A Dead General, A Bombed Technocrat, and 6-0 Against Peru: The 1978 World Cup and the Argentine Elite
Peru's brief passage through the World Cup reminded me of the one fútbol anecdote I know about in detail: the Peruvian team's loss to its Argentine hosts in the 1978 World Cup forty years ago today, a match widely considered to have been fixed by a military regime desperate for the reflected glory it would gain by Argentina winning the tournament. A writer for Vice UK wrote a good piece earlier this month that will give you all the facts, including an alleged half-time locker room visit to the Peruvian team by Henry Kissinger, who attended the game as a guest of the Junta. But the background of the story, where fractal internal struggles within the repressive apparatus were linked to the death of the retired Army General originally in charge of the World Cup and the attempted killing of the number 2 of the Economy Ministry by a bomb set to blow up at the same minute we scored our fourth goal against Peru, can serve is a snapshot into what made the Proceso such an enduringly...