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Speaker 1: This is a production of Journalista Podcast LLC and iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Play Bye Bye, Say.

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Speaker 1: Six fie O free.

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Speaker 2: Why here?

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Speaker 3: These are the stakes to make a world in which

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Speaker 3: all of God's children can live. Are to go into

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Speaker 3: the dark. We must either love each other or we

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Speaker 3: must dive. Vote for President Johnson on November third.

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Speaker 4: The stakes are too high for you to stay home.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Journalista Podcast. I'm your host, Steve A. Step.

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Speaker 1: That was the campaign commercial that scared America into re

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Speaker 1: electing Lyndon Baines Johnson to the presidency. Back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty four, A little girl is counting the pedals on

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Speaker 1: a daisy as the atom bomb explodes in the background.

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Speaker 1: The Cold War was real. The US and the Soviet

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Speaker 1: Union were on a collision course to destroy the world.

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Speaker 1: It was terrifying. It was also our normal. I remember

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Speaker 1: my elementary school running drills and practicing getting under our

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Speaker 1: desks in case San Diego is hit with a nuclear warhead.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure it would have made much of a difference.

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Speaker 1: Of course, today our kids practice hiding from a lone

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Speaker 1: gunman with an AR fifteen. You told me once that

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Speaker 1: you might have saved the world from nuclear holocaust.

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Speaker 2: Well, maybe not the world and maybe not nuclear, but

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Speaker 2: for sure we averted what could have been a devastating

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Speaker 2: war for a poor country in Latin America.

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Speaker 1: Well, tell me about that.

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Speaker 2: First, we had gone on a junket, very memorable junket.

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Speaker 2: I remembered one Tomo from the Miami Herald was there,

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Speaker 2: another journalist myself, and we all got back to Monagua,

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Speaker 2: and we all got sick. And of course we always

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Speaker 2: attributed to dirty water, not the right food, and so

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Speaker 2: I was starting to get very sick, nauseous. Was it

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Speaker 2: feeling right? I think? The day after we got back,

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Speaker 2: there were some rumors about some possible Russian armament and

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Speaker 2: particular MiG aircraft that could quite possibly be headed to Nicaragua,

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Speaker 2: and of course that was a very dangerous premise.

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Speaker 1: The New York Times wrote this about the rumors.

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Speaker 4: US warned Soviets it won't tolerate MiGs in Nicaragua. The

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Speaker 4: United States, concerned that a Soviet freighter that has reached

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Speaker 4: Nicaragua might be carrying advanced fighter aircraft, warned Musco on

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Speaker 4: Tuesday that it would not tolerate the delivery of such planes.

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Speaker 4: President Reagan said that if the Nicaraguans took delivery of

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Speaker 4: advanced aircraft, it would quote indicate that they are contemplating

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Speaker 4: being a threat to their neighbors here in the Americas.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't Defcon one, but this wasn't the first time

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Speaker 1: a Russian shipment threatened the balance of power in the

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Speaker 1: Western Hemisphere.

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Speaker 5: Good evening, my fellow citizens. This government has promised has

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Speaker 5: maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build up

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Speaker 5: on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable

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Speaker 5: evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive

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Speaker 5: missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island.

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Speaker 5: The purpose of these bases can be none of us

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Speaker 5: than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.

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Speaker 1: That was President John F. Kennedy. You may have heard

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Speaker 1: of the Cuban missile crisis. The United States put a

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Speaker 1: naval blockade around Cuba, stopping the Soviets from delivering nuclear

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Speaker 1: warheads to Fidel Castro. US military leaders were pushing for

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Speaker 1: a full on invasion of Cuba, a fucking terrible idea.

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Speaker 1: Kennedy opted for diplomacy, and after thirteen tenth days in October,

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Speaker 1: he and the Soviet leader Nikita Krushev agreed to back down.

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Speaker 1: It was the closest the world has ever come to

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Speaker 1: nuclear war that we know of. Scary shit in Nicaragua.

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Speaker 1: History seemed to be repeating itself.

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Speaker 2: So of course everybody wants to find out is the

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Speaker 2: rumor true? You know, how do you find out about that?

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Speaker 2: I mean you have to literally see the aircraft coming in.

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Speaker 2: At that point, I had already gone to see a doctor.

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Speaker 2: The doctor had told me your gallbladder has to come out.

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Speaker 2: We need to do surgery on you. And I'm like,

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Speaker 2: you know, I'm not comfortable with that. We're in a

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Speaker 2: war torn zone, We're in a third world country. I'm

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Speaker 2: just uncomfortable. And by the way, I'm working on this story,

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Speaker 2: as I'm getting sicker, the doctor says, well, we'll have

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Speaker 2: to treat you somehow, and he hooks me up to

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Speaker 2: an IV and the IV he's hooked up to a

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Speaker 2: wooden hat rack that I had gotten my driver to

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Speaker 2: put wheels on it so I could be wheeling myself

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Speaker 2: back and forth. And I'm thinking this is going to

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Speaker 2: make me feel better. Well, it didn't. I of course,

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Speaker 2: let New York know and Miami know this possibility of

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Speaker 2: Russian weaponry coming in. We don't know how, but the

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Speaker 2: State Department had called CBS. CBS obviously knew that I

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Speaker 2: had close contacts with the Sandinista government, the hierarchy, but

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Speaker 2: we still don't know how. The State Department knews. So

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Speaker 2: the State Department calls New York, tells New York and

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Speaker 2: you get in touch with Cookie, have her call or

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Speaker 2: take us people and see if we can avert this problem,

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Speaker 2: possibly a major problem. So CBS calls me, can you

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Speaker 2: get in touch? I s at sure, in touch with

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Speaker 2: Ortega's press guy, Manuel Spinoza, and I tell him, listen,

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Speaker 2: there's rumors about this big aircraft coming in. The State

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Speaker 2: Department of the US is not happy with this, and

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Speaker 2: I think that you should know that they're saying there

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Speaker 2: will be a problem if this weaponry makes it into Nicaragua.

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Speaker 2: And Manuel's like, well, let me talk to the president.

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Speaker 2: I'll get back to you. I'm talking to New York.

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Speaker 2: New York's talking to the State Department. And this went

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Speaker 2: on for hours.

