Speaker 1: Hello, Avenger listeners, It's Steve Fishman and I'm really glad
Speaker 1: you've tuned in. I hope you love this show as
Speaker 1: much as we do. A quick word on an upcoming
Speaker 1: bonus episode. We're doing a bonus with Miriam, the real Miriam.
Speaker 1: We'll be asking her questions, your questions and getting answers.
Speaker 1: She'll update us on what's going on in her world
Speaker 1: and a lot has Please email your questions or thoughts
Speaker 1: or comments too. Info at Orbitmedia dot fm. Oh and
Speaker 1: Fisher Stevens can answer your questions too. He's our co
Speaker 1: founder and resident Oscar winner. He's an actor you saw
Speaker 1: him in Succession and director of actors like al Pacino
Speaker 1: and Justin Timberlake. For Avenger, he directed Alexis Bledel, who
Speaker 1: voices Miriam. If we're lucky, Alexis who was the star
Speaker 1: of Gilmore Girls and Handmaid's Tale and is the daughter
Speaker 1: of an Argentine. We'll chip in answers to so let
Speaker 1: us know your thoughts and questions, hopes and prayers. Info
Speaker 1: at Orbitmedia dot fm. Thanks. One quick note on the
Speaker 1: production as Andres, our host is about to tell you,
Speaker 1: we translated Spanish interviews into English and then we were
Speaker 1: very excited that we were able to get Alexis Bledell
Speaker 1: to voice the person at the center of this story, Miriam.
Speaker 1: Alexis was a star of Gilmore Girls, an Emmy winner
Speaker 1: and Emmy winner for Handmaid's Tale. Also, and crucial for us,
Speaker 1: her father is Argentine. Spanish was her first language. Alexis
Speaker 1: told us that she's determined to explore her roots, which
Speaker 1: is just one reason her participation in this story has
Speaker 1: been so powerful. In today's episode, Miriam gets a terrible
Speaker 1: lesson about the cost of survival. A quick word about subscriptions.
Speaker 1: If you love ads on If you're not so keen
Speaker 1: on ads, sign up for True Crime Clubhouse on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts that entire subscription channel. You'll get no ads, and
Speaker 1: also you can binge the entire Avengers series. It's just
Speaker 1: two ninety nine a month. Thanks.
Speaker 2: Before we begin, please note that for this story we
Speaker 2: interviewed Medium and everyone else for dozens of hours in Spanish.
Speaker 2: We hired actors to voice their words in English. By now,
Speaker 2: Medium Lewin has been a hostage of Argentina's military junta
Speaker 2: for weeks. Her captors tester. She recalls the first warning
Speaker 2: she received the day of her kidnapping. If you don't cooperate,
Speaker 2: you die. Her captors constantly bring the phone to her cell.
Speaker 2: They want information about her comrades, so they make her
Speaker 2: call the safe house she reported to every day she
Speaker 2: was in hiding, and they're persistent despite the fact that
Speaker 2: no one has picked up after dozens of attempts, until
Speaker 2: the day someone breaks protocol.
Speaker 3: They were taking me to the location where my friend,
Speaker 3: the guy who broke protocol asked to meet. They blindfolded me,
Speaker 3: and then they put me inside the trunk of a
Speaker 3: Ford falcon. All I could think about was how this
Speaker 3: meeting should not be happening. We had agreed on a
Speaker 3: protocol with our comrades. If any of us were captured alive,
Speaker 3: pick up the phone, but always assume the person calling
Speaker 3: has been compromised. I still don't get why he broke
Speaker 3: the protocol, or why he picked up the phone in
Speaker 3: the first place and gave me a code with a
Speaker 3: meeting location. In that confusion, I was still sure no
Speaker 3: one would show up.
Speaker 2: Medium arrives at the agreed meeting place, closely monitored by
Speaker 2: her captors.
Speaker 3: It was near a gas station at a busy intersection.
Speaker 3: My captors had told me to tap on my head
Speaker 3: as soon as I saw my friend. Suddenly, out of
Speaker 3: the corner of my eye, I see someone waving at me,
Speaker 3: trying to get my attention. It's my friend. Instead of
Speaker 3: tapping my head, I ignore him and immediately look the
Speaker 3: other way. But when I turn, my captor is right there,
Speaker 3: watching everything, and then he grabs my arm and drags
Speaker 3: me away.
