Operation Massacre(7)
6. Lizaso
The image we have of Carlitos Lizaso is sharper, more urgent, and more tragic. This tall, thin, pale young man, reserved and almost timid, is twenty-one years old. He comes from a big family in the district of Vicente López.
Politics has always been a major topic of discussion in his house. Mr. Pedro Lizaso, the father, was a member of the Radical Civil union at one time.10 He then became a Peronist sympathizer. In 1947 he is named City Commissioner for a short time. Later on, something inside him takes a turn in the other direction: by 1950, he has distanced himself from Peronism and will keep distancing himself more and more as time goes on; he is practically in the opposition when the September revolution comes about.
—We had the secret hope that everything would change, that any good that was left would be saved and the bad would be destroyed —a friend of his would later say.— But then . . .
Then we already know what happens. A wave of revenge overtakes the country. Mr. Pedro Lizaso, old, sick, and disillusioned, goes back to the opposition.
These changes are reflected in his two sons. In September 1955, when the revolution shakes everyone to their core and those who aren’t fighting are glued to their radios, listening to the official news as well as the news filtering in less frequently from the opposition—what an extraordinary thing to think about! No one would end up shooting them for doing that—someone asks Carlos:
—Who would you fight for?
—I don’t know —he replies, unsettled.— For no one.
—But if they made you, if you had to choose.
He thinks for a moment before responding.
—For them, I think —he finally replies.
“Them” are the revolutionaries.
Since then, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge. Carlos Lizaso seems to have forgotten about such dilemmas. From the outside, this is what his life looks like: He has dropped out of high school to help out at his father’s auction house. He works hard, has a knack for earning money, hopes to move up in the business, and is well on his way despite his young age. In his moments of rest, he distracts himself by playing chess. He is a strong player who has had some success in several youth tournaments.
It isn’t hard to reconstruct every one of his moves on the afternoon of June 9. First he goes to see his sister. Later on he heads to his girlfriend’s house and stays with her for about an hour. It’s past nine o’clock when he says goodbye and leaves. He takes the bus and gets off in Florida. He walks a few blocks, stops in front of the house with the light blue gates, ventures into the long corridor . . .
What does he know about the rebellion that’s taking place at that exact moment? Here again, contradiction and doubt arise: On the one hand, he is a calm, thoughtful young man. He doesn’t carry any weapons and wouldn’t even know how to use them. He was exempted from military service and has never had a simple revolver in his hands.
On the other hand, we can guess what his thoughts are when it comes to politics. A detail confirms this.
After he leaves, his girlfriend finds a piece of paper with Carlos’s handwriting on it in her house:
“If all goes well tonight . . .”
But all will not go well.
Footnotes:
10 DG: The Radical Civil union was first formed as a political party at the turn of the nineteenth century. Since then, it has undergone a series of transformations while maintaining a generally oppositionist stance until the early 1950s, when it came to power with President Arturo Frondizi. The party’s political orientation has been primarily centrist and leftist, but not in any way radical, in the traditional sense of the word. Its relationship to Peronism has been antagonistic for the most part, though certain leaders over the course of the party’s existence have been more prone to reconciling with Peronist supporters, most often in exchange for political support.