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Speaker 1: If there are legitimate fears that the United States is

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Speaker 1: looking for a reason to invade Nicaragua, we attack the

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Speaker 1: island of Grenada. In nineteen eighty three, for far Less,

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Speaker 1: a Marxist newspaper called The Spartacist wrote that the invasion

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Speaker 1: was imminent.

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Speaker 6: As USSR seventy one blackbirds smash the sound barrier over Manawa,

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Speaker 6: Nicadawens have good reason to believe the bombing will begin

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Speaker 6: in five minutes. The imperialist invasion plans are already worked

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Speaker 6: out in detail. Nicaraua leader Daniel Lortega said at the

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Speaker 6: UN in October, the winds now blowing over Central America

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Speaker 6: foretell of holocaust for our peoples.

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Speaker 1: The stakes are very high for Nicaragua, and some officials

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Speaker 1: in the US government fear this could lead to another Vietnam.

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Speaker 2: I'd been doing this the whole night, thinking I'm gonna

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Speaker 2: get a nice exclusive here, I'm gonna get a great

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Speaker 2: little story here. Well, the MiGs never came in. I

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Speaker 2: like to think that I helped avert a bigger problem,

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Speaker 2: which would have been a war of sub sort.

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Speaker 1: Like a missiles in October type thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like the Cuban missile crisis. Probably not as dangerous

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Speaker 2: as that was, but it could have been. We did

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Speaker 2: all of that, we averted it all, and I still

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Speaker 2: didn't get the story because we couldn't broadcast because the

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Speaker 2: State Department was involved, CBS was involved, where Tega's people

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Speaker 2: are involved, and I'm in the middle of the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: But he wants that story to come out anyway except.

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Speaker 2: You I would have loved it. There was no way

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Speaker 2: that New York or Miami was ever going to allow

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Speaker 2: that because it would look like we were all accomplices.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 2: You know, what's the State Department doing dealing with CBS

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Speaker 2: And what's CBS doing telling me to go talk to insiders?

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Speaker 2: So even though I did it to get the big story,

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Speaker 2: I never got the big story.

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Speaker 1: Did anybody get it?

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Speaker 2: No, because no one knew what happened? The problem had

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Speaker 2: been averted.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 7: Oh.

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Speaker 2: And then CBS, as good as they are to their journalists,

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Speaker 2: flew me to Miami. Ambulance waiting at the airport, wheeled

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Speaker 2: me in into Mount Sinai Hospital and the receptionist says

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Speaker 2: to me, girl, you sure look yellow. You must have

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Speaker 2: a bad case of hepatitis. And at that point I

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Speaker 2: realized I could have died because if I would have

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Speaker 2: allowed them to operate on me in Nicaragua, you cannot

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Speaker 2: perform surgery on a hypatha patient because they die. I

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Speaker 2: would have died, and no one would have been the wiser.

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Speaker 1: So is this one of those stories that everybody decides

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Speaker 1: to never talk about again.

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Speaker 2: It never happened.

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Speaker 1: So basically the story is there is no story. It

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Speaker 1: never happened.

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Speaker 2: It never happened.

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Speaker 1: That would have been huge, too, It would have been huge.

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Speaker 1: The Washington Post reported this about the confrontation.

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Speaker 4: US officials said yesterday that no Soviet fighter jets have

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Speaker 4: been unloaded from a Soviet ship now docked in a

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Speaker 4: Nicaraguan port, and that they now believe the ship may

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Speaker 4: not contain any of the MEG aircraft. At the same time,

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Speaker 4: officials at the Pentagon and State Department sought to quiet

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Speaker 4: rumors that the United States was preparing to invade Nicaragua.

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Speaker 4: While the United States would consider various options to quote

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Speaker 4: unquote neutralize any megs, a State Department official said, the

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Speaker 4: idea of a general offensive is quote unquote nonsense.

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Speaker 2: Years later, I realized the gravity of what could have

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Speaker 2: happened and what we averted day.

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Speaker 1: Did it ever cross your mind that some o the

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Speaker 1: State Department determined that you were someone they could talk to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we always kind of wondered how they knew that.

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Speaker 2: But we know how our government works, and I'm sure

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Speaker 2: they were very well versed in my activities. You know

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Speaker 2: what I was up to at any given moment.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of scary in a way.

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Speaker 8: It was.

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Speaker 1: So the US State Department used Cookie to stave off

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Speaker 1: a major Cold War confrontation in Central America. Her power

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Speaker 1: and influence are at an all time high. The question

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Speaker 1: is what will she do with it.

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Speaker 2: I knew I was a powerful person, just personality wise,

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Speaker 2: even before all of this, through the drug days, through

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Speaker 2: the modeling days, through all of it. As far as

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Speaker 2: wielding power, yes, I started to realize that I could

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Speaker 2: get anything I wanted. I could get in and out

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Speaker 2: of anything I want wanted. If Dan Rather or Mike

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Speaker 2: Wallace or Don Hewett wanted something, they knew Cookie was

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Speaker 2: going to get it for them one way or another.

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Speaker 2: I could charm the shit out of anybody.

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Speaker 1: One person told me that you were like a mob

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Speaker 1: bus who was collecting favors.

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Speaker 2: Not intentionally, and I never really had to say, look,

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Speaker 2: I did this for you, you got to do this

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Speaker 2: for me. It was just sort of understood because it

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Speaker 2: wasn't just contacts, and it just wasn't powerful government people

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Speaker 2: on either side and in different countries. I also helped

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Speaker 2: my own crews and colleagues whatever had to be done,

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Speaker 2: whether it was carrying tripods, carrying equipment, helping them if

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Speaker 2: they had a hangover, bringing them to the airport, picking

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Speaker 2: them up from the making their lives just out and

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Speaker 2: out comfortable. You know, happy wife, happy life. Well my

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Speaker 2: motto was happy cruise, happy journalists, happy Cookie, and happy

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Speaker 2: New York. And I will take that a step further.

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Speaker 2: Obviously the networks were all competitors. I wasn't like that.

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Speaker 2: Of course, I'm not going to give away my exclusives,

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Speaker 2: but I helped other crews in other networks. You could

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Speaker 2: always count on Cookie giving us a ride, or if

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Speaker 2: we don't have tapes, she can give us tapes. If

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Speaker 2: our machines went down, She'll let us choose her machines.