Speaker 2: Medium's comrade is captured, abducted.
Speaker 3: I see him on the floor. He's bleeding from his stomach.
Speaker 3: They ask me who is he. I tell them I
Speaker 3: don't know him. They take us back to the detention
Speaker 3: center and they drag my friend away. I thought they
Speaker 3: were going to torture me for saying I didn't know him,
Speaker 3: but instead they just slap me, insult me, and throw
Speaker 3: me back in my cell. But then they leave my
Speaker 3: door open so I would hear everything they're doing to
Speaker 3: him in a nearby cell. The worst torture is listening
Speaker 3: to another person being tortured, the crying, the screaming, and
Speaker 3: not being able to do anything about it. It's worse
Speaker 3: than your own torture.
Speaker 2: Listening to her friend. Medium thinks about her suicide attempt
Speaker 2: the day she was kidnapped.
Speaker 3: I was willing to swallow that cyanide pill because I
Speaker 3: wanted to protect my friends so badly, so badly that
Speaker 3: dying was the only option.
Speaker 2: But now here she is living a scenario she feared.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, she collaborated in the
Speaker 2: capture of her comrade, and now she's being tortured too, psychologically.
Speaker 3: And when my friend's torture ends, a guard walks over
Speaker 3: to my cell and point blank tells me, by the way,
Speaker 3: Juan is dead.
Speaker 2: Juan, the guy she had married and got into hiding
Speaker 2: with before her kidnapping.
Speaker 3: I cried for days. They still miss him.
Speaker 2: From Orbit media, I'm Andrescaba Scheedo. This is Avenger, the
Speaker 2: story of Medium Lewin Episode three, the World Cup. I've
Speaker 2: spent more than half of my life outside Argentina. Now
Speaker 2: as a journalist, reconnecting with my homeland, learning more about
Speaker 2: this horrific part of my country's history. I can't help
Speaker 2: but ask did people know about what the military junta
Speaker 2: was doing about the clandestine torture centers in the middle
Speaker 2: of Buenos Aires. People in Argentina had plenty to worry
Speaker 2: about inflation, keeping their jobs, ongoing violence, in the streets.
Speaker 2: All of this is happening as the junta prepares to
Speaker 2: host the biggest sports event on the planet in Argentina.
Speaker 2: Soccer or football, as most of the world calls it,
Speaker 2: is the ultimate distraction. Argentina had been chosen to host
Speaker 2: the World Cup for the first time in its history,
Speaker 2: right in the middle of a dictatorship. More people watch
Speaker 2: the World Cup than the Olympics. The Super Bowl doesn't
Speaker 2: even compare for the Junta. That timing couldn't be better.
Speaker 2: There's brutal repression, but that's not what the world's paying
Speaker 2: attention to. What everyone sees is a well ordered pageant,
Speaker 2: cheering fans, celebrity athletes.
Speaker 3: Alden Dayocho.
Speaker 2: SOCASA said, this event, according to the propaganda machine, shows
Speaker 2: the world what Argentines are capable of, but medium. She's
Speaker 2: captive in a small cell inside a Coindestine detention center
Speaker 2: in the middle of the city.
Speaker 3: My holding cell was so close to an apartment building
Speaker 3: where regular families lived. I could hear them singing happy birthdays,
Speaker 3: and I could hear siblings fighting, a mom calling her
Speaker 3: kids to dinner, sounds of dishes being washed, life as usual,
Speaker 3: And there I was.
Speaker 2: Frozen in time not quite frozen. Medium is well aware
Speaker 2: of the World Cup approaching.
Speaker 3: Every morning, the guards would tune into Radio Rivadabya. There
Speaker 3: was a show hosted by a legendary sports announcer everyone loved.
Speaker 3: He was pro dictatorship and the junta used him for
Speaker 3: political propaganda. He would announce how many days were left
Speaker 3: until the start of the World Cup. Then you would
Speaker 3: talk about how we Argentines were great humans and that
Speaker 3: all that talk about human rights violations were nothing but lies.
