WEBVTT - The Jesuits 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:05.800 Warning this episode contains references to violence. Please use discretion 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:20.759 when listening. How do you end a war? This was 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:25.000 the question on everyone's mind in nineteen eighty nine. For 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.880 almost a decade, El Salvador was steeped in a devastating war. 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:34.360 Both sides, the military and the FMLN, were convinced that 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:39.239 with one final push, their side could win. Meanwhile, the 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.880 country that they fought for was in shambles. The economy 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:48.120 was worse off than before, a quarter of the population 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:54.240 had left, and tens of thousands lay dead. It was 0:00:54.280 --> 0:01:01.160 a battle to rule over the ashes. To Father Ignite Yakuria, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:03.960 the only answer was a negotiated ceasefire. 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:10.840 Mitesi principal a key in Estaufo niedos is the siefke 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.200 estaufo neiedos no eincontralo la solucion del Salvador. 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.600 Father Yakuria was a Jesuit priest and philosopher who taught 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.840 at the University of Central America in San Salvador. We 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.679 call it Lauca. He'd known Oscar Romero and Rutilio Grande, 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.720 and he'd watched the war unfold before his eyes. He'd 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.880 spent that war documenting the truth contradicting the lies of 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.600 the government and teaching the next generation of young people 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.360 at the university, people like Hector Lindo Fontees. 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.800 Being educated by the Jesuits kind of helped you open 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.360 my mind to too many things that would not have 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.480 been possible even to see or to hear about in 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:57.320 other places. 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.800 Professor Hector Lenwentez is now retired, but he spent his 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:07.480 entire career teaching Latin American studies, most recently at Fordham University. 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.000 He grew up in El Salvador and studied under his 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.240 then professor, father at Yaquitia. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:15.160 He was not a big guy. 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:16.079 He was. 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.240 Not particularly slender, but she was by no means an 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:26.280 imposing person in the physical aspect. But intellectually he was 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.560 really a giant. He was a very brilliant and incisive mind. 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.760 Father at Yaquitia's brilliant and incisive mind made him a 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.560 giant both on and off campus. He was the rector 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.639 of the university, the leader among all the other Jesuits, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.639 and a published author who traveled the world giving lectures 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.880 and conferences. And it was his brilliant mind that made 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:57.079 him the perfect negotiator. Just like Archbishop Romero before him, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.400 a equitia was meeting with high ranking officials on both 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:04.560 sides of the war, trying to create a dialogue between them. 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.520 This included talks with then President Alfredo Christiani. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:14.040 After winning the election, but before going into office, I 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.000 had a few talks with Father ya Kuria and asked 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:19.359 him to go meet with the commandant to say how 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:20.320 would they look at this. 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.120 That's Christiani in an interview with Duke University. As you 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:32.600 can hear, he spoke perfect English. Christiani was an old 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.160 school oligarch, a businessman who studied at Georgetown and had 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:41.320 family ties to the coffee industry, and President Christiani could 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.720 see that the war wasn't just hurting the poor. The 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:49.160 rich were losing out too. Production was down, the FMLN 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.520 were blowing up bridges and specifically targeting the oligarchy and 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.920 their ability to profit off the country. And at this 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:00.000 point the FMLN was receiving financial and military support from 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.520 communist allies in Cuba and Russia, further complicating an already 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:11.680 complex international relationship. Christiani wanted a way out, and he 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.360 basically had Father Yakuria on speed dial. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.760 He was kind of a go between, and he was 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.280 really interested in promoting the idea of a negotiated solution. 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.719 Father at Yaquaria and Christiani were working together trying to 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.359 find a way to end this terrible war, which is 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.240 why it was so shocking that on the night of 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.479 November fifteenth, nineteen eighty nine, just hours after a phone 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.680 call with the President, Father Yaquitia was murdered. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.200 There were there was shot in the brain. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.599 A Yequaria, along with five other Jesuit priests, Their housekeeper 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.320 and her daughter were murdered. Their bodies were dragged out 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:08.440 onto the campus slawn displayed for everyone to see. Nineteen 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.680 eighty nine was the beginning of the end of the 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:15.040 civil war, and if Oscar Romero's murder was the catalyst 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.640 to start it, Father e Equitia and the Jesuit murders 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:25.320 were the catalyst to end it. The Jesuit massacre would 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.520 send shock waves through El Salvador and beyond, and the 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.880 question of who gave the order and who knew would 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.520 get at the heart of who really held the power 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:43.679 in El Salvador. I'm Jasmine Romero and this is sacred scandal. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:53.840 Nation of Saints, Episode eight. The Jesuits. We'll be right 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:54.760 back after the break. 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.320 She has when I'm trying to make your patience worthwhile. 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:09.440 Because you spent so much time chasing. 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.000 Me down, you are very well worth it. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:14.960 I'm trying to make it well worth it. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.760 That's Professor Terry Carl. I could read you her bona fides, 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.440 but it would basically take up the entire podcast. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.440 I'm an emeritus professor from Stanford University. I was a 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:26.960 professor at Harvard before then. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.160 Professor Carl was the expert witness for cases on elm 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:35.599 sulte Oscar Romero's assassination, and the murder of the Jesuits, 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.200 just to name a few. She is by far the 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.040 foremost American expert on El Salvador. But she's not just 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.600 an academic. She was also on the ground throughout the 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.480 entire war, getting information that no one else was getting. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:58.360 I'm small, I was female, brown haired, kind of cute, 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:05.599 I think, and I was not a journalist, so I 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:10.080 could go around and ask questions and find things that 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.520 journalists really had a harder time on because people were 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:14.480 afraid that they would be. 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:18.600 Quoted, including doing things like spending three weeks on the 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.720 campaign trail with Roberto Dawison. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.600 It's quite an intimidating guy, you know, and especially if 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.679 you knew that he had already killed people, which I did. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.800 She later used her insights on that Wison to give 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:35.200 testimony at the trial for Oscar Romero's murder. So, yeah, 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.960 Professor Carl is the real deal. I And in the 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.040 late nineteen eighties, Professor Carl was working on an academic project. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.560 So I was at that point trying to map out 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.480 violence and I had, I mean, all these undergraduates spending 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.160 a little yellow and red and pink and different color 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:55.200 pins in a map. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.960 She was constantly flying back and forth collecting information on 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.000 the ground in Elsavador and bringing it back to the 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.240 US to analyze. And one of the places that she 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.800 was getting a lot of her information was from the 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.480 Jesuits at Lauca, you know. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.400 Every time I would come to Al Salvador, which was 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.360 quite a lot at that time, I just kept checking 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.880 in with them. And then eventually, when I moved to Stanford, 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.000 I formed a work group with Nacho's help in a 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:23.920 acuitius help. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.320 Now, Father Yakuria is probably the most important person in 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.400 this story, but before we get into him, I want 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.240 to take a second to talk about the other Jesuit 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.440 priest that he was working with. I kind of think 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:43.160 of the Jesuits at Lauca like the Ninja turtles. Stay 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.120 with me. Just like the Ninja turtles, each one of 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:51.600 the Jesuit priests working at Lauca had a specialty, something 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:57.240 that they were uniquely talented at. Take Father Ignacio Martin Berro, 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:04.599 who Professor Carl affectionately calls Martin Barot, was an incredible psychologist. 