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Speaker 2: But then it also extended to outside the TV network circle.

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Speaker 2: Anybody that was in my life, friends, relatives, if I

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Speaker 2: needed them to work, I made sure they got work.

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Speaker 2: The drivers. I spread the wealth.

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Speaker 1: Meet Alejandro Belly, one of Cookie's best friends and her

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Speaker 1: assistant at the CBS office in Managua aka Chillin.

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Speaker 9: She would get quite a bit of money. It would

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Speaker 9: always come in cash in dollars. A driver would get

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Speaker 9: one hundred dollars a day when normally, you know, if

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Speaker 9: they were hired by a private family, he maybe would

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Speaker 9: be making twenty dollars a month. So it was this

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Speaker 9: huge gap. I was graduated from American University working in

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Speaker 9: the health ministry, I started making fourteen I ended up

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Speaker 9: making seventeen dollars a month, and I was making one

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Speaker 9: hundred dollars with Cookie in a day. In that same way,

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Speaker 9: she would have, I don't know, somebody takes care of Chicho,

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Speaker 9: somebody that does our nails and does you know, manicures

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Speaker 9: and petticures and come there at the office. You know,

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Speaker 9: you know she'll tip her well and she's very generous.

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Speaker 2: I had a cousin worked for me. I had close friends,

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Speaker 2: but I wasn't paying them to do nothing. They pulled

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Speaker 2: their own weight. Sure, I spread the wealth, but they

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Speaker 2: had to report for duty.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Selene said that you had it figured out where

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Speaker 1: you could have three or four or sometimes five drivers

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Speaker 1: working consistently and they were getting paid one hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: a day for the.

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Speaker 2: Moment in dollars, which was like as if I was

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Speaker 2: paying them in goal bars.

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Speaker 1: The way he put it, though, it was almost calculated

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Speaker 1: how you could help as many people as possible.

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Speaker 2: Many people as possible, And people like Chilean people like

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Speaker 2: my cousin Hilda, people like my brother Jimmy. They all

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Speaker 2: worked for their money. But I just made sure that

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Speaker 2: that money was spread as far as I could. You're

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Speaker 2: in a war zone, people are hurting. Everybody could use money.

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Speaker 2: I made sure everyone, drivers and helpers and maids were

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Speaker 2: raising whole families. And that was my go to amount,

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Speaker 2: one hundred dollars a day.

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Speaker 9: She keeps her allies in a way, you know, she

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Speaker 9: was able to really reward them. She doesn't buy them,

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Speaker 9: but she rewards her loyalties.

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Speaker 2: That was just an extension of the way I've always

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Speaker 2: been in my life. I think she called it comfortable scam.

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Speaker 1: A comfortable scam. I love that.

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Speaker 2: And of course my theme song was comfortably.

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Speaker 1: Numb for obvious reasons.

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Speaker 2: For obvious reasons.

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Speaker 9: In terms of what this meant for the drivers, it's

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Speaker 9: they were able to send kids to education and have

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Speaker 9: it changed schools, have a better car, have its in house,

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Speaker 9: keep another mistress.

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Speaker 2: You know, listen, Steve, everybody around me made money halfway

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Speaker 2: for altruistic reasons and halfway because these are people that

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Speaker 2: are helping me do my job. Their payback to me

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Speaker 2: was helping me get the best stories and the best

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Speaker 2: work coming out of CBS Latin America as possible.

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Speaker 1: We can talk about all the good things with journalism

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Speaker 1: and all the things like that that you you were

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Speaker 1: able to accomplish and help other people accomplish. And I

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Speaker 1: know you you had your reasons for paying people well

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Speaker 1: and that that's good business. But when you look back

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Speaker 1: at that and think about how many people you affected

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Speaker 1: in a positive way, how does that feel?

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Speaker 2: Let's put it to you this way. Two things I'm

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Speaker 2: going to say. They all hated seeing the war end,

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Speaker 2: because they all really made their lives because of war.

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Speaker 2: And number two, how did I feel? It felt good? Steve?

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Speaker 2: Just like it felt good before the war, Just like

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Speaker 2: it feels good even today. It makes you feel good.

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Speaker 2: So many lives were able to be touched in such

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Speaker 2: a positive way. I still hear from these people thirty

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Speaker 2: and forty years later.

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Speaker 1: If they all say, every one of them I've interviewed,

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Speaker 1: they all say, they still get a birthday card, they

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Speaker 1: still get a Christmas card, they still get a note,

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Speaker 1: they still get a thought sympathy card. I want to

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Speaker 1: go on record right now saying that if my cat

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Speaker 1: goes to the vet, I send you a card, sometimes

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Speaker 1: with a gift certificate. Cookie takes care of her people.

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Speaker 1: I know because I'm want to them. After the break,

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Speaker 1: she takes it to another level. We'll be right back,

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Speaker 1: welcome back. This story is fucking insane. There are several versions,

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Speaker 1: all of them dangerous, all of them hilarious. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to tell you the funniest version. Remember that time at

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Speaker 1: the airport when you forgot you at a joint in

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Speaker 1: your backpack and you're sweating bullets watching it go through

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Speaker 1: the TSA scanner and you just know you're going to

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Speaker 1: freaking jail. It's like that, except you're in a third

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Speaker 1: world country in the middle of a civil war. You

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Speaker 1: talk a lot about security going in and out of

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Speaker 1: these buildings and that type of thing. Do you ever

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Speaker 1: have any close calls?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we had a great close call, I could say great.

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Speaker 2: Now we're being summoned with all the other journalists to

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Speaker 2: a press conference, not a big one, A dog and

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Speaker 2: Pony Show, which we used to call him. I'm sure

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Speaker 2: the San Denisas thought it was going to be a big,

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Speaker 2: important press conference. We knew it wasn't and it was

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Speaker 2: going to be held at the Ministry of Defense. And

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Speaker 2: then after the press conference, I had been given the

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Speaker 2: okay for an exclusive interview with the Defense Minister, which

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Speaker 2: was President Ortega's brother, Umberto Ortego. And this guy didn't

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Speaker 2: give interviews. He, you know, was a very quiet guy,

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Speaker 2: secretive obviously because he's the head of defense and they're

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Speaker 2: at war.

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Speaker 1: Was there a purpose for the interview, No, we.

