WEBVTT - The Executioner 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:05.920 Warning. This episode contains references to violence and domestic abuse. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:24.800 Please use discretion when listening. I'm sitting in MARISAA Martinez's 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:29.120 living room and my hands are starting to sweat. Marisa 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.120 has been kind enough to invite me into her home 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.199 and sit down with me for over two hours to 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.040 talk about some of the worst moments in salvador In history. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.159 And now I have to ask her a question that 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.559 I know she won't like, but it's the question that 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:46.840 I really came here to ask. 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.680 Mira Amirista sorel it. 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.360 I'm sorry, I tell her, but I have to ask 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.360 about your brother, but she cuts me off. She knows 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:16.320 the question is coming. She points me to the internet 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.399 to all of the other interviews that she's done in 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.920 the past about him. I can't help but wonder what 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.200 it's like to be in her position, to be the 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:31.320 sister of someone who's infamous. It's no coincidence that Marisa 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.119 goes by her married name, the Martinez, and not her 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:36.920 maiden name, Dauison. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.800 He's been called a killer, a gangster, a psychopath. Major 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.080 Roberto d'abisson has come from the shadows to emerge as 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.480 the country's new strong man, A man whose solutions to 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.400 the problems of El Salvador is to liquidate the communists. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.920 Roberto Dabison is one of the most infamous men in 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:02.280 salvador In history. He's the founder of one of the 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:06.680 country's biggest political parties, he was the leader of one 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.520 of the country's most notorious death squads, and he's also 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.600 the person that the UN says was responsible for the 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:15.480 murder of Archbishop Romero. 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.720 These two cables are both from the American Embassy in 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.840 El Salvador, and it discusses a meeting during which Roberto 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:29.480 do Buisson plans the murder of Archbishop Romero. 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:45.120 I'm Jasmine Romero, and this is sacred scandal. Nation of Saints, 0:02:47.320 --> 0:03:04.360 episode three, The Executioner. When I was a kid, I 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:09.040 was terrified of El Kukui, that's the Salvadoran version of 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.120 the boogeyman. I would stay up at night staring into 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.400 the dark corners of my room, certain that at any 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.239 moment Ilkukui would come out of the darkness and take 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.400 me away to punish me for being mean to my 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.320 sisters or for talking back to my mom. It's very 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:34.000 common for Salvadoran moms to say that's the kind of 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.960 person that Roberto Dawison is for El Salvador, a larger 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.839 than life creature, a boogeyman who would come under cover 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.800 of darkness and punish you for your sins. In the 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.800 same way that Oscar Romero was a symbol for the Church, 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.640 that Wi Son became a symbol for the military and 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.040 the lengths to which it would go in the name 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:05.080 of stopping communism. Dawison is commonly called Il Major ra 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.960 Wison because he started his career as a military officer. 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.600 He was only sixteen when he enrolled in military school, 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.520 and by nineteen he was a member of the National Guard. 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.520 Light skinned and charismatic, Lawuison rose through the ranks, and 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.600 by nineteen seventy two he was chosen to train at 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.560 the United States School of the Americas. 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.080 According to the Pentagon, the mission of the school is 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:36.240 to train the armed forces of Latin America, promote military professionalism, 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:41.960 foster cooperation among multinational military forces, and to expand the 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.240 trainees knowledge of United States customs and traditions. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.440 That's Susan Sarandon narrating a documentary about the school. The 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.520 School of the Americas was created by the United States 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.400 in nineteen forty six, with the specific purpose of training 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.880 the future MI military officers of Latin America. After the 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.160 Cuban Revolution. JFK ordered that the school focus on teaching 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:14.320 anti communist counterinsurgency. They taught cadets that the enemy was 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.279 within their own people and that any suspected Communist was 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.440 a traitor to their country. When Congress later declassified training 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:27.479 manuals from the school, they included tactics for torture, blackmail, extortion, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:34.640 and neutralization a euphemism for unsanctioned murder. Here's former US 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.360 Congressman Joseph Moakley testifying about the school. 