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.120 His focus was on understanding what the war was doing 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.559 to the psyche of the Salvadoran people. He traveled all 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.800 over the world giving lectures on his findings, talking about 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:20.240 his theory on the militarization of the mind, that living 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:25.480 under violence for so long was fundamentally changing Salvadorans, creating 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:30.520 and perpetuating further cycles of violence, that violence was becoming 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.480 the only way for Salvadoran society to respond to its problems. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:37.120 Here he is at a lecture. 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:51.400 Lack is worth nothing in Salvador, or the lull of 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:57.680 the strongest. I rather say the most violent is a 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:04.960 social criteria and corruption that's a life style, thus precipitating 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.920 a vicious circle which tends to perpetuate the war. 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:14.199 And then there's father Segundo Montes, an incredible speaker who 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.800 was studying the impacts of the refugee crisis that the 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:17.640 war was creating. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.640 Segunda Montes could relate to anybody. Eddie Peasant. I mean, 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:24.960 you just got him out there and he was just 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:30.720 People loved him. They loved him, and they would mob him. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.439 Father Jaquez Lopez founded schools for poor children. Father Juandre 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.600 mon Moreno took care of the libraries and was a 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:43.000 meticulous cataloger of information. And Father Lopez Guintania was an 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:48.560 expert gardener who took care of Lauca's mango trees. For 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.640 the record, Professor Carl agreed with my Ninja Turtle's analogy. 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.640 You're absolutely right. They were really admired in love for 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.360 their particular ability. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.360 And as we know, the ninja turtles are led by 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:08.600 an anthropomorphic rat sense named Master Splinter, and the master 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:13.080 Splinter in this scenario is, of course, Father Ignacio Yakuria. 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.920 Akudia was very patrician. He was a very He just 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.560 reminded me of a Spanish patrician of the Middle Ages 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.800 or something, just the way he carried himself, the way 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.920 he looked, the way you know, he was an extraordinary mind. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:35.280 Very master splinter. So Father Yaquaria is leading the Jesuits 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.000 at the university and doing his academic work. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.079 But on the side, what he's doing is he's doing 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.839 shuffle diplomacy. That's what he's doing. He's the guy who's 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.079 back and forth, back and forth talking to this book. 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.480 He's the only one that the commandantes on the flon 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:58.560 we'll talk to, but Soulo Christiani, and he's making progress 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.360 because all kinds of people who said we're not going 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:04.760 to negotiate start saying, well, you're you know, you're right. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:06.960 There's too much death, there's too much killing, there's too 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:08.120 much this, there's too much of that. 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.640 Which seems like a good thing, right, I mean, who 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:16.160 wants more war? President Cristiani was definitely on board, and 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.040 so was the US, who at this point had spent 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.440 the last nine years shoveling money into a war that 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:28.600 would not end well. Some people were extremely unhappy that 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.360 a Equitia was trying to end the war. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.599 We call them spoilers in the negotiating business, if I 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.600 can put it that way, because they're the ones who 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.439 are going to do something to spoil any chance of peace. 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.400 On the left, you've got the extremists in the FMLN, 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.560 the ones that are convinced that normal civilians, if just 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.520 given the chance, will revolt against the government. And on 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.840 the right you've got Latandonna. 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.960 The biggest graduating class nineteen sixty six, the so called 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.880 Tandona graduating class in the military, has taken power now. 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.880 They are the hardest of the hardline. They're not a 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.320 big number, because remember officers are the elite. They're not 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.520 a big number. They're making money hand over fist. 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.000 Latandona is a group of colonels who all graduated the 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.440 Salvadoran Military Academy together in the class of sixty six, 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.080 and they're the highest ranking officers in the Salvadoran military, 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.800 the Minister of Defense, the chief of Staff, the head 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:34.040 of the air Force. They're the ones calling the shots 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.880 and getting rich off of the military aid from the US. 