Empty Grid

Havana, Sunday, February 23, 1958, 11:00 pm. In the lobby of the Hotel Atlántida, two blocks from the MalecónMalecón Long seafront avenue with a sea wall, famous in Havana, Cuba, where people stroll and gather., there are still shards of an ashtray on the marble floor and a forgotten straw hat near the elevator.

At 8:55 pm, Teodoro Iturbe, a 46-year-old Argentine, four-time world champion, stepped out of the elevator and was led by an armed man to a green car. Tomorrow at 3:00 pm he was to start from pole position in the Havana Grand Prix, the race with which the general's government wants to show the world an island at peace.

The government ordered the race to go on. Three people knew where the champion would be tonight: the team director, the American photographer who had been photographing him in his room until minutes before, and the night receptionist.

One of them opened the door to the kidnappers.

Hotel lobby in Havana, 1958, with a cord-and-plug switchboard and a cage elevator.