4:45 a.m. It seems as though Rodríguez Moreno is trying to buy more time. He probably doesn’t think of killing ten or fifteen unlucky saps as a very pleasant way to spend his evening. He is personally convinced that more than half of them have nothing to do with anything. And he even has doubts about the rest. He has a tense exchange with the Chief of Police, who has already arrived in La Plata. The orders are strict: execute them. The alternative: be subject to martial law himself. It sounds like they are even talking about sending him an envoy with troops.
At 4:47 a.m., they broadcast Communiqué No. 3 from the Office of the Vice President of the Republic:
“Campo de Mayo has surrendered. La Plata is practically contained. In Santa Rosa, the cavalry regiment has been enlisted to defeat the last rebel group. Eighteen civilian rebels who tried to attack a precinct in Lanús have been executed.”
The Marine Corps and the Police Academy lift the siege on Police Headquarters. The rebels disperse. Fernández Suárez arrives at the Government House, where Colonel Bonnecarrere has had no choice but to listen to the nearby shooting all night long, and they walk together toward Police Headquarters. They are walking up the wide staircase that looks onto Rivadavia Square when Fernández Suárez turns to a subordinate and, so that everyone can hear him, gives the order:
—Those prisoners in San Martín should be taken out to a field and executed!
Apparently that’s not enough. Fernández Suárez has to take the radio transmitter into his own hands.
Rodríguez Moreno receives the command. It is incontestable. So he makes his decision.