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:45.400 Every time there was a heinous killing, Al sawaras somebody 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:50.359 that was past graduate of the School of America. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.839 To call the School of the Americas the School for 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:59.280 Dictators is not an exaggeration. Literally, eleven Latin American dictators 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:04.720 were graduates of the school. Over sixty thousand military officers 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.840 have graduated from the academy and gone on to run 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:13.200 operations across Latin America, and despite years of protests calling 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:18.239 for its closure, the school still exists. It's now called 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:23.840 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation WINSC for short, 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.919 and it's used to train border patrol and ICE agents 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:35.400 on how to run raids on American cities. Roberto Dawison's sister, 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.719 Marisa says that it's his time at the School of 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.440 the Americas that really formed her brother's mindset. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.960 Not the way I see for na Viti made la 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:54.960 formasion the defense a lacinteress North americanos perroue for malo pres. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.359 Marisa says that her brother came back from school in 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.680 the nineteen seventies, right around the time when the students 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.920 and unions were protesting and being shot at by President 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:10.560 Romero's military, So maybe it's not surprising that Dauison was 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.320 convinced that communists were taking over his country. 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:20.400 Parentonce de Graciamente ban Communistato. 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:25.360 And he was hell bent on stopping them. Highly educated 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.040 and charismatic Dauison was given a special task by his 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:35.160 superiors in the military extract information, by any means necessary, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.760 find out who the Communists are in every city, town, 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.640 and village in the country. Noauisan would go on to 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.960 train groups of soldiers to kidnap, torture, extort, and murder 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.040 to get the information they needed. These groups became known 0:07:55.320 --> 0:08:03.680 as Los Esquadron the death squads, But even within the 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:09.240 Salvadorn military that Weuison's fervor against communists was extreme, so 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.120 extreme that he was seen as a liability by the 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.000 other more centrist members of the government, and he was 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.960 kicked out of the Salvadoran military in nineteen seventy nine. 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.240 When he heard that his time was up, he stole 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:30.880 a cash of military documents and fled to Guatemala. But 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.439 the Salvadorn oligarchy wasn't ready to let go of thata Wison. 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:40.000 In him, they saw the perfect mouthpiece, someone whose ideology 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.400 aligned with theirs and who wasn't worried about operating within 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.800 the limits of the law. With funding from some of 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.760 El Salvador's wealthiest families, that we Sun would videotape himself 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:55.760 from his exiled place in Guatemala, giving speeches denouncing the 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.880 state of things in El Salvador, talking about how subversives 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.760 would ruin the country and naming those who he believed 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.720 were responsible for the communist. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.080 Revolution, estes forreste. 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:19.400 Merio, pour quatro. 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:16.920 And pais. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.920 Those tapes were then flown back to El Salvador and 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:28.920 broadcast on national TV. Those he named often went missing 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:35.520 or turned up dead shortly after he named them. It 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:38.320 was in those broadcasts that though we saw named one 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.400 of his biggest targets the church. This was in the 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.320 years leading up to the assassination of Oscar Romero. The 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:51.680 priests had become symbols of the enemy. Those TV broadcasts 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:57.560 are where he popularized the phrase aga patria matankura be 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.880 a patriot, kill a priest. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:01.880 Who's there. 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:07.559 Recuerda is the Estevan district, wuendo papeless and agapatri matancura. 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:17.640 See the wild is a list of the wissta twas 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:25.359 agapatria matancura econ listing man the most total of criminalists. 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:30.640 Second win Father says he remembers seeing flyers out in 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:36.240 the street printed with the phrase agapatria matancura. Below it 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.960 was a list of names of almost forty priests from 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.360 all over the country, including his name. 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:52.920 See est Sanchez. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:11:04.319 Grandeta, Rutilio Sanchez, Rutilio, Rerande. 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:12.320 Octaviortis all priests who were killed. Those flyers were scattered 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.360 all over cities by men in helicopters who would open 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.160 the doors mid flight and rein them onto the streets. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:27.000 Rampapelea, Hello, helicopteros agapatria matrio madame curac e f. 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.320 This slogan was brought to life on March twenty fourth 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:38.679 of nineteen eighty when Oscar Romero was assassinated. That we 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.079 sn had personally named him in a TV appearance just 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.959 that week. When the archbishop was gunned down, everyone suspected 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.360 it was the work of thatuison and his death squads, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.679 but there was no proof, that is until the Sadavia Diary. 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:09.719 That's after the Break. Six weeks after Romero's assassination, a 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.040 group of men gather at a plantation in the Salvadoran mountains. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.360 They're discussing strategy, going over how many weapons they have 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.880 stashed and when to execute their plan. There are documents 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:26.400 scattered everywhere, including one titled how to carry out a 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.360 political coup in El Salvador, which is exactly what these 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:35.360 men are doing. Their leader, il Major himself thrower to 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:40.520 the La Wisson, but the meeting is cut short when 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.640 a squad of soldiers burst through the door. The men 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.440 try to flee, some of them try to eat the papers, 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:57.560 but one by one they're arrested. In the days after 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.560 the Salvadoran government will examine troph of documents, and there's 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.880 one in particular that will draw their interest. It's a 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.440 page from a book belonging to a red headed army 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:15.079 captain named Alvaro Saravia. The book is Sadavia's daddio, his 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:20.240 day planner. Most of the entries are mundane appointments, but 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:24.800 there's one page in a strange handwriting. It contains a 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:29.960 list of items one starlight scope, one two fifty seven 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:36.960 Roberts rifle, four automatic rifles, grenades, and below a list 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:45.000 of personnel one driver, one shooter for security. This list 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.200 is believed to be the instructions for Archbishop Romero's murder. 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.599 You'd think that evidence like this would be damning, or 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.560 at least it would put a stop to his political ambitions. 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.679 I mean, the man was literally caught planning a coup. 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.439 He titled his coup plot like a middle schooler, but 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:16.320 it didn't even slow him down. While imprisoned, that Wei 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.320 soon called every powerful ally he had made, all those 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.760 rich oligarchs that had been funding his TV broadcasts, made 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:30.840 a huge stink about thatauison being imprisoned. He's released almost immediately, 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:37.120 and all those documents that were confiscated are buried. Nouison 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.560 goes off and continues operating his death squads with impunity. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.320 At this point, everyone is aware of these operations, including 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:47.840 the United States government. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:54.880 Roberto d'abisson planned and ordered the murder of Archbishop of 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:59.760 Oscar Romero. The evidence we have eyewitness accounts of this. 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.400 He is a leader of the death squads. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.520 That's Robert White, the US ambassador to El Salvador under 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:15.320 President Jimmy Carter. Carter was aware of the human rights abuses, 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.480 but he was also deeply concerned about the rise of 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:24.000 communism in Latin America. Just next door to El Salvador, Nicaragua, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.040 San Denista movement had overthrown the military government in a 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:31.240 communist revolt. Carter worried that El Salvador would be the 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.360 next Domino to fall, in part because by nineteen eighty 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.280 the FMLN, the Armed Resistance that we mentioned in the 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:44.000 last episode, had officially declared war against the government. So 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.960 Carter was caught between two imperatives. Stopped the spread of 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.160 communism and stopped the human rights abuses in El Salvador. 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.880 The Carter administration would compromise by sending what it called 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.840 non lethal aid to El Salvador, like jeeps and helicopters, 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.440 and they definitely wanted nothing to do with someone like that. 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:11.320 We saw. Here's Ambassador Robert White again. 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:18.080 The Carter administration felt so strong about Roberto Dalbie's son's 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:23.880 death squad activities that we classified him as a terrorist. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.400 We took away his fists, We denied him entrance into 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.520 the United States Embassy. We made him a pariah as 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.360 far as our acceptance goes. 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.320 But in nineteen eighty one, a new US president was elected, 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.120 one who had very different ideas on how to deal 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.800 with El Salvador. Ronald Reagan. 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.200 Central America is a region of great importance to the 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.800 United States, and it is so close. Sam Salvador is 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.400 closer to Houston, Texas than Houston is to Washington, d C. 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:06.080 Rather than distance themselves from Dauison, Reagan's administration pulled him closer. 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:08.040 Here's Robert White again. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.840 The Reaga administration came in, rehabilitated him, issued him a visa, 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.040 made him a welcome guest in the embassy. He was 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:23.000 constantly being entertained by our high ranking visitors. In a 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:28.040 very real sense. The Reaga administration created Roberto Dalwison the 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:29.000 political leader. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.360 They thought, hey, maybe we can shape this guy into 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:40.880 someone we can use, and Roberto Dauison seized the opportunity. 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.639 With the support of his new US allies and some 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:50.840 wealthy salvadorn oligarchs, he created his own political party, one 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:56.440 with values modeled directly after the US Republican Party. He 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:01.639 called it La Lance Republican Nationalista or AREA for short, 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.800 a conservative far right party that was pro military with 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:28.240 anti communist aggression written right into its theme song. In 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.280 case you missed it, that lyric was El Salvador will 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:34.800 be the tomb where the Reds come to their end. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.040 With his new political party and the support of the 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.480 U S government, that we sn went on to run 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:46.640 for the Constituent Assembly, the Salvadoran version of Congress, and win, 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.320 and pretty soon that we Sawn would be running for 0:18:51.400 --> 0:19:22.240 an even higher office, the Salvadoran presidency. That's after the break. Yeah, 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:35.639 that chant from the crowd was patria patriotism, yes, communism, No, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.879 it's from a rally supporting that we Son's campaign for 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:43.640 the Salvadoran presidency in nineteen eighty four. Just to recap, 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:46.800 this is a man who tried to plot a coup 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.120 and now he's running for president. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:51.320 Hmmm. 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.240 At this point in his career that we soon felt 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.920 really untouchable, and he acted like it. In press conferences, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.800 he happily bashed the former US ambassador Robert White. 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.560 What do you think of Ambassador Robert White? 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:15.040 A DIPLOMATICA. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.480 He says, I think Robert White is a failed diplomat 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:25.000 and a sick man. He would go on to say 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.520 that all the news of his involvement with the death 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:31.480 squads was something that Robert White made up just to 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:32.400 make him look bad. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:37.160 Robert White. 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.400 In the video, there's a group of guys surrounding that wisawn. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.840 He turns to them and says, are any of you 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:57.439 and death squads? They all laughingly say no. You can 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:03.199 feel the confidence pouring off of him. But after years 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:07.720 of trying to work with him, the Reagan administration realized 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.760 that he was not the kind of ally they wanted. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.440 After numerous CIA investigations, that Weison had gained a new 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:24.560 nickname among his American friends, Blowtorch Bob. Rumors had spread 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:28.240 that his favorite method of interrogation was to use a 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:35.560 blowtorch on the limbs and genitals of his victims. This 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:38.920 was not the kind of person that the US could control. 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.720 The US ended up backing that Wuison's competitor, Napoleon d'orthe. 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:50.720 That Wison lost the nineteen eighty four presidency, but he 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.240 leveraged his national fame into a long career within the 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:59.639 Legislative Assembly, which came with a perk. As a sitting 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:04.240 member of the Legislative Assembly, he was basically immune from prosecution. 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.200 In El Salvador. Members of the Assembly can only be 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:13.439 charged by the Assembly itself, not by the justice system, 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.000 and with so many of his powerful friends being Assembly members, 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.840 that was never going to happen that we saw him. 