Photography by Name Here | See stockists page for detailsthe kind of quote at which Eric Cantona might
raise an eyebrow: “A football team is above all
an idea,” for example. Today, of course, he is
beloved by the modern breed of tactical ano-
raks. Perhaps Menoti’s saving grace was that
his rhetoric played on the restoration of past
glories of Argentine footballing syle in a way
that overlapped, however tenuously, to the
junta’s own traditionalist propaganda.
El Flaco picked the previously unfancied
Osvaldo Ardiles to up his team’s rhythm in
a manner that atempted to mimic the Dutch
“Total Football” style that saw The Oranje
arrive as tournament favourites. But for all his
ideals, that Argentine’s pragmatism remained.
here was no place in the final squad for the
country’s most natural talent, the 17-year-
old Diego Maradona. And the team’s familiar
gamesmanship and physicaliy was unlikely
to disappear overnight. As Menoti once said:
“Eicacy is not divorced from beauy.”
If it was needed, General Videla’s con-
stant visibiliy as the tournament kicked of
was a further reminder that results clearlymatered. In Argentina’s opening game, their
opponents Hungary took the lead after just
nine minutes. Menotti’s attacking approach
was evident, though, and a front two of
Leopoldo Luque and Mario Kempes showed
pace, power and a close understanding. Luque
equalised minutes later before substitute
Daniel Bertoni scored an 83rd-minute win-
ner. By full time, the match had degenerated
from the merely cynical to the outright nasy,
with two Hungarian players being sent of in
the closing minutes.
At a friendly against England at Wembley
10 days before that game, Hungary’s manager
Lajos Baróti told journalist Brian Glanville
that “everything, even the air, is in favour of
Argentina” ahead of the World Cup. Off the
record, Baróti also feared that the referees
would favour the hosts in their decision-mak-
ing: “he success of Argentina is financially so
important to the tournament.”
The other teams in Argentina and
Hungary’s group were the much-fancied
France and Italy, establishing the tournament’stoughest qualiying section. Ater the victory
against Hungary, one junta oicial remarked
to Luque, that “this could turn out to be the
group of death as far as you are concerned”. It
was delivered with a smile.
“Uppermost in my mind was that earlier
that day, the brother of a close friend of mine
had disappeared,” recalled Luque. “His body
was later found by villagers on the banks of
the River Plate with concrete atached to his
legs. At that time, opponents of the regime
were sometimes thrown out of aeroplanes
into the sea.”
Ater Italy had beaten France 2-1 in their
opening match-up, Argentina next faced the
talented, Michel Platini-led French side that
now had to win to stay in the tournament. In
a game that still raises the blood pressure of
the French who remember it, Argentina were
gited a penaly for a harsh handball against
Marius Trésor, while France’s Didier Six had
a much stronger penaly appeal turned down.
A Luque 25-yarder setled the game at 2-1, but
years later the fire was restoked when a calleron a radio phone-in — claiming to be a for-
mer French international footballer — made
unsubstantiated claims that Fifa oicials were
turning a blind eye to Argentine ampheta-
mine use. “You could hear them screaming in
their dressing room,” he said, “and they had to
warm down for two hours ater the match.” It
was also alleged that ater urine samples were
taken, a Fifa official discovered one of the
Argentina players was pregnant.with the world’s eyes on the tourna-
ment, one group within Argentina knew
it had to take advantage of this brief win-
dow of attention. “Las Madres de Plaza de
Mayo”, “The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo”,
was founded in 1977 by women who had
lost children to the junta’s “Diry War”. Every
Thursday, they marched to the Casa Rosada
presidential palace, all wearing white head-
scarves, holding photographs of their “disap-
peared” children. As their numbers grew, and
visibility increased, the junta began callingAfter the Hungary victory, a junta official remarked to Leopoldo
Luque, ‘this could be the group of death for you’, with a smile.
‘Uppermost in my mind,’ recalled Luque, ‘was that earlier that day, the
brother of a close friend had disappeared. His body was later found on
the banks of the River Plate with concrete attached to his legs’
them “las locas” — the madwomen. In fact,
they were the closest thing the junta had to
a pressure group.
his also made them a target. In December
1977, on Human Rights Day, the mothers took
out an advertisement in a newspaper publish-
ing the names of the missing children. hat
same evening, one of the founding women,
Azucena Villaflor, was kidnapped by half
a dozen armed men and taken to the Navy
Pety-Oicers School of Mechanics. It wasn’t
until 2005 that Villaflor’s remains were iden-
tified. She, and two other original madres, had
been buried in an unmarked grave ater their
bodies had washed up on a Santa Teresita
beach, some 200 miles from Buenos Aires.
Like their children, they died in the waters of
the River Plate.
If, like Villaflor, you were unfortu-
nate enough to be taken to the naval school,
the routine for new recruits was fairly con-
sistent. Arrested and held without trial or
questions, typically for left-leaning political
affiliations and beliefs, which were definedmore and more loosely as the junta’s grip on
power tightened.
Catle prods provided the immediate wel-
come reception to the prison. Oten as a tool
for rape, whatever your gender. Recordings of
Hitler’s speeches would routinely be played
through speakers. he smell of urine and fae-
ces was overpowering. Tiny boxed cells con-
tained existing prisoners, many hooded,
semi-conscious and weakened from infected
torture wounds.
he guards wanted names. he techniques
used to get them were always excruciating
and oten depraved. When your time was up,
you got the nod, were stripped naked, given
a dose of sodium pentothal to keep you pli-
able, put on a plane to where the River Plate
meets the Atlantic and thrown into the ocean.
Former naval captain Emir Sisul Hess, alleg-
edly told relatives of the dead how sleeping
victims fell from his plane “like litle ants”.
On the second floor was a materniy ward,
where hundreds of babies were stolen from
their soon-to-be-murdered mothers, many of90 Esquire — June 2018