WEBVTT - The Burden: Avenger 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:05.720 Ohla, dear listener, Gomostas. Today we're going to go back 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.920 in time, actually to one of the darkest moments in 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.720 the history of Argentina, the military dictatorship that ruled the 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.480 country during the nineteen seventies and early eighties. Miriam Lewin 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.599 was kidnapped by soldiers when she was just nineteen years old. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.880 She spent time in a concentration camp. A lot of 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.920 other people never made it back home. About thirty thousand 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.080 were disappeared in Argentina during this period, which is known 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:41.559 as the Dirty War. Miriam became an investigative journalist, and 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.960 decades later she looked into one of the most infamous 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:49.760 practices of the dictatorship, Los Buelos de la Moorte, the 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.760 death Flights. In this podcast, we're going to follow Miriam 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:55.920 as she finds one of the planes that was used 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.480 by the military to throw people into the ocean, which 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.480 unexp actively was in Florida, and she fights to bring 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.679 some of the pilots to justice. Here's the first episode 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:13.039 of Avenger, produced by Orbit Media in association with Sonoro. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.160 Before we begin, please note that for this story, we 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.279 interviewed medium and everyone else for dozens of hours in Spanish. 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:32.960 We hired actors to voice their words in English. 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.200 By then it was much more than a feeling. I 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:42.959 knew that I was being followed. I avoided going to 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.360 my family's house because I knew they would be there 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:47.720 waiting for me. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.840 It's late afternoon, nineteen seventy seven. Medium is in a 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.960 neighborhood in Buenos Aires. She's nineteen. It's been a year 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:05.520 since Argentina's military power a coup to bring back peace 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:10.000 and stability, says the military dictator. People like Medium, a 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.839 young political dissident, are now targets. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.680 I was actually worried about my grandmother. It had been 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.679 a while since i'd last seen her. She was ninety two, 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.400 and she was frail. I just wanted to call, you know, 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.600 check in. I get to the phone booth and I 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.119 notice a man in line, his young, slim and he's 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.880 wearing a jean jacket. And I see that when his 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.480 turn comes up, he doesn't end up making a call. 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.880 So now I'm on alert. I start heading toward the 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.000 nearest bus stop, where at least there were more people around. 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.919 First he follows me to the bus stop. Then I 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.000 see him inside the bus. I immediately jump off at 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.799 a random stop, but he also met just to get out. 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.560 So I turn my head and I see a dark 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.760 red Ford Falcon and a long gun barrel hanging out 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:12.480 from one of the windows. Now I'm running out of ideas. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.280 I run into a nearby store, and when I look back, 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:23.320 I see that three men were following. I try to 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.440 stay calm and make my way through the meat aisle, 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.519 pretending I'm shopping. There's no back exit, so I take 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.000 off again through the front door. I tried to catch 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.240 a bus that was slowing down, and the Ford Falcon 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.800 speeds up right toward me. The bus driver other people 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.400 try to help, but the men pull out their guns 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:50.360 and scare everybody away. The bus also takes off. They 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:55.080 tackle me and they tell me they're police. So I 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.240 start screaming, I'm Miriam Lewie, please help me. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.840 From Orbit Media, I'm andres Caaba Schedo. This is Avenger. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:38.400 The story of Medium Lewin, Episode one. The process. Fast 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.400 forward three decades to twenty ten. It's four in the afternoon, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.760 the busiest time of day at Canal Trece, a national 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.120 TV channel in Buenos Aires. Medium sits in her office 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.960 chair looking through a big glass window that the car 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:56.000 is driving by. In Argentina. Medium is a well known 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.440 investigative journalist and she's relentless going after a purple traders 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:05.200 of sexual abuse. She's reported from Gaza, Russia, lots of places. 