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.200 They're not just committing human rights abuses, but they're all 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.640 in business and they're trafficking and there's you know, people 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.040 are selling visas, they're selling i mean everything is up 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:48.880 for sale. 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:55.440 Selling arms, taking the salaries of dead soldiers. The Gordons 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.360 of Latona had all kinds of schemes that they were 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.000 running to profit off of the hunhundreds of millions that 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.720 the US was sending over and they were in no 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:10.119 rush to end the war and give all that up. Meanwhile, 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.040 you've got father Yakaria. 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.240 Getting back and forth and go back and forth and 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:18.640 back and forth. Now, if you're to the Tondona, your 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:20.000 biggest threat to say a Cordea. 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.320 And it wasn't just Latandona who had a bone to pick. 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:30.080 The Jesuits had also made enemies of the oligarchy, those 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:31.760 famed fourteen families. 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.120 The only word I kept hearing was tracion, trac trac, 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.120 you know, traders, traders, traders. I'd say, would you explain 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.520 to me what that means? It means, you know, we 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.200 used to be able to send our kids here. We 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.000 didn't have to send our kids to the United States. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.400 We believed in the Oka as a very good education, 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.200 and now we can't do that anymore because they come 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.880 back and they say, you know, I think you should 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.360 pay the peasants more. The whole thing was your traders 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.840 to us, and the anchor he was really at the 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.240 Jesuits and was really at a equidia. Being the rector. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.280 In the days leading up to the massacre, Salvador and 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.760 Colin radio shows were filled with people calling for the 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:16.600 Jesuits to be thrown out, to be jailed, to be killed, 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.680 saying that they were traders to the country, or that 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:26.160 they were the real leaders of the FMLN. But Father 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.160 Ediquitia still believes that there's a chance for peace. He 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:35.200 believes in President Cristiani that with Gristiani's help, they'll find 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:41.160 a way forward. In mid November of nineteen eighty nine, 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.680 a Equitia went to Spain to give a lecture, but 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:49.000 while he was gone things escalated between the left and 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:53.200 the right and El Salvador. So President Gristiani calls him 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.840 and tells him, you need to come home. I need 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:58.120 your help to calm things down. 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.720 Everybody warned Equity not to come back. Everybody who knew 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.600 don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.680 trust this. It wasn't really about trusting Christiani per se. 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.880 Just don't even trust this, right, So he decides to 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:21.720 come back. When he gets back, a number of people 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.360 incluting me said you have to get out of the UK. 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.040 They're going to kill you. By this point, I had 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.640 gotten to be quite an expert in anticipating killings. And 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:37.120 I'm seeing the being able to smell the crescendo. You know, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.640 did you call him? Not him? I didn't call Equity. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.600 I got somebody else, and I said, they're going to 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.400 kill you. And I went to the President of Stanford 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.120 and I said, you've got to help me. I know 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.240 these intellectuals, said the rector, the vice rector, blah blah, 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.320 and they're going to kill him. And I got to 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:03.040 get him out of there. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.359 The next morning, Professor Carl heard that there had been 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:14.400 a massacre at Lauca. Around two thirty am, the Atlakatal battalion, 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.919 the same one that committed the massacre at Elmosote, broke 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:24.520 into the jesuits sleeping quarters. I've been there. The rooms 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:29.480 are spartan, just four walls of concrete. Some of them 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.320 are shot in bed, others are dragged out onto the 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:38.479 lawn and shot. There. A witness heard father Martin Barol 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:44.800 shout estresu nam hustisia, this is an injustice. They also 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.560 found El Barbarrios, the Jesuit's housekeeper, huddled in her room 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.760 along with her fifteen year old daughter, Selena. They were 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:57.359 also shot and killed. The soldiers then fired a couple 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.880 of shots into the walls and put a flame through 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.840 to the Jesuits rooms to create the impression of a shootout. 