Speaker 2: For Medium, the psychological torture inside the detention center starts
Speaker 2: getting worse. The captors play good cop, bad cop with
Speaker 2: the prisoners, and they tell them that if they cooperate,
Speaker 2: if they show remorse for their actions, they won't be punished,
Speaker 2: and that death and harm to their loved ones outside
Speaker 2: is the cost of not complying. Medium has found a
Speaker 2: way to survive. She will play by the room rules,
Speaker 2: their rules.
Speaker 3: One day they took me out of the cell and
Speaker 3: they put me in front of a camera where I
Speaker 3: had to explain why I had chosen violence as a
Speaker 3: way to protest against the government. They also asked me
Speaker 3: what family, God, and country meant to me.
Speaker 2: She's being forced to apologize for her mistakes. She knows
Speaker 2: they're making an example out of her. She had never
Speaker 2: been a violent activist, but she went along with it.
Speaker 3: I was absolutely against their values, but I had heard
Speaker 3: their rhetorics so much I was very familiar. It was
Speaker 3: easy for me to tell them what they wanted to hear.
Speaker 3: Days later, they came into my cell and told me
Speaker 3: I had saved my own life.
Speaker 2: The World Cup was just days away, and I kept.
Speaker 3: Hearing that same sports show coming from the Guards radio
Speaker 3: with the World Cup countdown.
Speaker 2: This massive event that people around the world would tune
Speaker 2: in to see. Little did Medium know that she would
Speaker 2: soon be thrust into the middle of them.
Speaker 4: Get provided by another Privaan and now the beginning of
Speaker 4: the arrade of representative.
Speaker 2: The World Cup's opening ceremony takes place at the River
Speaker 2: Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires in front of eighty thousand people.
Speaker 2: On TV, you can see hundreds of pigeons released into
Speaker 2: the air.
Speaker 4: This is Augentina, sevent to eight of the eleven World
Speaker 4: Cup final sixteen times Tenian.
Speaker 2: The announcer introduces General Horge Raphael Videla, who stands in
Speaker 2: front of two microphones. He's ditched his military uniform for
Speaker 2: a gray suit and a blue tie. He looks dapper.
Speaker 2: Everyone turns around to face.
Speaker 4: Him, Senor, Senor.
Speaker 2: In his speech, Midela talks about the World Cup bringing
Speaker 2: happiness to the entire country, about diversity, unity, Yes, the EVENTO,
Speaker 2: and then he calls on God, the Lord. He talks
Speaker 2: about how the event affirms world peace. It's a pass
Speaker 2: that piece that we all long for, he says, I
Speaker 2: know what it's like to be a sess with the
Speaker 2: World Cup. I wasn't alive yet in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 2: but I grew up watching countless video replays of the
Speaker 2: final game. A ruthless striker Mario Kempis taken on the
Speaker 2: Dutch defenders, the entire stadium erupting with each goal. I
Speaker 2: recently went back to Buenos Aires. I took a tour
Speaker 2: of the stadium where that final took place during the dictatorship.
Speaker 2: One thing that took me by surprise was how close
Speaker 2: the stadium was from those who were being tortured. When
Speaker 2: the tour ended, I got into a cab, and about
Speaker 2: a mile away from the stadium, we passed the very
Speaker 2: building where Medium was imprisoned. It's behind a black iron gate.
Speaker 2: There's big trees and these stately white pillars, and above
Speaker 2: them the words etched them Black. The Naval School of Mechanics,
Speaker 2: also known as ESTHMA. There's nothing clandestine about this building,
Speaker 2: but in nineteen seventy eight during the World Cup, what
Speaker 2: went on inside was kept secret.
Speaker 3: The stadium was just blocks away. Depending on the direction
Speaker 3: of the wind, we could hear the sounds of the
Speaker 3: euphoric crowd seeping into the torture chambers.
Speaker 2: And if the wind blew in a different direction, Medium
Speaker 2: could still hear the World Cup madness coming from the
Speaker 2: radio that the guards huddled around in the hallway.
Speaker 3: The World Cup stirred rage inside me. I felt helpless.
Speaker 3: It was painful because the World Cup blinded all Argentines
Speaker 3: from what was happening, and we the disappeared were the
Speaker 3: number one victims of that blindness.