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.839 Now she's in the middle of the biggest investigation of 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:14.200 her career. Medium looks at her phone. It's a US. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:21.520 Number, Ola Medium, Ola Bruno Olae. 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.280 An Argentine reporter calling from Florida. Medium had recently hired 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.120 him to help her follow up on a tip. She 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.240 had sent him to meet the owner of a small 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.760 plane that maybe had once been used by Argentina's dictatorship 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.839 to kill hundreds of people. They were tossed out of 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:45.680 planes alive into the sea. Somehow the plane ended up 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.200 in Fort Lauderdale. Medium hoped that it still held clues 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:51.120 evidence of the atrocities. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.240 We had no money to make the trip ourselves, so 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:59.160 we hired a stringer, a freelance journalist and actually Bruno 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.440 was a sports commentator, no pud career. 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.880 See Ino on the phone. The reporter confirms it's the 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:07.520 right plane. 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.720 I mean, we never even dreamed of running into something 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:17.200 so valuable. And then the owner of the plane shows him. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.880 The flight logs that were left inside untouched. The hose 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.640 logs date back to the late seventies and early eighties, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.840 when the military junta was in power. It was all 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:36.000 there dates, roots, origin, destination, and the most important part, 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:50.360 the names of the pilots. 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.640 I spent a lot of my childhood in Argentina in 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.040 the early nineties at my grandfather's repair shop behind our house. 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.960 It was a middle class suburb of Buennos Aires, and 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.960 every morning I would wake up to Radio Colonna, my 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:11.480 grandfather's favorite station. Inside his repair shop, the floors and 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:16.120 shelves were stacked with old radios, tools, and countless broken televisions. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.320 One day, he decided I was old enough to hear 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.920 about the death flights. He told me how only about 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:29.120 a decade earlier, thousands of people had been kidnapped, loaded 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:35.080 into airplanes and thrown into the ocean. I was barely 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.120 nine at the time. We lived several blocks from the shore. 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.320 I could picture the planes above the water, bodies free falling. 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.840 I had a lot of questions, but my grandfather didn't 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:51.440 have answers. This was in the nineties and many Argentines 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.080 were still searching for answers about loved ones who had 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.760 gone missing, mothers, fathers were still mourning, in fear and 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:07.880 in silence. It seemed at times that Argentina, the entire country, 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.920 was looking away, intent on bearing the ghosts of the past. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.360 For a long time, journalist, Medium Lewin wanted to bury 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.880 them too. For good reason. She had been one of 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:24.080 the disappeared. Better to forget years of captivity of torture. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:30.360 Then one day, an annoying, rude, incredibly persistent Italian photo 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:35.800 journalist entered her life, asking lots of uncomfortable questions. Theirs 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.520 would be an unlikely alliance, but together they set out 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.199 to bring justice to the victims of the Bueilos de 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.400 la Morte, the death flights. It would prove to be 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:50.160 the investigation of a lifetime. The investigation would also become 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.600 crucial in my strich for answers, How did an entire 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.760 country allow this to happen? Was there will there ever 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:05.839 be justice? Where were the pilots who flew the death flights? 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.880 In two thousand and seven. Giancarlo Siraulo is living in 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.440 Buenos Aires. He's the annoying Italian photojournalist who gets in 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.480 touch with Medium. He invites her to a cafe to 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:19.640 take some photos. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.000 He says he's been assigned to take some portraits of me. 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.120 I don't know something about a story about survivors of 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:28.040 the dictatorship. 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.200 I had no idea whether she tell me to just 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.280 go to hell. The photos were just an excuse for 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.960 us to me. I mean, why would I take portraits 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.720 of a survivor inside a cafe. I knew I wasn't 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:43.960 going to use those photos. 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.760 In his thirties, Giancadlo is a bit of a nomad. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.600 He's been all over the world telling stories, taking photos, 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:56.840 fulfilling his obsession to document the scars left by fascist governments. Recently, 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.480 he traveled from Italy to Argentina on a mission. He's 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.120 become obsessed with the death flights. He's heard about Medium 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:08.360 and decided he needs her, a survivor, and just as important, 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.040 a journalist on the ground who might help him find 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:15.559 some answers and jian. Cadlo's request comes at a good time. 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.840 I was in a bad place emotionally at the time. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.680 I was in my fifties. My two boys were in 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.120 their mid twenties, so they were never home. The man 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.000 I was with back then left me for a younger woman. 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:37.480 I was alone, heartbroken. I needed some sort of distraction, 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.600 something to occupy my time, even if it involved meeting 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:47.840 a stranger to talk about trauma. 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.520 She agrees to meet gian Cadlo at a cafe in 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.840 the center of what Asidis. It's a gray, windy day 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.920 in August, and Medium comes straight from her office wearing 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:02.440 her signature fluorescent orange jack, her red curly hair blowing 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:07.160 in the wind. The cafe is on Avenida and Withe Julia, 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:12.080 a majestic avenue lined up with purple Jagaranda trees. It's 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.000 not the first time that a foreign journalist contacts Medium 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.440 for an interview, but Giancarlo is different. 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.000 He says high with a kiss on the cheek. He's 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:26.400 clearly non American. He has this baby face that makes 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.520 him look in his mid twenties, and long wavy hair, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.080 green eyes and an earring. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:36.760 And I'm shocked by her face. She's beautiful in her 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.760 eyes have this light to them, and a lot of 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.720 the survivors of interview didn't have the light in their eyes. 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:52.000 They start talking. Gian Cadlo seems eager, too eager. He's 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.640 leaning toward Medium over the table. Medium is not impressed. 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.120 The whole setup seems off. 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:03.800 I'm thinking, who does this serious, prestigious Italian magazine send 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.960 this guy to do a story about the dictatorship. He 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:12.600 just doesn't seem very professional. And then he grabs his 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.680 camera and starts taking pictures of me without even looking 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.720 into the camera. I thought that was kind of weird, 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.360 so I asked if he got the shots that he needed. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.080 Instead of answering, his smiles and asks me a question. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.880 Do you know where the planes use for the dead 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:29.439 flights are? 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.839 He was kind of telling me, how come you never 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:37.720 thought of this? I was an experienced investigative reporter, so 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.400 that felt like a lack of respect. You know, how 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:45.000 dare he ask me that I'm a survivor of a 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:49.920 concentration camp. Also, I'm like twelve years older than him. 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.400 I have no idea where the planes could be and 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:59.599 why why should I care? But then again, through those planes, 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:04.280 we could get to the pilots and maybe identify them, 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.600 and that would be amazing. 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.760 Gian Cardlo's convinced that if they could find the planes, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.240 that could lead to the pilots of those death flights. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.839 I mean, these are the guys who were responsible for 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.040 the genocidal machine that killed so many people. I'm trying 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.560 to see how she would react, hoping it would make 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.000 her want to help me with the investigation. That's their 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:28.920 strategy at least. 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:34.319 And then Giancarlo pulls this strange looking book from his backpack. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.360 He puts it on the table. It's written by a 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:43.280 guy named Adolfo Silingo, a former Navy captain. He was 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.040 the first Navy officer to admit to being part of 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.520 a death flight crew. I knew about Silingo, I mean, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.880 I had heard about him, but I hadn't seen this 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:53.880 book yet. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.000 It was an obscure book. Only a few copies were 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.480 ever printed. Giancarlo gives it to her and she puts 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.800 it in her bag. Their meeting ends without a commitment, 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.440 but it sparks something within her. 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:11.640 Was there possibly something big to investigate, something that had 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:17.680 been overlooked for a while. I avoided investigating the dictatorship, 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:23.080 revisiting that trauma. I had friends who were put on 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.760 those death flights. I didn't feel I could stick to 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:31.520 journalistic boundaries, like my emotions might betray me at any 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:33.680 moment and send me into a breakdown. 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.320 Medium grew up in a nice middle class neighborhood in 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.440 Buenos Aires. She was an intellectual child. She loved books 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.600 and poetry. Her dad was a big influence. He was 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.800 a leftist. He gave her books about socialism workers' movements. 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.800 When my dad noticed me bringing flyers home bringing the 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:01.160 anarchist paper, he started feeding me more anarchist literature. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:03.640 Soon she was an activist. 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.400 I was into political militancy, but I also loved the 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.760 idea of working for a newspaper. I was a good writer, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.800 so I signed up for journalism school. The problem was 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.240 my parents wanted me to have a real career, so 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.200 I had to enroll in economics at the same time 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:26.520 to appease them. We were young, but we felt like 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.880 we'd live through a lot. Social change, access to education, 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.520 better salaries. It all seemed at our fingertips. I mean, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.120 it didn't feel like a fantasy. It felt like we 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.240 could actually change the world. I wanted to see a 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.600 country where there was equality. We were young and we 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:47.880 felt invincible. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.560 When Medium's parents started to worry about her safety, they 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.920 offered to fly her to Brazil or somewhere outside Argentina. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:59.360 Abandoning the cause wasn't even an option for us. We 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.680 thought if we abandoned the militancy and activism, we would 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:08.080 be betraying our friends who gave their lives for the movement. 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.520 The economy was in shambles. 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.360 For sixty days, six thousand metal workers struck unofficially against 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.120 wage restraint. In face of huge inflation. 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.680 And political violence. Intentions grew the government. 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.880 Federal police moved in. Five hundred workers were sacked and 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.520 one hundred and forty three flung in jail without trial. 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:37.480 One man handing out leaflets was machine gun from a 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.640 police car. Another shot dead while painting a slogan on 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:41.120 a wall. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:51.200 It was ruthless Lasa las continua parsonal leftist group's retaliate 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.280 target and government officials police chiefs. 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:56.760 Six point thirty one morning in this down at hill, 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:01.040 Buenos Aires suburb, two cars pulled up, Five men got out. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.520 One knocked on the door. The policeman who answered received 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.320 one bullet in the brain. The remaining men then drilled 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.360 the front of the house with at least eighty bullets. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.240 Before leaving, they blasted holes in the roof with three grenades, 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.840 injuring the man's widow and two children. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.160 Violence divided the country. The best known group targeting police 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.640 and government forces was called the Montenados. Some supported them, 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.320 including Medium, as the best hope against forces of repression, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:45.640 but others saw only chaos and violence. They craved stability. Meanwhile, 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.159 Medium was in the midst of a political awakening. She 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.080 got a job at a factory and helped organize union workers. 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.439 Her parents started to worry about her, but Medium was 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.360 on a different path. Now. The entire nation was on edge. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.400 Inflation with skyrocketing, the violence was getting worse. The government 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:05.560 seemed powerless. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:10.400 During the last months of nineteen seventy five, everyone already 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:24.360 knew that a military coup was about to happen. It 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:29.920 was March twenty fourth, nineteen seventy six. My mom barges 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:34.360 into my room with a portable radio broadcasting about soldiers marching, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.040 and then she tells me that there was a coup. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.800 I remember being in bed and just getting into a 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:47.359 fetal position and crying. I was crying because I felt 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:52.720 afraid of the changes that were coming, more control less freedoms. 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.240 And I remember what it felt like to step out 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.680 of my house for the first time just after the coup, 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.760 watching the tanks rolling down the streets in the middle 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.639 of the city. We had seen this before, the military 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.320 that targets activists, sending them to jail, trying them in court. 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.439 We actually thought, we hoped, the military would help stop 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:26.560 the violence. I never imagined the underground extra judicial process. 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.720 Never imagined they would kidnap me, put a hood on me, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:32.119 torture me. 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:42.119 Argentina's armed forces took control a coup led by General 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:46.119 jrgue Rafelbidela. Up until then he had played a neutral 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.560 role when it came to politics, but he was the 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:54.800 country's most powerful military leader. He promised peace a stable economy. Officially, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:59.159 his plan was called the national reorganization process or just 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.000 the process. If the professor reorganization national. 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.439 He would say things like the process would require time 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.440 and effort. They had their own vision for the country, 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:20.480 a right wing neoliberal nation with conservative Christian. 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:25.879 Values, values that General Videla says were threatened by subversives, students, 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:31.320 union members, teachers, activists, people like medium, who he vowed 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.520 to quote annihilate. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:39.920 That rhetoric about preserving Western Christian values, about creating paranoia 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.960 that communism was taking over our country. To me, none 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.800 of that was surprising. I remember a friend telling me 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.680 he was leaving the country because he'd heard that the 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.280 military was planning a blood bath, that they were going 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.840 to kill us all we thought it was an exaggeration. 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.639 We didn't see Argentina as a banana republic, and we 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.240 had never witnessed the type of blood bath my friend 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:10.240 was predicting. We thought he was a coward. 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:16.040 General Videla is swearing in takes place inside the presidential palace. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.080 The room is filled with men in green and blue 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:23.720 military uniforms, Catholic bishops and families of Junta leaders watching 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:28.560 from a balcony in grays and John al Salon Blanco. 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.639 Everyone is standing. Suddenly, two giant doors open and General 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:40.800 Videla appears. His tall, slim with a thick mustache. He 0:21:40.840 --> 0:22:01.520 has a stern look, and he takes the oath Joe. 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.520 Rumors about horrific torture started going around. 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.520 The rumors are true. The Junta takes its crack down 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:13.560 and left his groups to a new level. 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:21.600 People having their arms ripped off, their bodies, electric shocks rape. 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.280 The orders from our group leaders were clear, do not 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:26.840 be captured alive. 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.880 For medium. It means leaving her parents' house. She knows 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:35.560 she's a person of interest. She fears she will bring 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.320 danger to her family, so she goes into hiding. 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:42.679 The thing is that immediately after the coup, the military 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:47.760 started arresting friends. People are knew, right, so we knew 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.360 that the military were going to torture those friends, and 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:57.480 they had information about where I lived. And the reality 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:02.240 is not everyone can endure torture, So if they gave 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:07.040 your information, the military would be at my door. The 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.600 fear and terror was not only aimed at armed groups 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:15.640 or known activists. It was aimed at society. They were 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:21.280 going after school teachers, professors, union members, and then they 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.520 were targeting their families too. It was too dangerous for 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:31.919 me to keep sleeping at home. At one point, my 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.680 dad didn't speak to me for at least six months. 