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Speaker 2: Were just wanted an interview with him. Whenever I thought

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Speaker 2: that I wanted something extra or exclusive, it didn't hurt

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Speaker 2: to ask because all they could do is say no.

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Speaker 2: But most of the time they said yes. It would

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Speaker 2: always give CBS the per hand, so we knew we

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Speaker 2: were going to do that after So we're there, I'm

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Speaker 2: with my favorite Cuban American crew Manny and George Bosa.

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Speaker 2: I loved working with these guys.

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Speaker 8: It was one of those where it was the big

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Speaker 8: press conference. Everyone was invited, you know, and those were

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Speaker 8: very few and far between. So when they did that,

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Speaker 8: everyone showed up. They would take us into a room

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Speaker 8: and they'd make us drop all year. And then they

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Speaker 8: had the dogs, the German shepherds and their you know,

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Speaker 8: secret police, and they would go through your stuff.

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Speaker 2: They searched the equipment, they searched the journalists, make sure

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Speaker 2: there are no bombs or weapons that you know, something

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Speaker 2: unexpected could.

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Speaker 1: Happen, so standard operating proceeds SOP.

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Speaker 8: So we all filed in and I had a journalists

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Speaker 8: vest where I carried my tapes and my microphones and

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Speaker 8: some cables, my passport, cash and all that.

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Speaker 3: George wore this little vest that was a photographer vest.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure you've seen the one to have his little pockets.

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Speaker 3: He wore that thing every day. That thing, if you

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Speaker 3: were to set it down, it would have walked away

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Speaker 3: by itself.

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Speaker 2: So we had been up the night before, we'd been partying.

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Speaker 2: We just thought we'd just work all the way through

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Speaker 2: from partying, go straight to equipment check, which was we

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Speaker 2: had to be there around six in the morning. They

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Speaker 2: always keep you for hours. We knew we could take

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Speaker 2: a nap and sleep while we're waiting.

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Speaker 1: So you're saying that you were you guys were up

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Speaker 1: partying all night and went straight to their defense.

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Speaker 2: Mid yeah, because it was across the street from the hotel.

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Speaker 1: Literally, you never slept that night.

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Speaker 2: We did sleep, which is not not normal. It was

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Speaker 2: pretty you know, normal for us to do.

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Speaker 8: The night before, I had been with a friend of

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Speaker 8: mine that had gotten me some some weed. And to

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Speaker 8: get weed and monogua is not an easy thing to do,

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Speaker 8: you know. It's it's hard. It's not bad, but it's

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Speaker 8: not the greatest either, So it's rare, and it's he

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Speaker 8: treated like like gold, you know, it's it's very u valuable.

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Speaker 3: I remember sitting up in his little bed, putting a

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Speaker 3: cigarette in his mouth, lighting that, and then rolling a

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Speaker 3: joint while he smoked that sick and it was kind

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Speaker 3: of one of those one went where you go, oh shit, Sey,

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Speaker 3: you know, I mean, I didn't take anything of it.

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Speaker 3: Whatever we had many hours before we had to do this.

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Speaker 8: We all filing and we walked into this giant room

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Speaker 8: and the cameramen put their cameras and tripods down. I

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Speaker 8: put down my recorder. I put down my backpack with

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Speaker 8: all my batteries and stuff, and then I dropped my

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Speaker 8: best because the soldier said to me, we need to

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Speaker 8: see the best too, because you can put a lot

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Speaker 8: of stuff in it. So I drop it and we

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Speaker 8: all file out. And as soon as we file out,

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Speaker 8: George comes up.

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Speaker 3: To me and he's literally pale, like why does this

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Speaker 3: ghost man? And I said, what's up? Man?

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Speaker 5: What you know?

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Speaker 3: And he says, manny I forgot to take the weed

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Speaker 3: out of my little vest.

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Speaker 2: Boja looks at me with this look of fear, and

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Speaker 2: I was like, oak, hey, now you have to understand.

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Speaker 2: They were always scared because being Cuban Americans, they were

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Speaker 2: fearful that the sandinisas if they ever got in trouble,

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Speaker 2: you know, would throw them in jail and throw away

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Speaker 2: the key.

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Speaker 8: The reason it was so scary for me is because

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Speaker 8: my passport says born in Cuba. Okay, not born in

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Speaker 8: the US. It's a US passport, but it says born

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Speaker 8: in Havana. And the first time I landed there, the

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Speaker 8: Sandinista soldier at the airport, when he took my seventy

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Speaker 8: five bucks attacks to come in, he said, you left

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Speaker 8: Cuba to laugh at the revolution.

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Speaker 3: If they catch us with drugs, we're done. You know,

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Speaker 3: I get to Miami, Cubans with drugs. You know that

396
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Speaker 3: would have been headline news in Nicarago.

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Speaker 8: Cookie's like, wow, let me see what I can do.

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Speaker 8: So she disappears behind the door and then she cracks

399
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Speaker 8: the door opened a bit and says, post get in

400
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Speaker 8: here and get it really quick. So I slide in.

401
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Speaker 8: I may believe that I'm looking through my vest and

402
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Speaker 8: I grabbed a battery and then I grabbed that and

403
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Speaker 8: I crushed it in my hand so nobody could see it,

404
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Speaker 8: and I walk out.

405
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Speaker 2: I said to Boza, we got to get rid of it.

406
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Speaker 2: So I take the bag. I put it down my pants.

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Speaker 2: Manny also knows what's going on. He's not scared, because

408
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Speaker 2: Manny is pretty fearless, but he knew that this could

409
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Speaker 2: be a problem. It could be a brujaha. Somebody could

410
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Speaker 2: lose their job, and I just wasn't going to let

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Speaker 2: that happen.

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Speaker 1: You Like, CBS wouldn't be happy about it.

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Speaker 2: Of course not. Here's one of their crew caught with drugs.

414
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Speaker 2: We don't know what type of scandal that would be.

415
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna take care of it. Put it in my pants,

416
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Speaker 2: ask where's the bathroom to one of the security police there,

417
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Speaker 2: and I go in the bathroom and I start to

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Speaker 2: flush it down the toilet. Weed. You got to understand

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Speaker 2: we're in a third world country. I know, I keep

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Speaker 2: repeating this, it's during the war. The facilities are not

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Speaker 2: top notch like here in the United States.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how many third world bathrooms that you've

423
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Speaker 3: been to. I have been to quite a few, and

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Speaker 3: that was one of the worst.

