Editing Federico Augusto Villalba (section)

== Early life and police career ==
Villalba was born on 17 August 1911 in [[Carlos Keen]], [[Buenos Aires Province]], [[Argentina]]. His father was a freight-yard foreman at Carlos Keen railway station and supervised the loading of agricultural freight. Villalba received his basic education in the village.

In 1932, Villalba joined the [[Policía de la Capital]] as a low-ranking policeman. He transferred to the [[Sección Especial de Represión contra el Comunismo]] in 1934. At its headquarters at General Urquiza 556 in [[Buenos Aires]], he interrogated political detainees. By the early 1940s, Villalba had become a senior interrogation officer and was assigned politically important prisoners.

Villalba remained in the police during the transition to the [[Policía Federal Argentina]] and continued serving during the first part of 1944. He married in Buenos Aires in 1940. A son was born in 1941 and a daughter in 1944.