In early 1961, Eli was sent to Argentina, posing as a wealthy Syrian businessman. Eli spent eight months in the country, with his time there documented by Natalio Steiner, co-director of the Argentinian Jewish newspaper Comunidades in an article about Israeli intelligence. Steiner spoke to Sputnik about the spy's time in the Latin American country.
Receiving a new identity and the documents that went with it, Cohen became 'Kamel Amin Thaabet', and had a backstory suggesting that he was a Syrian who inherited his Jewish Argentinian relative's textile business after the latter passed away.
Leaving Israel in 1961, Cohen traveled to Zurich, from where he would then head to Chile and, ultimately, Argentina. A few days later he met with his contact in Buenos Aires, was given a false passport, and advised to learn Spanish as quickly as possible. Three months later, Cohen was speaking the language freely, and acquired a deep knowledge of the Argentinian capital, according to Steiner.