Speaker 2: That disappeared or disapparicidos the term given to people who
Speaker 2: were kidnapped and never heard from again. Inside Esthma, Medium
Speaker 2: starts noticing something new. Prisoners who showed more resistance were
Speaker 2: starting to be quote transferred.
Speaker 3: The transfers happened on Wednesdays, and they would tell people
Speaker 3: they were taking them to a ranch in the south,
Speaker 3: where they would have a better life and where they
Speaker 3: would be re educated.
Speaker 2: Five thousand prisoners passed through the detention center. Medium was
Speaker 2: among the few, just three hundred or so who survived.
Speaker 2: She had convinced her captors that she was reformed, that
Speaker 2: she had repented from her leftist sins. The reformed prisoners
Speaker 2: were being kept in detention and forced to work jobs
Speaker 2: mundane stuff like the cells doing laundry. But if a
Speaker 2: prisoner had special skills, they'd get a special assignment. Medium
Speaker 2: had studied journalism, and that's useful to the junta. She's
Speaker 2: assigned to the press office. In exchange, she's rewarded with
Speaker 2: better living conditions.
Speaker 3: We got to sleep on beds with sheets, We could shower,
Speaker 3: We had access to phones we could use to call
Speaker 3: our families, and I was allowed to make short calls
Speaker 3: to my parents to let them know I was alive.
Speaker 3: During the first year after my kidnapping, I would call
Speaker 3: them and I would tell them I was in hiding.
Speaker 3: They didn't know I'd been captured. When my mother asked
Speaker 3: me where I was, I would just tell her I
Speaker 3: couldn't say for safety reasons. I would assure my parents
Speaker 3: I was okay, and they believe me.
Speaker 2: The men in charge of everything that happens at the
Speaker 2: detention center is Navy Admiral Emilia Massea. He helped orchestrate
Speaker 2: the coup. He'd like to be president, and he's been
Speaker 2: assigned a crucial task for the junta. Admiral Maceda is
Speaker 2: running the propaganda campaign. News about human rights violations in
Speaker 2: Argentina is heating up in the international press ahead of
Speaker 2: the World Cup. Marcera's job is to spin a counter
Speaker 2: narrative that the junta is creating law and order. Part
Speaker 2: of that effort is masterminded by an American public relations
Speaker 2: firm hired by the junta, Burson Marstellar. It turns out
Speaker 2: that hiding the truth is one of the PR firms specialties.
Speaker 2: Their involvement helping dictatorships and other immoral types clean up
Speaker 2: their image was part of Burson Marstellar's portfolio, and before
Speaker 2: Medium was captured, the junta was already putting its PR
Speaker 2: plan in action. Their target audience the United States, Great Britain, Canada,
Speaker 2: and a handful of other countries where news of torture
Speaker 2: is becoming a political problem. So ahead of the World
Speaker 2: cup William F. Buckley Jr. Is invited to record his
Speaker 2: PBS show in Buenos Aires in front of high school students.
Speaker 2: Buckley seems like a safe bet for the junta. He's
Speaker 2: known to be friendly with the powers that be, a
Speaker 2: law in order advocate.
Speaker 4: As I understanded, as I understanding you're interest in human rights,
Speaker 4: your INSIDR rights, I'm inst in human rights, and we
Speaker 4: think that general be then as interested in your right right.
Speaker 2: One of Buckley's guests is the US Ambassador to Argentina,
Speaker 2: Robert Hill. Oddly, it's the US Ambassador who gets agitated
Speaker 2: and starts interrogating Buckley.
Speaker 4: What caused the human rights problems the Buckley in your
Speaker 4: opinion in Argentina, Well, what caused the human rights problem
Speaker 4: is a series of reports by people who are allegedly
Speaker 4: innocent who have disappeared. Essentially that the failure of the government,
Speaker 4: who releases the names of those who doesn't. That's not
Speaker 4: that's not correct in my opinion.
Speaker 2: It's not a hard hit against the dictatorship. But even
Speaker 2: this soft criticism from Buckley was unexpected, so the US
Speaker 2: Ambassador quickly jumps in to set the record straight.
Speaker 4: The human rights problem was caused by the terrorists.
Speaker 1: They were killing innocent people.
Speaker 2: Week two months after this interview, Medium is kidnapped off
Speaker 2: the streets. Now Medium finds herself deep inside the junta's
Speaker 2: propaganda machine.