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Speaker 2: So as I'm flushing it down the toilet, and it's

426
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Speaker 2: several times I'm flushing because I've got to make sure

427
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 2: it goes, the toilet gets backed up and the weed

428
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 2: starts coming back up and overflowing. And anyone that's overflowed

429
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Speaker 2: a toilet knows what I'm talking about, but it's usually

430
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Speaker 2: not for weed in a military state. And it is

431
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Speaker 2: now all over the floor and I'm trying to pick

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Speaker 2: it up. The toilet is backed up. I know, I

433
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 2: can't get anything else down there. Whatever got down and

434
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Speaker 2: went fine, but there's a lot of it out floating

435
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 2: in the toilet and floating on the floor. So I

436
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,920
Speaker 2: stick my head out door and tell the security guy, look,

437
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 2: I'm sick. I've got a bad stomach. I said, I'm

438
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,959
Speaker 2: having an accident in here. I need you to get

439
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 2: me some towels. I don't think there were paper towels

440
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:08,199
Speaker 2: in those days. Just get me some brags, anything you can,

441
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:10,639
Speaker 2: so I can clean up this mess. Of course, he

442
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 2: doesn't want to go in because he figures it's another

443
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 2: kind of mess. So I clean up as much as

444
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 2: I can, and I take it all and put it

445
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:23,200
Speaker 2: back in my pants, because I figure, Okay, if anybody's

446
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 2: going to get caught, it's going to be me. The

447
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,160
Speaker 2: crew they're okay, they're safe. I had already told them,

448
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 2: you admit to nothing. Anything happens. I'm going to take

449
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:36,439
Speaker 2: the fall because Cookie, as you know by now, can

450
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,159
Speaker 2: get in and out of anything. I'm kind of damp

451
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 2: down there, but of course I attributed to being sick.

452
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,359
Speaker 2: By this point, I'm in that bathroom thirty minutes, maybe

453
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:50,360
Speaker 2: more so. Security's getting a little not nervous, but they're

454
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,399
Speaker 2: kind of like wondering, what the hell's going on? How

455
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,119
Speaker 2: sick is this girl? The guy sticks his head in,

456
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 2: Knox Forverd sticks his head in. Are you okay in there?

457
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:00,920
Speaker 2: I'm okay, I'll be out in a minute. So I

458
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 2: come out. I got it back in my pants. I

459
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 2: just continue to tell Manny and George no worries. I

460
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 2: got this, I got you. You admit to nothing. If

461
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 2: anything happens, you just you're shocked. I'll take the fall,

462
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 2: no worries. And even if they would have been caught

463
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 2: with it, I would have never allowed anything to happen

464
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 2: to them either, because that's just the way I was

465
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 2: with my guys. You know, I just took care of everybody.

466
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,920
Speaker 2: We went on to do the press conference, we went

467
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 2: on to do the interview with Roberto Ortega, and nobody

468
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 2: was the wiser.

469
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: But y'all got shit faced after that.

470
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 2: I'm sure we did. I'm sure we did. That was

471
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 2: a close call.

472
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: I know that George, he'll never forget it. He thinks

473
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: that you saved his ass that day, and.

474
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 2: I've let him think that. But again, I would have

475
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 2: never let anything bad happen to him. I would have

476
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,440
Speaker 2: taken the blame before I would have let anything happen,

477
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,919
Speaker 2: because maybe they did have a viable fear.

478
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 5: You know.

479
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 2: Yet again, Cookie got away with it and got the

480
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 2: story and got the story. Didn't you tell me that

481
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:11,399
Speaker 2: that scene reminded you of something?

482
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you tell me that story, it always reminds

483
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,960
Speaker 1: me of Lucy in the Chocolate factory.

484
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,200
Speaker 3: Oh right, girls, now this is your last chance.

485
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 2: If one piece of kind it gets past you and

486
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,639
Speaker 2: into the packing room unwrapped, you're fired, you.

487
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: Know, trying to grab the chocolates and then keep coming

488
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: and coming, and I can just see you over the

489
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,920
Speaker 1: toilet trying to grab the weed, stick it back in flush.

490
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: It is coming back up, over and over. I just

491
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: see that in my head. To me, if that's not

492
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 1: a scene in a movie or a TV series, I

493
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: don't know what will be.

494
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 2: And you're right, it was like that insanity.

495
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: It's fucking hilarious.

496
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 2: But at the moment I knew it was insanity, but

497
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,200
Speaker 2: I wasn't laughing. I laughed later, but not at the moment.

498
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: I can only imagine the look on Bosa's.

499
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,920
Speaker 2: Face when I came out in front of my pants.

500
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,479
Speaker 1: I mean, he probably said, what hell happened?

501
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 2: I couldn't go into details. Yeah, I said, you don't

502
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 2: want to know.

503
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was bad, but again, it was funny. Now,

504
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,880
Speaker 8: Cookie and I laugh about that, and we laugh until

505
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 8: our side's hurt. But in the moment, it wasn't a

506
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 8: good time.

507
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 3: One of those things that you never never forget another

508
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,520
Speaker 3: day in the lives of the camera crew for CBS

509
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 3: News and the.

510
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: Aragua coming up. The after party blows up on her

511
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: favorite cameraman, and a good friend from another news agency

512
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 1: faces an unthinkable tragedy. We'll be right back. Combat news

513
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: is a dangerous business. It's life or death that takes

514
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 1: its toll on the men and women who bring it

515
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: to our evening news far from home, and their families

516
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: have to deal with it day after day, one way

517
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: or another. It can be a lot of fun, but

518
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: can also be heartbreaking. It's like going to a company

519
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: convention in Vegas, but people are shooting at you, so

520
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: forgive me. But what happens in Managua stays in Managua.

521
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 2: We've already said it before. We worked hard, we partied

522
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 2: harder within the Foreign War Correspondence Group. I'm gonna throw

523
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 2: these numbers out there. Three four selves partied hard.

524
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 1: By partying, you mean like heavy drinking.

525
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:36,880
Speaker 2: And drugs and drugs.

526
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: Manny Alvarez, CBS cameraman, weighs in on the party culture

527
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: at CBS News Managua.