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:06.879 The news broke like a bomb. 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.960 Six Jesuit priests were brutally executed and sent Salvador last week. 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.280 Their deaths have triggered a heated congressional debate on continuation 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.479 of military aid to that country. Even President Bush has 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.800 been dogged on the road by repeated protests and questions 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.440 about the United States policy. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.239 Let me just say a word about El Salvador. 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:27.520 Maybe it'll help. 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:34.399 It was the FMLN, the Marxist Leninist FMLN, that shot 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.600 its way into the middle of El Salvador, trying to 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:42.679 disrupt Salvador's democracy, and President Christiani told me on the 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:45.840 phone that they will do everything they can to bring 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.560 to justice, whether they're from the right or the left, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.600 those who wantonly murdered those priests. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.280 Right away. The reaction was, this is not going to stand. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:00.840 This is not going to stand. 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.720 After the break, a Boston brawler, a failed cover up, 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:09.280 and finally an end to. 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:23.600 The war, and it seems to me that it is 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.320 incumbent on us to guarantee that if we're going to 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.399 put a million dollars a day somewhere, that million dollars 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:31.560 is going to live up to our standards, and if 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.520 it can't live up to our standards, then we shouldn't 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.560 be putting it there, no matter what the outcome. Well, 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:42.320 I listened here, then you get back, then you get 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:43.440 back into the questionable. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:45.680 That's a snippet of a Congressional hearing from the weeks 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.720 after the Jesuit massacre, and the hearing then Senator John 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.840 Kerry is questioning whether the US should continue sending military 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.920 aid to Alsabador in light of the news. Bernard Aaronson, 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.439 the Assistant secretary from the Department of st argues that 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.200 pulling the military aid will just make the situation worse. 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.200 Mind you, this is now ten years into the war. 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:16.000 Ten years. In those ten years, never, not once, was 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.560 the military aid that was sent to El Salvador met 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.760 with any kind of restrictions or demands. It was literally 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.040 free money that the US sent to the Salvadoran military. 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.560 And it had been ten years of these kinds of debates. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.679 But if it were to be discovered that the murdered 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:40.080 Jesuit priests were in fact killed by the salvadorn military. Well, 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.080 that might finally change the story. 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.159 All the times the United States shook its finger at 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.760 El Salvador's military and said, now, if you do that 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:55.080 one more time, we're going to cut off aid it 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.040 didn't have any meaning. But this time it did. And 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.640 that's what was so important, is that this time, this 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:01.280 time it did. 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.920 The Jesuits weren't just small town priests like Oscar Romero. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:12.240 They weren't nameless civilians in Elmosolte. These were the ninja turtles. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.439 They had given speeches at Berkeley, They'd met senators and 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.880 heads of state. These guys were well connected and well 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:25.560 respected scholars. It wouldn't be so easy to just write 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:30.359 these guys off as communists. In the immediate aftermath of 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.800 the Jesuit massacre, the Salvadoran government would claim that the 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:38.320 FMLN was responsible for the attack, and President Gaiticiani announced 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:42.600 that he would conduct a thorough investigation of the same 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:48.720 old story, lie and deny. But with US attitudes rapidly 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:55.160 shifting on El Salvador, this time would be different, partially 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.760 because of a Congressman from Boston named Joe Moakley. 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:04.960 Moakley let me tell you about Moakley. He was just Moakley, 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.639 great Irish Catholic. Moakley was a street fighter, and he 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:16.080 had been appointed by the Congress to have a fact 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.560 finding commission on who killed the Jesuits. 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:23.120 I have to admit I really wasn't sure exactly where 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.320 Al Savado is. I don't know that is Central America 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:26.160 or South America. 