Speaker 3: I also knew English and French, so they asked me
Speaker 3: to help out in the translations department.
Speaker 2: She scans foreign newspapers to see what they're saying about
Speaker 2: Argentina and the dictatorship. She writes articles for media sources
Speaker 2: controlled by the junta.
Speaker 3: We were hostages. They would tell us what to write,
Speaker 3: and one day they asked me to write about the
Speaker 3: World Cup. They brief me to make sure the script
Speaker 3: had a patriotic spirit, a nationalist tone. I knew none
Speaker 3: of us had guarantees of coming out alive simply for
Speaker 3: being part of the staff. And sure I could have
Speaker 3: resisted and earned myself a spot on a death flight,
Speaker 3: but I wanted to live.
Speaker 2: Less than a week until the World Cup final. Former
Speaker 2: US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger lands in Buenos Aires.
Speaker 2: It's not just an American pr firm that is burnishing
Speaker 2: the junta's image. Kissinger is invited to the games by
Speaker 2: his friend, the dictator, General Videla. Kissinger had helped orchestrate
Speaker 2: Nixon's war in Vietnam. He helped organize the rights of
Speaker 2: Chili's dictator at Gusto Pinochet, and he supported Videla's claim
Speaker 2: to impose law and order in Argentina. At the airport,
Speaker 2: he's welcomed by journalists and military officers in uniform. The
Speaker 2: class if I transcripts show that Kissinger was briefed soon
Speaker 2: after Villela took power. He was told to expect to
Speaker 2: quote a fair amount of repression, probably a good deal
Speaker 2: of blood in Argentina before too long. He doesn't seem
Speaker 2: to mind in about the military junta. He responds, quote,
Speaker 2: whatever chance they have, they'll need a little encouragement, because
Speaker 2: I do want to encourage them. End quote. By now,
Speaker 2: Kissinger is no longer Secretary of State, but his visit
Speaker 2: helps legitimize the dictatorship in the eyes of the world.
Speaker 2: On June twenty fifth, nineteen seventy eight, Argentina plays the
Speaker 2: World Cup final against Holland. Video from the opening ceremony
Speaker 2: shows hundreds of soldiers and military bands marching. Kissinger is
Speaker 2: there too. Then General Videla makes his entrance, anal pal
Speaker 2: who's excellent. Yes, the announcer calls Videla, his excellency and
Speaker 2: commander in chief and excellent your president. General Videla makes
Speaker 2: his way through the stands and sits next to Navy
Speaker 2: Admiral Marcera, the top boss at Esthma and the man
Speaker 2: leading the propaganda campaign that Medium is now helping to implement.
Speaker 2: Medium is watching the game live from inside the prison.
Speaker 4: You stop your mob of the casino stopt.
Speaker 3: And they forced us to watch the games. Some of
Speaker 3: my fellow captives, I must confess, sometimes got carried away
Speaker 3: by emotions and embrace their tortures. When Argentina scored, it
Speaker 3: made me sick to my stomach.
Speaker 2: With less than five minutes left, Argentina scores the third
Speaker 2: goal and clinches its first World Cup title ever a
Speaker 2: Cana Canina. The sounds of people celebrating seep through the
Speaker 2: walls in the windows of the colandestine center. Suddenly, a
Speaker 2: guard in the hallway starts yelling out names.
Speaker 3: I hear my name and my friends Gracila Valleo. The
Speaker 3: guards took us outside with a dozen other people, and
Speaker 3: then they forced us into a car that was part
Speaker 3: of a convoy.
Speaker 2: The gate opens and they drive out into the mass
Speaker 2: of people. It's pure euphoria. The guards instruct Medium and
Speaker 2: Gracila to look out the car windows and look happy
Speaker 2: like everyone else. Gracila asked for permission to stick her
Speaker 2: head out of the car sunroof.
Speaker 3: People were getting out of their cars to hug one
Speaker 3: another on the sidewalks. We drove through traffic slowly. It
Speaker 3: was incredible, so many people.
Speaker 2: The cars with Medium and Gracila eventually stop. They part
Speaker 2: in front of a restaurant. The waiter puts some tables
Speaker 2: together while the guards order pizza and beer and share
Speaker 2: it with their prisoners, including a woman that Medium knows
Speaker 2: they had just raped and tortured.
