The day after writing his “Open letter to the Military Junta,” Walsh and his wife, Lilia Ferreyra, set out to catch the train from Roca station to Constitución. Walsh had three appointments that day. As he made his way to the first, an ESMA task force lay in wait to ambush him.
On March 25, 1977, an ESMA squad attempted to kidnap Rodolfo Walsh at the corner of San Juan and Entre Ríos avenues. As he tried to defend himself, he was shot down by 25-30 members of the 3.3.2. Task Force, which had been doing intelligence work for months to capture him. His body was taken to the ESMA clandestine detention center, where it was seen by a few survivors. Then it disappeared. At the time – 40 years ago – he was already one of Argentina’s most important writers and journalists.
He had been carrying a briefcase containing the deed to a house in San Vicente in the name of Norberto Freyre, the name he’d used when investigating the murders José León Suárez murders for his book, “Operación Masacre.” That house, which he shared with his wife, was ransacked by the military the following day.
The last moments of Walsh’s life, his corpse at the ESMA and the theft of his belongings were all proven in court in December 2011. Alfredo Astiz, Jorge Acosta, Ricardo Cavallo, Juan Carlos Foteo, Ernesto Weber, Jorge C. Radice and Antonio Pernías were convicted of his murder. They were also convicted for the robbery of his papers from the house in San Vicente, which included stories, literary drafts and archival material. CELS represented Lilia Ferreyra in the judicial proceedings for the murder and disappearance of Walsh and the case for his papers.