On the eve of the planned, June 16, 1955, attack, Toranzo had decided to postpone the move; but unaware of the decision, an Air Force detachment, which included Cacciatore, carried out the brutal bombing of Plaza de Mayo (the public square facing the presidential offices, the Casa Rosada) as scheduled, and during a Peronist rally.

An uneventful career in subsequent years was capped by his appointment in 1972 as Acting Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Alejandro Lanusse, whose military regime was in its final days.

[6] At the helm of what was then still South America's largest city, Cacciatore inherited an agenda topped by wave of political violence and concerns over readiness for the 1978 FIFA World Cup, for which two football stadia in the Buenos Aires (José Amalfitani Stadium and River Plate) were to be made available as part of the schedule of matches.

The city, however, suffered from a number of serious logistical problems, as well: the rapid growth in automobile traffic since the 1950s, which by 1976 totaled 1.5 million vehicles daily, had not been met by appropriate infrastructure improvements,[7] and the unrelenting flow of migrants from both the less developed Argentine north and neighboring countries such as Bolivia and Paraguay had resulted in the formation of over 30 villas miseria (shantytowns, with varying levels of squalor, illegally built on empty lots); these latter were, by 1976, believed to be home to around 200,000 people (6% of the city's population).

[7] Slum clearance was addressed with the mayor's July 13, 1977, ordinance, which mandated the eradication of all shantytowns, as well as of public housing for around 16,000 people, whose inhabitants would be relocated to the Greater Buenos Aires area (mainly La Matanza and Esteban Echeverría Counties, west of the city).

Following a census of these communities and a spate of restrictions, such as those on new edifications, on the dwellings' sale, and on cottage industry therein, the Department of Internal Vigilance began their demolition; as many slum inhabitants were unwilling to relocate, these were often violent and resulted in numerous injuries and deaths.

[8] These controversial accomplishments were complemented by the opening 64 public schools and of numerous public parks, as well as by the successful World Cup event (won by Argentina) and the closure of the city's tens of thousands of apartment building incinerators, whose noxious disposal of the city's 3,000 daily tons of refuse was replaced by curbside pickup service operated by Manliba, a consortium between Waste Management, Inc. and local businessman Francisco Macri.

[11] His decision to force San Lorenzo de Almagro, a major local football team, to sell their Boedo-area stadium and the land's subsequent US$8 million resale to French retailer Carrefour has likewise never been clarified.