Unexpected Arrest

Two daring attempts set the Argentine Government's nerves on edge,

In Buenos Aires, in a parked car, sat Police Officer Lombilla, torture expert of the "Seccion Especial," with two of his henchmen. A green sedan streaked past. Guns blazed. One of Lombilla's henchmen was killed, but Lombilla escaped. So did the gunmen, whom the Government promptly labeled Communists.

The second attempt was less routine. A monster parade of Army reservists (some of them 80 years old) was scheduled to march down the Calle Florida. At 10 a.m., two armed men burst into the administration building at the Matanza Airfield south of Buenos Aires. At gun's point they forced mechanics to wheel out a plane. "Don't be scared." they told the grease monkeys, "we're doing this for the good of the country." The strong-arm men climbed aboard. The plane hopped off the field, cracked up after 300 yards. The two men crawled out uninjured, confessed that they had intended to drop anti-Government pamphlets on the reservists. The Government claimed they were Communists.

The nationalist press took up the cry. La Fronda denounced the hordes of Moscow "marching from the Asiatic steppes." Cabildo demanded "war without mercy against the Reds." The Government's police swarmed over Buenos Aires.

They captured no Communists. But they bagged five other politicos. Most important: Antonio Santamarina, multimillionaire cattleman, former Vice President and leader of the National Democratic (conservative) Party. It was as if the Dies Committee had gone Communist hunting and returned with John D. Rockefeller Jr.

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