In 1977, a bomb destroyed the offices that Mr. José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz shared with other family members in a building located at Corrientes Avenue, in the heart of Buenos Aires city center, where the employees who were there at the time of the explosion miraculously saved their lives.

The terrorist organization Montoneros claimed this bomb attack.

Another serious attack took place at Buenos Aires City Airport (Aeroparque Metropolitano) on January 24, 1977, when Minister Martínez de Hoz was on board a plane heading to visit an oil platform in southern Argentina together with the incumbent Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla and cabinet members.

The terrorist group Ejército Revolucionario de Pueblo (ERP), that had learnt of the date of the trip through the news, placed two trotyl explosives in the tubbing of the Maldonado stream, just below the Airport’s runway.

One of the bombs had 5 kgs of explosives and was intended to detonate by sensitivity, the other one, with a 50 kg charge. Only the 5 kg bomb actually exploded and the cement debris made a hole in the plane’s wings at the time the plane was taking off. The pilot had to make a forced landing at El Palomar airport, fortunately without any casualties.

The other bomb, with a 50 kg. charge, failed to detonate because the underground stream’s waterflow had increased and the charge was dampened. If this bomb had been detonated, the blast would have destroyed the plane as well as the whole airport and its fuel deposits.

Hundreds of passengers who were waiting to board their planes and family members who were at the airport waiting for passengers would have been killed. Possibly, this would have been the largest tragedy ever caused by one single terrorist attack in Argentina.

The Montoneros organization recognized authorship of this bomb attack.

On April 8, 1978, Miguel Padilla, a young lawyer who collaborated with the then Minister of Economy in labor matters and was in charge of relations with the unions, was murdered when he was leaving his home.

Juan Alemann, Treasury Secretary of the Ministry of Economy suffered two serious terrorist attacks. The first one, on June 21, 1978, took place during one of the final games of the World Cup Series played in Argentina, when a powerful bomb blasted his home.

The second one, on November 8, 1979, was perpetrated when he had just left his home and was on board the car that was driving him to the Ministry of Economy. He was attacked by a command of Montoneros that fired Energa explosives by means of grenade launching devices, whilst the attackers also fired intensely with automatic weapons. Both terrorist attacks failed in their attempt to assassinate Mr. Aleman, but injured his bodyguard.

On September 27, 1979, the Economic Planning and Coordination Secretary, Mr. Guillermo Walter Klein, who was Minister Martínez de Hoz’s Vice-Minister, was attacked together with all of his family, within the context of the so called “Montoneros Counterstrike”. While a large group of Montoneros members were firing against Mr. Klein’s and his neighbors´ houses, the terrorists detonated a bomb that pulled down the house completely and buried the Klein family under the debris.

After several hours, Mr. Klein and his family were rescued alive, but in spite of the fire-fighters rescue efforts two bodyguards of Mr. Klein died from asphyxia.

On November 13, 1979, a Montoneros squad assassinated businessman Francisco Soldati, father of the then director of the Central Bank and a personal friend of José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz. Montoneros fired machine-guns and explosives against Mr. Soldati’s car, and while he lay seriously wounded on the floor they shot him.

Years after such crimes, several former members of Montoneros boasted about these killings in books and publications. Whilst such crimes and the apology thereof remain still unpunished, José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz was being investigated under false charges in a case that was reopened after having been found innocent 25 years earlier (see “Judicial Persecutions”).

The new “investigations” were publicly promoted by an Administration closely related to the referred terrorist group, many of whose former members hold important offices in the current Administration.