Thinking of an attack at the height of the Stronista dictatorship was utopian, the security agencies of the Police of the Capital and added to these the large number of pyragues (informants) that the regime had made it almost impossible to hold a meeting of more than six people without the government knowing, which less would be a criminal attack. But what happened on the morning of September 17, 1980 made it clear that the regime was not as invulnerable as it was believed.
Anastacio Somoza, was the last dictator of Nicaragua and when he was overthrown, to avoid jail he began looking for a place to hide, the doors kept closing, until he found a way to come to take refuge in Paraguay, which at that time was also governed under a regime that he knew very well, the dictatorship.
Somoza Debayle alias “Tachito” arrived in Paraguay on July 25, 1979 and in his quick flight brought billions of dollars, which they say one part gave to his fellow dictator Stroesner and another used to live in luxury in a land that he thought would give him security and a long life to enjoy his exile.
Anastasio Somoza
But that thought was completely wrong since since the Nicaraguan dictator settled on Guarani soil, the Reptile operation was launched, which had the objective of attempting against the life of “Tachito”. A group of guerrillas were already planning how to reach him and take justice into their own hands.
How could it be otherwise Somoza settled in a mansion located in the vicinity of Sacramento and Spain Street, with a group of escorts the man went unnoticed by the rest of society that at that time was under an oppressive yoke and had other concerns. There were no media outlets reporting Somoza’s stay.
Those who were well informed were the guerrillas who had already launched the Reptile operation. The group led by Enrique Gorriarán Merlo, an Argentine guerrilla, began to recruit the people who were going to make up his elite team. The guerrilla cell is believed to have been made up of about six people, two of whom were women. They all arrived in Paraguay to do the preliminary tasks about six months before the attack. Gorriaran Merlo, was the last to arrive, because he was already a well-known guerrilla and with a very bad record, he entered illegally a week before the event.
In the 1980s, Asunción was a quiet city with little vehicular movement, but it was very careful because of the issue of informants that the government had and a misstep, a word out of place could end up in jail.
That is why once they located the residence of “Tachito” one of the members of the team, “Osvaldo” became friends with a man who had a small stall selling newspapers and sweets on Avenida España. The Argentine convinced the man to become partners to take care of the business, he also offered to put up a small capital to better stock the kiosk. They sealed the agreement and the foreigner told him that he could attend the premises in the morning hours, which is when there was more movement, at that time the siesta was a “dead” schedule since everything stopped.
The guerrilla sat in the kiosk every day and from there he had a visual preference for the entrance to Somoza’s house, he saw when he left and returned, with how many escorts he was walking. Those important data were processed and the other part of the group went into action.
As the Nicaraguan dictator used to go out in his car every day to go to the center of Asunción along España Avenue (Generalismo Franco at that time), the idea of the guerrillas was to rent a house that was on the route that Somoza was taking, so that from there perpetrate the attack.
It was thus that two members of the team arrived at a house located in Spain and America almost in front of the current Italian Hospital, where they were going to set up their barracks. The intention was not to attract attention and the foreigners presented themselves to the owner of the house pretending to be members of a foreign film production company and that they wanted to rent the residence for an important person to stay there.
For the money they told the owner not to worry, they were going to stay six months and they were going to pay in advance, with the only condition of a privacy clause. They told the man that the person who was going to be staying there was the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, who was going to have a role in the film, but nobody had to know about his presence. The owner accepted the deal, but he also put a condition on the foreigners, he asked them that when Julio Iglesias arrives they want to take a picture with him. The deal was closed and the guerrillas settled in the house, with the passing of days and weeks the weapons began to enter the country clandestinely through the rivers.
The assault rifles came from Argentina and entered through Itá Enramada, the explosives entered through Ciudad del Este and took longer to reach Asunción. But time was not the problem, since Anastacio Somoza led a routine life, from Monday to Friday every day he went to the center of Asunción where he had some business and returned after noon, always using the same route and with minimal escort.
THE DAY D
Wednesday, September 17, 1980 was the date chosen to carry out the attack. In the house everything was calculated and at 9:45 the Mercedes Benz car in which Anastacio Somoza was driving left, in the company of his accountant, Jou Baittiner, an American, and the driver, also Nicaraguan César Gallardo, who, like every day, took the España Avenue and when passing in front of the “Osvaldo” kiosk with a walkie he had, he gave the signal “they came out, they came out…”.
At the house, the rest of the team got ready to intercept the target. Somoza’s vehicle crossed Venezuela Street and a few meters later a pickup truck left the garage of the house where the guerrillas were and blocked his path. Hugo Irurzun, alias “Capitán Santiago” with an RPG-2 rocket launcher stood in front of “Tachito’s” Mercedes Benz, triggered, but the explosive failed, in that bursts of shrapnel rained down on the armored dictator’s vehicle.
The van that blocked the way to the car where Anastasio Somoza was driving.
The shooter reloaded the rocket and the second projectile did work this time and hit the windshield of the vehicle and left it homeless, then Gorrian Merlo with his M-19 rifle unloaded the entire magazine against the target, as did Somoza and his companions. They died in the explosion. This action did not last more than three minutes, the attackers took a vehicle and fled.
Each member of the team had already planned to leave the country through different places to avoid being detained. Captain Santiago, for reasons still unclear to this day, was delayed, he had to leave through Itá Enramada, but the pyragues informed the Police of his presence in the Lambaré area. A police team cornered him before he could take a boat and as he was running between the houses, he was shot in the ankle making it impossible for him to run any further.
As expected, Irurzun was taken to the fearsome Department of Investigations, where he was savagely tortured to make him confess and betray his accomplices. Irurzun died in a flogging session, but in the police report (which was later found in the terror files). in 1992) indicated that the foreigner died of a shot to the ankle. The rest of the team managed to flee the country, circumventing police checkpoints.
Hugo Irurzun was the only one captured and he died tortured by the Stronista police.
The attack caused the Stronista police to hunt down those responsible for the act, as it was known that those behind the act were Argentines, all the Argentines they could were arrested.
Rakes were recorded in the area of the incident, the police entered houses to carry out searches without a court order, but all this was unsuccessful since the guerrillas had fled and Anastacio Somoza had died.
Enrique Gorrian Merlo, in one of his last interviews given before his death, had pointed out that he never had an arrest warrant or extradition request for the attack that occurred in Paraguay, the only one who paid with his life for the act was Irrurzun, who died tortured in the stronist dungeons.