528
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 3: The hotel was party central, so after we were done working,

529
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 3: we would all go to the office and whatever jobs

530
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 3: had to be done there, screening the change whatever, and

531
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 3: the party would begin.

532
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 2: When Manny would come to town, it would just make

533
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:06,160
Speaker 2: my existence wonderful because I had my brother, my friend,

534
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 2: my colleague all rolled up into wine and we'd always

535
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 2: get the story done. We were all very professional getting

536
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 2: the story. And so come end of story and back

537
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 2: at the hotel, you know, we'd start the partying.

538
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 3: And I remember could he had a little kidnt get pass.

539
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 3: I think it was instead of little sandwiches, she had

540
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:28,959
Speaker 3: bottles of you know, voxa or whatever it was wine,

541
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 3: and you know, we got high. And if not every night,

542
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 3: several nights a week.

543
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 2: Manny would always be the life of the party. Extraordinary

544
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 2: and he was funny, silly, you know, all the adjectives

545
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 2: that go with somebody that's a little too inebriated.

546
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 3: Usually did not get out of hand. I mean, if

547
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 3: you got shit faced, you went to your room, no

548
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 3: big deal. Somebody would take you to your room.

549
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 2: He would paint his face, or he would let us

550
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:02,120
Speaker 2: paint his face, and would sing, we'd dance, and then

551
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 2: Manny would always take it just a little bit further.

552
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 3: That one night and it was myself, Rob Luchet, who

553
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 3: was an edit, and I think there was a third person,

554
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 3: if I remember correctly, not that I should remember, because

555
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 3: I was completely out of my mind. We decided that

556
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 3: we were going to have a fight with the fire

557
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 3: extinguishers that were in the hallways of the hotel. And

558
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:26,920
Speaker 3: the fire stinguishers were those big, giant ones like from

559
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 3: back in the day, with the wheel on top, and

560
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 3: they had a rubber hose, you know, probably a couple

561
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 3: of feet long, and they had what seemed to be

562
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 3: water in it, so there was some kind of liquid

563
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 3: that squirted like water, and with that hose you could

564
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 3: squirt that ten feet I don't know, eight feet twelve feet.

565
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 3: So we were running up and down the hallways squirt

566
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 3: each other.

567
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 2: And he was spraying guess doors guests.

568
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 3: At one point find myself right in front of the elevator.

569
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 3: The door's open, there's a couple dressed up to go out.

570
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 3: I swoardled him, and I mean I heard some up

571
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 3: and down. They screamed the elevator clothes and I have,

572
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 3: of course work running down the hallway to do whatever

573
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 3: to whoever else, And at some point somebody called the cops.

574
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 2: There had been too many complaints and enough complaints that

575
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 2: the hotel couldn't keep it quiet because the hotel, you

576
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 2: got to remember, was our ally because they're making millions

577
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 2: off of all the journalists and especially CBS, because not

578
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 2: only we had our offices, but I lived there. I

579
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 2: had my own slew of sweets.

580
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: Turns out the well dressed couple Manny super soaked in

581
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 1: the elevator, was the Russian ambassador and his wife. Kind

582
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,479
Speaker 1: of a big deal, possibly an international incident.

583
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 2: We don't know what's gonna happen, if they're gonna put

584
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 2: him in jail, if they're gonna deport him. Whatever, we

585
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 2: grab Manny, I take him to my personal suite, you know,

586
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 2: I hide him and I tell him, Manny, for once,

587
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 2: please just listen to me and shut the fuck up.

588
00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 2: Please don't say anything, no matter what happens, just follow

589
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 2: my lead.

590
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 3: And again I was gone, and I had literally war paint.

591
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 3: I had pain in my face and a shirt with

592
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:11,440
Speaker 3: CBS on it.

593
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 2: So the cops showed up. We still don't know if

594
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 2: the intent was to arrest him or deport him or both.

595
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 2: So they come up and we're talking to the police.

596
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 2: They come to my living quarters. They said, we're going

597
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 2: to search You're not searching my quarters. I said, you

598
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 2: could search CBS offices, but you're not searching my personal quarters.

599
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 2: There's no one in there. My children are sleeping. They weren't.

600
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 2: They weren't there. They had their own rooms with their nannies.

601
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 2: Many stayed quiet. As soon as they left, Rob and

602
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,760
Speaker 2: myself said, we're going to get him out of here.

603
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 2: We're going to take him to the Camino Reale, which

604
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 2: was the other hotel where journalists stayed.

605
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: This is where George Bosa, the CBS sound man, enters.

606
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:57,640
Speaker 8: The story The Redsux in the Mets nineteen eighty seven

607
00:33:57,680 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 8: World Series.

608
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 3: In the shit.

609
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 9: Free and two, the Looky Wilson a little roller up

610
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 9: along first behind it.

611
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,320
Speaker 8: The ball goes through Butckner's legs. I was at the

612
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 8: Camino Many, was with Cookie. Manny isn't a baseball fan,

613
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:23,320
Speaker 8: so everyone was in my room. We had the bathtub

614
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:25,920
Speaker 8: full of Tonia's and you know, and he petiales and

615
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,320
Speaker 8: we're drinking and having a great time. That game was

616
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 8: up and down the whole way. Like about one of

617
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 8: the last innings, Cookie calls me. She's like, hey, Bosa, listen,

618
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 8: Manny's out of control here at the hotel. Man I mean,

619
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 8: I don't know what to do with them. Okay, I'm

620
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 8: gonna send them over to the Camino because they're gonna

621
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 8: kick him out of the hotel. And this was just

622
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 8: typical back then, you know. She snuck him down the elevator,

623
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 8: snuck him out of the back door. Cookie put him

624
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:52,880
Speaker 8: in a cab and he gets to the Camino and

625
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 8: I go out to the drive up Man he gets

626
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,600
Speaker 8: out in his underwear, Man with like Cookie's lipstick all

627
00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 8: over his face, and he's like, I don't understand why

628
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:01,719
Speaker 8: they slew me out of the hotel. So we threw

629
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 8: a blanket on them and put them in our room.

630
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 8: And this was just typical back then, you know, because yeah,

631
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,320
Speaker 8: when you got friends and you got people that are dying,

632
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 8: you know, and you're risking your life every day, you

633
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 8: tend to really medicate heavily. That was one of those

634
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:18,800
Speaker 8: nights that Manny medicated.

