Guerrillas shot and killed a motor firm executive, as he drove through the suburbs of the central Argentine city of Cordoba on Thursday (4 April).

The dead man was Senor Roberto Klecher, the Argentine personnel manager of the Italian Fiat motor works in the city. The Peronist Armed Forces -- a guerrilla splinter group of General Peron's mass movement -- claimed responsibility for the killing. A spokesman said Senor Klecher was an exploiter and there would "never be a white flag" for exploiters and traitors.

Senor Klecher's car crashed into a bus after he was machine-gunned by the two guerrillas hiding in a building he passed.

His assassination was the first of three within 24 hours. A right-wing union leader was shot dead in the town of San Nicolas, north-west of Buenos Aires, and an organiser of shanty-town dwellings was killed in the capital.

More than 25 men have been killed in the last six months in Argentina. The opposing factions of the ruling Peronist movement are poles apart. The left-wing 'Revolutionary Tendency' call for a 'Socialist Homeland' in their slogans while the right-wing describes its ideal as 'Modern Fascism' based on the Spanish and Portuguese governments.

Violence also comes from outside Peronism. The Marxist guerrillas of the People's Revolutionary Army have kidnapped several foreign businessmen and earlier this year they fought a seven hour gun battle with an army garrison.