''Operación Masacre'' () is a
nonfiction novel of
investigative journalism, written by noted
Argentine
Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and author
Rodolfo Walsh. It is considered by some to be the first of its genre.
It was published in 1957, nine years before the publication of
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
's ''
In Cold Blood'', a book often credited as the first major nonfiction novel of investigative journalism.
[Waisbord, p. 30]
Structure
The book is divided into three sections: in the first, Walsh provides portraits of the victims of the shooting; in the second, he reconstructs the events of the night in question; in the third, he shares testimonies from the head of the
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
Province Police, among others, that unequivocally betray the complicity of the
''de facto'' State and make a case for the unlawful and disgraceful execution of the men in question.
The most recent editions of the book in Spanish and English also include additions (listed as "Appendices") to the text written by Walsh for the various editions of the book that came out after its first publication in 1957.
Synopsis
The book details the José León Suárez massacre, which involved the June 9, 1956 unlawful
capture and shooting by the
Buenos Aires Province Police of a group of civilians suspected of being involved with a
Peronist uprising that same night, including the rebel leader General
Juan José Valle. Walsh claims that the men were arrested before the establishment in that very same night of the
martial law
Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
and that they also were never properly charged, therefore they were unlawfully shot. These events followed a 1955 military
coup, known as
Revolución Libertadora ("the Liberating Revolution"), which deposed Argentine president
Juan Perón and eventually brought the
right-wing dictatorship to power, led first by Lieutenant General
Eduardo Lonardi – who was considered too "lenient" (with Peronism) by the leaders of the coup and quickly deposed – and later by the hard-line General
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu.
History
In December 1956, six months after the failed 9 June 1956 uprising by
Juan José Valle and other
Juan Perón supporters, Walsh, who was sitting in a café, playing chess, received a tip-off from a man who approached and said: "One of the executed men is alive."
''Operación Masacre'' was originally published in May–July 1957 as a series of articles in the journal ''Mayoría'', where it was subtitled "A book without a publisher" as an indication of the problems Walsh had had securing an outlet for his story. These articles were later re-written into the book ''Operación Masacre''.
In 2013, an annotated English translation by Daniella Gitlin, "Operation Massacre," was published by
Seven Stories Press.
Reception and criticism
Literary critic
Ángel Rama described ''Operación Masacre'' as a "police novel for the poor."
[Rama, p. ???] The novel explores themes of violence that are not only unexpected, but are also unpunished,
[Bollig, p. 88] although Pedro Eugenio Aramburu would ultimately be executed in 1970 by the Peronist
Montoneros for his role in the José León Suárez massacre.
Daniel Link argues that the book "destabilizes literary genres" and anticipates what would later be called testimonial fiction.
[Link, p. 220] This form of writing has proven to be problematic to some literary analysts because some have seen the need to match the documented historical narrative with the events in the literary text itself, leading to challenges of verification for those seeking proof of historical accuracy and reliability.
[Foster, p. ??]
Film adaptation

''Operación Masacre'' was adapted into a
1973 drama film written and directed by
Jorge Cedrón and starring
Norma Aleandro,
Carlos Carella,
Víctor Laplace,
Ana María Picchio and one of the survivors of the José León Suárez massacre,
Julio Troxler.
References
Citations
Sources
* (
EBSCO subscription required for online access.)
* (
JSTOR
JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...
subscription required for online access.)
*
*
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External links
* Christian Lourid
Rodolfo Walsh: Literature, Journalism and Militancy (Part 1)June 30, 2008, Evaristo Cultural
* Christian Lourid
Rodolfo Walsh: Literature, Journalism and Militancy (Part 2)June 30, 2008, Evaristo Cultural
* Christian Lourid
Rodolfo Walsh: Literature, Journalism and Militancy (Part 3)June 30, 2008, Evaristo Cultural
{{DEFAULTSORT:Operacion Masacre
1957 books
Books by Rodolfo Walsh
Non-fiction novels of investigative journalism
Non-fiction books about crime
Non-fiction novels
Argentine books
1956 in Argentina