[2] In 1966, he refused to do his compulsory military service, and travelled to Cuba instead, where he heard Fidel Castro speak at the Tricontinental Conference in January 1966.
On 11 June 1969, after their attack on an arms depot, his group withdrew into the sierra, and then lost all support from Cuba which rallied to the Venezuelan government's side.
Goldman then robbed the Royal Bank of Canada in Puerto La Cruz on 11 June 1969, taking 2.6 million bolívars (the biggest hold-up of that year),[2] a robbery later claimed by the FALN guerrillas.
The impact of the book on some French intellectuals and personalities, including the actress Simone Signoret, the writer Françoise Sagan, Jean-Paul Sartre and Régis Debray, among others,[2] plus many inconsistencies recorded during the investigation led to a second trial, which started on 26 April 1976.
Various theories persist, the most serious pointing to Marseilles' criminal underground, which might have assassinated him on behalf of the mercenary organization GAL, a death squad set up by Spanish officials to fight ETA in the 1980s.
[citation needed] Another theory shared by VSD points toward the French intelligence services — supported by the fact that former police officer Lucien Aimé-Blanc, in charge of the narcotics department[where?
In April 2006, Libération published an interview of said former police officer, who stated that one of his informants, Jean-Pierre Maïone, had admitted a few years later to having killed Goldman on behalf of the GAL:Marseille boys members of GAL killed him with Maïone, who also talked about a commandant, former member of the SDECE [French secret service], without revealing me his identity.
Extreme right journalist Emmanuel Ratier, in the bimonthly newsletter Faits et Documents, claims the true identity of “Gustavo” to have been René Resciniti de Says.
The blog post alleges that René Resciniti de Says was an associate of French monarchist group Action Française, as well as being one of Bob Denard's mercenaries.