635
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 3: I never got caught. I didn't get caught later. They

636
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,399
Speaker 3: didn't call me later, though. I'm sure if they would

637
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 3: have caught me that particular night, it would have been

638
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:30,239
Speaker 3: the end of my career at that point in time.

639
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,600
Speaker 3: And it wasn't just us. It wasn't like all the

640
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 3: CBS people were all maniacs. It with everybody, you know,

641
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 3: That's kind of how we blew off steam. What we

642
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 3: got back from whatever missions that we would go on.

643
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 2: We were just journalists suffering from PTSD, already letting it

644
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 2: all out, partying and covering war, death and all the

645
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:55,040
Speaker 2: wonderful things that come with that.

646
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:58,280
Speaker 1: Cookie always steps up to keep her boys out of trouble,

647
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: but sometimes the war came with you. A bullshit press

648
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 1: conference in a bullshit border town called Lopenka changes.

649
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 2: Everything under the guise of journalists. For many years, even

650
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,439
Speaker 2: at the press club and everything, you had so called

651
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 2: journalists and they were actually part of terrorist groups, the

652
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 2: Red Brigade from Italy, Sandetta, Luminosos from Peru, Bader mainehoff

653
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,760
Speaker 2: Gang from Germany, and we didn't know that they were terrorists.

654
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:31,320
Speaker 1: So they were hanging out in hanging out.

655
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 2: Because they were probably fleeing somebody chasing them. They were

656
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 2: given safe haven in Nicaraguen. They were told to play

657
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 2: like they were journalists, so at any given moment, unbeknownst

658
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,880
Speaker 2: to most of us, we were hanging out with these terrorists.

659
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 1: So you were partying with terrorists.

660
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, not all the time, but they could be at parties,

661
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 2: you know, press parties, journalists. We found out later on,

662
00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:00,479
Speaker 2: you know, even Iranian terrorist groups they were all there.

663
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:05,280
Speaker 2: Ira was there, the Japanese, I forget what they're called.

664
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:07,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, the ones who poisoned everyone.

665
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:10,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they were all there because Nicaragua was

666
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,960
Speaker 2: a safe haven for terrorists. So anybody that was against

667
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,960
Speaker 2: the US, they will welcome in Monagua.

668
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:20,360
Speaker 1: So the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

669
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 2: There you go. Now what Lapenka was all about, it

670
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,800
Speaker 2: was different. It was in Costa Rica.

671
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was right off was a border.

672
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:32,319
Speaker 2: It was a press conference being held by Eden Pastora,

673
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:35,440
Speaker 2: who had initially started off as the Sandinist in the

674
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:36,280
Speaker 2: early days.

675
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 1: Eden Pastora was one of the heroes of the nineteen

676
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: seventy nine Santiniastera Revolution. They called him Commander Zero, that

677
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,239
Speaker 1: nickname he earned when he masterminded one of the most

678
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: daring raids ever documented. The Washington Post wrote this about

679
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: the attack.

680
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 4: About twenty leftist gorillas shot their way into the National

681
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 4: Palace yesterday and seized about fifty senators and other officials

682
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 4: as hostages. At three persons were reported killed in the

683
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 4: firing before National Guard troops surrounded the palace. The guerrillas

684
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 4: lined up the hostages along the large windows of the

685
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 4: building to ward off fire from the National Guard.

686
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 1: Among the fifteen hundred officials being held for several cabinet

687
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,800
Speaker 1: members and Samosa's half brother, Jose Simosa, an off and

688
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:23,760
Speaker 1: on journalist. Nobel Prize winning novelist Gabrielle Garcia Marquez wrote

689
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:24,720
Speaker 1: this about the siege.

690
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 7: The plans seemed too simple to be seen. Take the

691
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 7: National Palace, Himan, Now, what in broad daylight would a

692
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 7: force of only twenty six and hold the members of

693
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 7: the House of Deputies hostage in exchange for the release

694
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 7: of all political prisoners. Leadership of the Sandinista National Liberation

695
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,360
Speaker 7: Front did not consider the storming of this marketplace of

696
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 7: bureaucracy insanely simple, but just the opposite, a crazy master stroke.

697
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 7: The plan, in fact, had been conceived and proposed initially

698
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 7: in nineteen seventy by the experienced militant and then Pastora,

699
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:04,000
Speaker 7: but it was only put into effect when it became

700
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:07,359
Speaker 7: all too clear that the US had decided to help

701
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,759
Speaker 7: Somosa remain on his bloodstained throne until nineteen eighty one.

702
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 7: He has been an active revolutionary militant for the past

703
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 7: twenty years. Pastora's marvelous sense of humor cannot obscure his

704
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,520
Speaker 7: aptitude for command. His earliest memory, from the age of

705
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 7: seven was the death of his father, murdered by the

706
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,359
Speaker 7: National Guard of Anastasio Somosa.

707
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:30,239
Speaker 2: Garcia.

708
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: If the name isn't familiar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a

709
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: Colombian author, best known for two of my favorite novels,

710
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:39,000
Speaker 1: One hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time

711
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 1: of Cholera. He clearly had a romance with Eating Pastora Eden.

712
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 2: Pastora was going to give the press conference. Many journalists

713
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,799
Speaker 2: were there, not the big networks.

714
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 1: We weren't there in the background. What we don't know?

715
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:53,880
Speaker 1: There's a plot.

716
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:58,200
Speaker 2: There's a plot to blow up a chill Pastora. And

717
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 2: if a couple of journalists killed along the way, oh well.

718
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:05,320
Speaker 1: Peer Anchor Hanson, a Danish photographer, was introduced to a

719
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 1: Swedish journalist by mutual friends, asking to show him around.

720
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:13,279
Speaker 1: They attended Pastora's press conference together. Hanson put a bomb

721
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,800
Speaker 1: in his camera, back, worked his way through the journalists

722
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: covering the event, set it down under a table, then

723
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 1: hurried away, setting it off with a walkie talkie and

724
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: ripped through the gathering, killing seven people and leaving a

725
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: dozen injured. It was a bloodbath. The Washington Post covered

726
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: the story the next day.