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.400 A hard talking brawler from Boston, Congressman Moakley had long 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.399 been critical of the US's involvement in El Salvador. So 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.320 the Moaglely Commission goes down to El Salvador with a 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:44.120 couple of investigators, determined to find out exactly what happened 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:48.720 to these Jesuit priests, barging into meetings and talking to 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:54.920 high and low ranking officials, asking a lot of questions. 0:22:55.359 --> 0:23:01.040 Is Smouthly was like a bulldog. He would stop you 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.240 couldn't stop him. 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:07.320 And Moakley can see that the Salvadorans aren't being totally 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:11.399 honest about what happened. They're sending him on fake leads 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.439 or outright lying. But he can put two and two together. 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:20.320 He's looking at the evidence and saying, if the military 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.080 had complete control of the university on the night of 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.280 the murders. How could the FMLN be the ones that 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:32.760 killed the priests? Moakley and his team start sniffing dangerously 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:36.160 close to the truth, and if the truth gets out, 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:43.960 well there goes all that American cash. But Latnona, that 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:47.520 cohort of colonels that's running the military, they have a 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:51.560 plan in place just for this kind of problem. In 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.159 the days leading up to the Jesuit massacre, there was 0:23:54.200 --> 0:23:58.760 a series of closed door meetings, meetings where they decide 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:02.520 exactly when and how the Jesuits will be killed, and 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:06.600 they decide that just in case anything goes wrong, they're 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:10.000 going to need a fall guy. They land on the 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:11.800 director of the military academy. 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:18.280 Now, the thing about Colonel Menavides, it's so important in 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:22.919 this cover up story, is that Benavides would never have 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:24.879 come up with this idea by himself. 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:32.760 Neveres was part of Latandona, but he's sort of the 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:36.280 black sheep of the group. He's the guy that everyone 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:40.520 keeps around because well he's part of the group, but 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:44.120 he's not out there making policy decisions or running operations. 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.480 He's running the military school. It's a relatively low level 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:54.000 position for a man of his rank. Two days before 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:58.679 the Jesuit massacre, the Atla Coadel Battalion was transferred to 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:03.560 Benavidez's command, and on the night of November fifteenth, he's 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:08.000 given an order to take care of the Jesuit problem, 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:11.520 and he does so. He didn't realize at the time 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:13.200 that he was being set up to be the fall guy. 0:25:14.000 --> 0:25:15.600 Oh, I don't think so. I don't think it would 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:18.800 have ever occurred to any member of the Tendona that 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:19.800 they could be a fall guy. 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:25.440 Once Mokeley came sniffing around, Benavivez was presented as the 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:30.320 sole intellectual author of the killings. Now to be clear, 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:35.560 benavives was given an order by a superior officer, a 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:39.480 member of Latandona, but he never testified as to who 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:40.440 gave him that order. 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:44.960 So why doesn't he talk? Why doesn't he say I 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:49.680 didn't do this. I'll tell you why. Because Colonel Montana 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:50.800 threatened his family. 0:25:51.840 --> 0:25:55.920 Goronell Montano, the Minister of Security and member of Latandona's 0:25:55.920 --> 0:25:56.480 inner circle. 0:25:58.040 --> 0:26:01.679 It's a mafia organization ton down. It's like we know 0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:04.560 where you live, we know where your son goes to school. 0:26:08.040 --> 0:26:12.200 Benevidez, along with eight other low ranking military officers are 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:16.639 arrested for the murder of the Jesuits. The Salvadoran government 0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:20.080 quickly pushes the case through and finds Benevidez and one 0:26:20.080 --> 0:26:25.359 other guy guilty. It's a farce quote a kangaroo court 0:26:25.640 --> 0:26:28.600 to make kangaroo's blush, in the words of a US 0:26:28.640 --> 0:26:32.040 Court of Appeals judge who reviewed the case, but let 0:26:32.040 --> 0:26:35.800 them don't have figures. Hey, we tossed them Benevivez. Now 0:26:35.840 --> 0:26:40.840 everything should go back to normal, but it's too late. 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:45.800 Congressman Mowchlely has seen how these guys operate. He goes 0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:49.280 back to Washington and tells everyone how quote the American 0:26:49.320 --> 0:26:52.800 people and Congress have been played for fools. 0:26:54.640 --> 0:26:57.720 I still encounter members of the armed forces who fail 0:26:57.800 --> 0:27:02.240 to demonstrate any remorse, any regret over the assassination of 0:27:02.280 --> 0:27:06.359 the Jesuits. Mister Chairman. They don't even fake it very well. 0:27:07.320 --> 0:27:10.840 I cannot think of one single instance where one single 0:27:10.920 --> 0:27:14.960