Walsh, Rodolfo

(1927–1977?)

   Argentine journalist and writer. Born in Choele-Choel, in Río Negro province, into a family of Irish immigrants, Walsh abandoned his studies at 16 and soon became a translator and proofreader for the editorial house Hachette. In 1951 he began working as a journalist, collaborating with the magazines Leoplan and Vea y Lea. In 1959 he traveled to Cuba, where he was one of the founders of the news agency Prensa Latina. Back in his native Argentina, Walsh worked for the daily Noticias as well as for several weeklies: Panorama, Primera Plana, Villero, and the CGT (a publication of the Argentine General Confederation of Labor). Many of these publications were later closed by the military regime during the “dirty war.” In 1976 Walsh founded the Agencia de Noticias Clandestinas (ANCLA), a clandestine network aimed at disseminating news about Argentina to national and international media. According to the journalist Horacio Verbitsky, a participant in another clandestine news service called Information Chain, one-page newsletters were secretly circulated and handed to people who were asked to make copies and distribute them in turn.

   Between 1969 and 1973, Walsh published several books that won him a reputation as a daring investigative reporter: ¿Quién mató a Rosendo? (1969), Un oscuro día de justicia (1973), and El caso Satanovsky (1973). He was also an award-winning author of works for the stage—his 1965 play La granada, for example—and short stories. His short story “Esa mujer” has often been singled out as one of the most innovative short narratives of Argentine literature in the 20th century. His best-known work, however, remains the “Carta abierta de Rodolfo Walsh a la Junta Militar” of 24 March 1977, marking the first anniversary of the coup. In this open letter to the military junta, Walsh denounced the political repression, murders, torture, and disappearances that had taken place in Argentina during the junta’s first year in power, a period that saw his daughter, María Victoria Walsh, assassinated by members of the military and his house in Tigre Delta raided and ransacked.

   On 25 March 1977, the day after “Carta abierta” was circulated, security forces near the Constitución station in Buenos Aires abducted Walsh. The previous evening, his house in San Vicente, in Buenos Aires province, had been under attack for more than two hours by about 40 heavily armed men who later ransacked the place, according to eyewitness reports. Walsh remains among the desaparecidos.