727
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 4: A bomb exploded last night during a news conference being

728
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,879
Speaker 4: held by Nicaraguin rebel leader Eden Pastora along the Nicaraguan

729
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,800
Speaker 4: Costa Rican border, wounding Pastora and two dozen others and

730
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 4: killing two journalists, including one American and two rebels. Among

731
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 4: the dead were Linda Fraser, thirty eight, of Portland, Oregon,

732
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:54,760
Speaker 4: who worked for the Costa Rican English daily, The Tico Times.

733
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,320
Speaker 4: No one claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred shortly

734
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 4: after Pastora had begun an EVA news conference in his

735
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:05,520
Speaker 4: jungle headquarters at the Nicaraguan village of Lapenka. The remote

736
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 4: village on the banks of the San Juan River is

737
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,840
Speaker 4: not reachable by road, and the reporters had traveled by

738
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 4: dugout canoe from Costa Rica. Some Costa Rican officials accused

739
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 4: Nicaraguay's ruling Sandinistas of responsibility. Leaders of the rebel group

740
00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 4: initially accused the CIA, which has been at odds with Pastora.

741
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 2: Everyone assumed that it was the US behind it, that

742
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 2: it was the us that bombed it to make it

743
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 2: look like the Sandinistas that It was always a cat

744
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 2: and mouse game. You know, you never really knew who

745
00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:39,920
Speaker 2: was who, who was doing something, for what reasons they

746
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 2: were doing it. It was a very dangerous game to

747
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 2: be in, and of course being in dangerous games was

748
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,480
Speaker 2: my thing. That had always been my fear, and I've

749
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,320
Speaker 2: told you about that fear that I could be assassinated

750
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 2: or killed by one side trying to make the other

751
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,359
Speaker 2: side look like they had done me in. It could

752
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:03,200
Speaker 2: be even friends knowingly doing this. Because the Swedish dude

753
00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 2: that did it was under the influence of dark people.

754
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 2: I don't think he was even clear who he was

755
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:11,000
Speaker 2: working for.

756
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,840
Speaker 1: Many years later, the Sweetest Journalist revealed that he was

757
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:19,640
Speaker 1: introduced to Hanson by Sandinista intelligence agents. He knew they

758
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: were spies, but didn't know that Hanson the bomber was

759
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:26,919
Speaker 1: really Argentine terrorist vital Roberto Ganguin, hired by the Sandinistas

760
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: to take out Pastora. Sadness and guilt dogged him for

761
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,640
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. For Cookie, the attack hit

762
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:34,319
Speaker 1: close to home.

763
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 2: Up until that point, journalists really had not been killed

764
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 2: inside of Nicaragua. It was probably the least dangerous war

765
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 2: to be around, unlike El Salvador or Honduras, where journalists

766
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 2: were regularly killed. Some of our own colleagues were killed.

767
00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 2: Joe Frasier that worked for Associated Press, his wife was

768
00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 2: there and she was one of the ones killed.

769
00:42:58,760 --> 00:42:59,360
Speaker 1: A journalist.

770
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,719
Speaker 2: Yes, she was a journalist. He happened to be in nicaraguall,

771
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 2: of course in my office with me.

772
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 10: She sat up with me all night long as we

773
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:09,480
Speaker 10: tried to find out any information we could.

774
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:11,240
Speaker 1: She was really there when I needed somebody.

775
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:14,960
Speaker 2: And here's a guy six ' five, big guy. I

776
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 2: have to break the news to him that his wife

777
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 2: has been killed, and I remember him collapsing on me

778
00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:22,600
Speaker 2: and me trying to keep him up. We were up

779
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:25,839
Speaker 2: all night crying and you know, trying to figure things out.

780
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:28,760
Speaker 10: She was always there when needed somebody, and she always

781
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 10: knew what was going on, and she would usually tell you.

782
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 10: Some people were officially almost paranoidally competitive down and Cookie

783
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,320
Speaker 10: wasn't like that. She becomes in power and she meant it.

784
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:41,080
Speaker 10: We were all basically on the same team. We also

785
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 10: just help each other out. And Cook he was right

786
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:46,160
Speaker 10: at the top of that list. I had never forgotten

787
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:49,919
Speaker 10: that when the University of Flanna's murderer, she always sends

788
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:50,319
Speaker 10: a card.

789
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:53,799
Speaker 2: I had this thing, and you know by now from

790
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:57,360
Speaker 2: several episodes that I always liked taking care of my boys,

791
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:02,560
Speaker 2: and I took care of everybody. Can Soundman, Editors, producers,

792
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:06,880
Speaker 2: on air, talent writers, big stars at six of us,

793
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 2: I took care of everybody.

794
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,240
Speaker 1: Lipenko was a wake up call for Cookie and her colleagues,

795
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 1: a painful reminder that war is a dangerous place and

796
00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:20,400
Speaker 1: you are never really safe, no matter how hard you

797
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:26,479
Speaker 1: party trying to forget. Next time on Journalista, Cookie walks

798
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:30,280
Speaker 1: into a minefield and the shrapnel is coming from every direction.

799
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:34,719
Speaker 2: I hear some screaming and some armed flailing from one

800
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 2: of the soldiers, saying stop, stop, stop, don't take another step,

801
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:41,760
Speaker 2: don't move. When somebody tells you that in a warzone,

802
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:44,759
Speaker 2: you stop, And one of the soldiers says, I hate

803
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:47,319
Speaker 2: to say this, but you're in a minefield.

804
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 1: The Journalista podcast features the stories and voice of Cookie

805
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 1: Hood narrated by Steven Esteb produced by Sean J. Donnelly.

806
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:05,360
Speaker 1: Executive producers Jason Wagensback, Roy Laughlin and Ellen ka iHeart

807
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,759
Speaker 1: Executive producer Tyler Klang, Written and edited by Stephen Esteb,

808
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:14,800
Speaker 1: Music by Jay Weigel, Associate producer in sound design Stephen Tanti.

809
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 1: Sound mixing by Jesse Solonsnider. Special guests Lloyd sr Cindy Pohl,

810
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 1: Alejandro Belly, George Boza, Manny Alvarez, Jose Torres, tama As,

811
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:32,280
Speaker 1: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Joe Fraser. Special thanks to Esplanade Studios,

812
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: The Ranch Studios, Jason Gerwitz, Kyle Frederick, Zack Slaff. This

813
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:42,160
Speaker 1: is a production of Journalista podcast LLC and iHeartRadio