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.240 He was against my activism. He knew how committed I was, 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.880 and he knew how dangerous it was. He was scared 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.120 because people he knew were disappearing left and right, and 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:48.800 he didn't want me to get killed. 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:51.960 By then, MEDIUM had fallen in love with a fellow 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:56.800 journalism student, juan Is Davis. They met in college. He 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:58.080 was an activist like her. 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:03.919 He was sweet, adorable. Never again did I feel the 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:08.520 way I felt for Juan. His voice was so special. 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:13.400 Just hearing him talk made me emotional. He loved his 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:14.600 family and he loved me. 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:20.639 After the coup, they drop out of journalism school and 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:21.560 go underground. 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:25.320 Juana and I got a place at first, but I 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:28.520 would only sleep there a few days a week. I 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:31.199 would lie to my parents. I'd tell them I was 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:35.320 going to sleep at friends houses. But then more of 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:39.280 our friends started to get kidnapped, so we had to leave. 0:24:39.920 --> 0:24:43.399 We were never in the life of a typical couple. 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.280 We were on the move almost every week, living one 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:49.720 day at a time. We never even thought about the future. 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:53.520 Before they go underground together, they buy two cheap wedding 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:57.000 bands and ask the leader of their activist group to marry. 0:24:56.760 --> 0:25:02.000 Them, and at that very informal ceremony, the guy called 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:06.000 us a revolutionary couple. He said that our commitment to 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:11.440 each other, our vow was to fight to change Argentina, 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:18.720 to make it a more just place. And we moved 0:25:18.720 --> 0:25:22.600 to the outskirts of Buenos Aires and we got this tiny, 0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:25.879 tiny apartment with a tin roof. It was in the 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:29.600 back of a family's house, and we started buying some 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:34.200 furniture a couple of chairs, a table, and some plates, 0:25:34.960 --> 0:25:38.760 a cover for our bed, and we put a Beatles 0:25:38.840 --> 0:25:40.280 poster in the bedroom. 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:44.080 Medium and Juan don't get to live there for very long. 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:47.399 Crackdowns become more frequent. They have to go back to 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:51.040 hiding at friends houses or at cheap motels. They're preparing 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:51.840 for the worst. 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:58.080 I looked out the window, and if we saw anyone 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:02.560 that looked like an officer or soldier, I would freak out, 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:07.000 and Juan calm me down. He always told me I 0:26:07.080 --> 0:26:12.760 was paranoid. Everything was so intense, the loss of our friends, 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:20.080 attending nearly empty group meetings because most people disappeared. I mean, 0:26:20.400 --> 0:26:25.000 for us, one day, it felt like ten years. We 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:28.760 made love a lot. We loved each other, but we 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:32.760 were living on the edge. So every time we could 0:26:32.760 --> 0:26:35.200 touch each other, every time we could kiss each other, 0:26:35.280 --> 0:26:38.000 it was like it could be the last time. 0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:42.080 And there was one critical part of their group's training 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:45.200 that they would always carry a cyanide pill and pledge 0:26:45.280 --> 0:26:47.280 to swallow it before they were captured. 0:26:48.080 --> 0:26:51.040 We had decided to take our own lives before having 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:54.600 to endure torture, which could lead to us giving away information, 0:26:55.080 --> 0:26:58.240 and that could lead to our friends getting captured. Also, 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:01.240 it was an order coming from the years of our organization, 0:27:01.640 --> 0:27:08.159 don't get captured alive. To me, it was simple. You 0:27:08.240 --> 0:27:12.280 get captured and they own your body. They would pass 0:27:12.400 --> 0:27:15.200 you over from one force to another, or if they 0:27:15.240 --> 0:27:17.840 wanted to, they would just put a bullet in your head, 0:27:18.359 --> 0:27:23.240 so they would dictate when and how you died. But 0:27:24.040 --> 0:27:27.560 with the Sinai pill, we were in control of our death, 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:30.600 so it was kind of like a small victory over them, 0:27:30.640 --> 0:27:30.840 you know. 0:27:35.080 --> 0:27:37.919 Two nights before her kidnapping, Medium is walking through the 0:27:37.920 --> 0:27:40.560 streets of Buenos Aires, heading back to where she and 0:27:40.640 --> 0:27:43.480 Juan are staying. They're still in hiding. 0:27:44.200 --> 0:27:48.399 It was raining that night. I noticed a car with 0:27:48.600 --> 0:27:53.359 foggy windows. Inside I see the silhouettes of three or 0:27:53.440 --> 0:27:58.040 so men. I start zigzagging my way through the streets 0:27:58.080 --> 0:28:01.520 and corners to evade it, but sooner or later it 0:28:01.600 --> 0:28:03.119 would be there again. 0:28:04.280 --> 0:28:08.639 Two days later, on May seventeenth, nineteen seventy seven, Medium 0:28:08.720 --> 0:28:12.040 finds herself running for her life, being chased by three 0:28:12.080 --> 0:28:14.000 men in a ford falcon. 0:28:13.960 --> 0:28:16.480 And I keep screaming off the top of my lungs. 0:28:17.000 --> 0:28:19.960 I'm Miriam Lewin, Please help me, She. 0:28:20.000 --> 0:28:22.880 Yells out, her phone number, begging anyone who can hear 0:28:23.080 --> 0:28:26.679 to call her family. Then the moment Medium in her 0:28:26.680 --> 0:28:28.280 fellow militants had prepared for. 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:33.040