8 3 76 LEGA TT ROBERT 'I' SCHERRER On S 3 76 an official of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police BAPP Intelligence Service provided the following information Approxima tely one week to ten da ys prior to the discovery of the location of DP leader MABIO BOBER'OO SANT'UCBO elements of the MPP Intelligence Service and the Argentine Army Intelligence Service SIE apprehended ranking DP leader DOMINGO IDmA near Tigre Buenos Aires Province SAlfTUCBO was almost caught at the same time however he managed to escape MENA after initia l resistance cooperated with SIE in providing locations of ERP safe houses and tile identities of ED support personnel For example llDA identified one of his lieutenants who was subsequently apprehended on 7 28 78 fr 11 whom info rmation was secured by the SIE with regard to the ERP interest in neaabers of the u s lUlgrp in Argentina Additionally M fftfA told the SIE about the location of an ERP safe house located in Villa lfartelli Buenos Aires Province which was occupied by a feaale identif led only as 'La Gringa n _i Accordingly one BAPP Intelligence Age nt two SIE Agents and a SIE Captain were dispatched to this 1ilP' tPan-tment to pick up La Gringa Prior 'to enter·ing the apartment the BAPP Intell·ige·nce- · · Agent discovered that bis weapon bad no ammunition since he had torgotten to load tile clip after disebarging all of the rounds on the preceding da y however expecting no trouble troa the lone fema le occupant e f' tbe apartment the group of four security officers knocked on the door which was opened by the female The BAPP Intelligence Agent pushed his way into the sftlall foyer of the apartment searched the female found she wa s unarmed and beckoned lits 9IE companionsinto the apartment Imtediately after entering the apartment two unidentified male individuals were observed sitting in an extremely small kitchen of the apartment Tne SIE Captain armed with a 9 mm machine gun commanded the two u nidentift ed ma le individuals to stand up from the table and put the mselves o n the floor of the kitchen In the process of p1 af ing themselves on the floor an i ndi- f J'fssee 5jth_ _ 1-SY ··· · 2 - Buenos Aires 1 - 109-38 1 - 80-De Baldrich RWS jn 6 J ff 1 Classif i y 5931 E mmpt fr · Gene raI Di el• assi·fication Schedule o Executive Order 11652 Exemption tegory 5B 2 Automati lly declassifleif · finit 0c ·j IV'-'·· _ _ · ··_ · _' ____ b · vidua l subsequently identified as ERP leader JORGE BENITO URTEAGA managed to execute an abrupt 1taneuver kicking the machine gun out of tbe Sl E Army Ca ptain's hands After clattering to the floor the machine gun was recovered by the other male individual subsequently identified as MARIO ROBERTO NTUCHO SAN'TD'CBO fired the 11achi e gun at point blank range at the SIB Aray Captain and two rounds were discharged striking tbe Captain in the chest and arma before the machine gun jammed URTEAGA and SAJfTl1CHO had no other weapons available to them and were gunned down by two SIE Agents The SIE Al Bly Ca ptain died enroute to a hosp ta l in Vicente Lopez Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires I f the machine gun had n ot jammed on SANTUCHO lt ls aore than likely that both he and URTEAGA would have been able to eliminate the two SIE Agents and the BAPP Intelligence Agent and escape The entire episode as narrated above demonstrates the general modus opera ndi of Arg ntine security forces in rw111ing down leads secured fro'a captioned ERP prisoners and or documentation without first conducting basic checks of the information As has occurred in previous instances faulty equipment available to the security forces has resulted in disaster and in this instance almoo allowed SANTUCBO to escape 'JK This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu