and the man was killed. The Americans knew everything in real time and I know for sure they saved some. Not like the current Pope who was the Principal of the Argentine Jesuits at that time. He did not move a finger even when his own "soldiers", French Jesuits, were kidnapped.