Speaker 3: People were literally jumping on top of the tables. There
Speaker 3: was no end to it. It was pure, uncontrollable joy.
Speaker 3: And I sat there silent pale. I looked at my friends, thinking,
Speaker 3: how do they not realize we're being held captive? How
Speaker 3: do they not know these men are torturers. It made
Speaker 3: us think that the dictatorship would easily last another forty years.
Speaker 2: At one point, her friend Razila gets permission to use
Speaker 2: the bathroom. Once there, she takes out a red lipstick
Speaker 2: one of her captures had given her so she would
Speaker 2: look like any other woman celebrating with their friends. With
Speaker 2: the lipstick, she writes the words quote military murderers, Maceda
Speaker 2: the murderer, all over the walls. She goes back to
Speaker 2: her table. They sit watching people dance.
Speaker 3: What Graciela did was basically a modest act of rebellion.
Speaker 3: It was a statement. There wasn't much else we could
Speaker 3: do to say. We were kidnapped right at that moment,
Speaker 3: out in the open. It was completely unthinkable. No one
Speaker 3: would have believed us. For me, it would have been suicidal.
Speaker 3: It would have put my friends' lives in danger. It
Speaker 3: was like another form of torture, another test of how
Speaker 3: submissive we were. The junta had won.
Speaker 2: After about an hour, Medium and Grazila are taken back
Speaker 2: to the Clendestine Center to be tortured by the sounds
Speaker 2: of joy that would contain you through the name.
Speaker 3: The way the dictatorship used this passion shared by the
Speaker 3: Argentine people. It was just horrible. It's hard to think
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: In the next episode, Medium and Giancarlo continue their hunt
Speaker 2: for the planes, and they finally come across one promising lead.
Speaker 2: On one list, there was a plane called the Rio
Speaker 2: Grande for more than a decade. It sat there, motor less,
Speaker 2: right under our noses. From Orbit Media, This is Avenger,
Speaker 2: the Story of Medium Lewin. I'm your host and Senior
Speaker 2: producer Andrescavachedo. The series was produced by Seguiel Rodrie Sandino
Speaker 2: and edited by Monica Campbell. Original score Nicolas Paschela, mixing
Speaker 2: and mastering Christopher Hoff and Austin Smith. Assistant producers Andres
Speaker 2: Feschtenholz and Eleana Gillespi. FactCheck Alejandro Marinelli and leonardos Canone.
Speaker 2: Legal review Neil Rossinia, Casting director Paula Gammon Wilson. The
Speaker 2: executive producers from Orbit Media are Steve Fishman Fisher, Stevens,
Speaker 2: Marcy Wiseman, and Katie Springer. The voice actors in Avenger
Speaker 2: include Alexis Bloddell as Medium Lewin, Fulio de la Volta
Speaker 2: as Giancarlos Siraudo, Gonzalo Vargas as Enrique Pinedo, Edgardo Manono
Speaker 2: Castro as Bruno Vain and Tom Schubert as Carlos, Macosmiliana
Speaker 2: and Gustavo. This podcast was produced in association with Sonodo.
Speaker 2: The Sonoto executive producers are Camilla Victoriano, Joshua Weinstein, and
Speaker 2: Jasmine Romero. The rest of the Sonoda production team includes
Speaker 2: Senior producer Carmel Gratol, editor Rodrigo Crespo, Producer Paloma Navarro, Nicoletti,
Speaker 2: Evelyn Urivea, Marianna Cornelo, Sara Mota, Manuel Parra, Hanna Baram
Speaker 2: and Tasha Sandoval. Special thanks to Radio and CASA and
Speaker 2: Pomeeranek Recording Studios in Buenos Aires, and to Medium Lewin
Speaker 2: and Giancarlo Serraaldo for letting us tell their story. Thank
Speaker 2: you for listening.
Speaker 1: A quick word about subscriptions. If you love ads, listen on.
Speaker 1: If you're not so keen on ads, sign up for
Speaker 1: True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts no ads and also Bingeability.
Speaker 1: You can hear the entire Avenger series all at once.
Speaker 1: It's just two ninety nine a month.