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:28.920 Was publicly accused of Romero's murder many times, but he 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.760 was never charged, not for killing Romero, nor for leading 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:34.960 several death squads. 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:40.679 Bassan Mosaignos in bernou Chena Maqui Repente now the basis 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.920 in Elaango Burgeconi in La Casa Estra Madre. 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:50.159 Marisa didn't speak to her brother for several years. She 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:54.520 would see him on the news on TV. In her mind, 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.000 he was still the boy that she had grown up with, 0:22:58.080 --> 0:22:59.880 the brother that she had gotten along with Bess. 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:14.879 But Amir and Germano Therment and cran Is. 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:21.560 Then she would occasionally run into him at her mother's house. 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.000 She remembers one Mother's day in the middle of the 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:26.720 war that left her shaken. 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:43.200 May Medio dia p sanchero. 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:47.640 Hermos Bison pulled up to the house with a full 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:53.399 military entourage with Cherokee trucks and armed soldiers in toe in. 0:23:53.560 --> 0:24:02.320 T sinko ombres ceo p ohio entreo. 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:09.720 Albaro saba that red headed army captain he was among them. 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:14.280 He was Dawison's personal chief of security and never left 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:19.639 his side. Dauison, always the charmer, introduced his sister to 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:21.000 the group of soldiers. 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:24.680 Present Communista. 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:33.920 I'd like you to meet my sister, the communist, he said. 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:37.920 Marisa had no choice but to laugh it off, but 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:41.720 he insisted, asking her to tell them all publicly what 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:42.680 side she was on. 0:24:43.760 --> 0:24:49.720 Yeah, let's says is intelligence. 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:58.320 Yeah, it takes a lot of balls to tell your brother, 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:01.880 the CIA trained death squad leader, that if he wants 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:03.879 to know what side you're on, he should investigate a 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.160 little harder. But I guess that's the benefit of being 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:13.480 his sister. I can tell that it's hard for muddy 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:16.920 set to talk about all of this, or maybe it's 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:22.440 just exhausting. In researching her, I came across dozens of 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:27.080 other interviews from across the decades. In the earliest ones, 0:25:27.359 --> 0:25:32.600 her hair is short, curly, and chestnut brown. In each 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:36.480 successive interview, the gray in her hair becomes more and 0:25:36.600 --> 0:25:42.560 more prominent. Today it's pulled back into a bun, just 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:47.760 streaks of white and gray. I finally ask her, point blank, 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:50.359 do you think your brother had anything to do with 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:51.480 the archbishop's murder? 0:25:52.600 --> 0:25:58.160 Who's de greg keer YOKREI had the borque? 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:02.879 She tells me yes, but when she does, she doesn't 0:26:02.880 --> 0:26:07.080 look at me. She looks down at her hand, at 0:26:07.080 --> 0:26:09.720 a ring that she's been tapping against her chair every 0:26:09.800 --> 0:26:10.640 time she gets mad. 0:26:12.160 --> 0:26:13.320 Iquer Romeo. 0:26:14.440 --> 0:26:21.760 I think Romero was a rock in his shoe, she says, 0:26:22.720 --> 0:26:24.400 and that he thought that he needed to get rid 0:26:24.400 --> 0:26:29.879 of him. I feel so much sympathy for her. She 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:34.560 spent so many years answering for her brother's crimes, trying 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:36.960 to make sense of the boy that she knew and 0:26:37.040 --> 0:26:42.199 the man that he became. Is Quilos hermanos no ermanos. 0:26:43.560 --> 0:26:47.399 A brother is still a brother. I tell her and 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:56.040 she says yes with a sigh. Roberto that we saw 0:26:56.040 --> 0:26:58.760 and was diagnosed with an aggressive throat cancer in nineteen 0:26:58.800 --> 0:27:03.359 ninety two. After a long period of estrangement, Marisa did 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:05.960 go to the hospital and bid her brother goodbye. 0:27:07.320 --> 0:27:10.120 Jaunt Moribundo jan. 0:27:12.840 --> 0:27:18.280 Jo, Luisita, Luisitades Alessiman. 0:27:23.240 --> 0:27:25.480 Marisa would sit a couple afternoons a week with him, 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:31.480 watching cartoons. They never spoke about the war or of Archbishop. 0:27:31.080 --> 0:27:34.000 Romero Okay al Meno. Jissimo La. 0:27:35.920 --> 0:27:41.720 Dauisson's cancer progressed rapidly, eating away his vocal passage in 0:27:41.800 --> 0:27:44.840 a dark twist of irony. The man who was the 0:27:44.920 --> 0:27:48.479 voice of so much death and agony died with an 0:27:48.480 --> 0:27:50.800 empty throat at the age of forty eight. 0:27:51.560 --> 0:27:57.240 Bon cancer is a freetent. 0:28:01.560 --> 0:28:04.440 Looking back, I can't help but think about all the 0:28:04.520 --> 0:28:07.879 times that Roerto la Wison could have been stopped. But 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:12.439 at every turn people saw a charismatic figure who they 0:28:12.520 --> 0:28:16.480 thought that they could use for their own purposes. First 0:28:16.800 --> 0:28:24.080 the military, then the oligarchs, then the US government. Roberto 0:28:24.119 --> 0:28:27.480 da Wison died in nineteen ninety two, but he left 0:28:27.560 --> 0:28:33.000 a long shadow in El Salvador. His party Arena is 0:28:33.119 --> 0:28:37.840 still a major political player, and his son, Roberto Lawison Junior, 0:28:38.360 --> 0:28:42.960 was the mayor of one of the country's largest cities. Still, 0:28:43.560 --> 0:28:46.760 for most he is remembered as the man who planned 0:28:46.840 --> 0:28:51.480 Archbishop Romero's murder. It's a comforting and convenient end to 0:28:51.600 --> 0:28:56.240 the story. The bad man gets a horrible illness, one 0:28:56.320 --> 0:29:00.360 that seems to perfectly fit his horrific crimes, and eyes 0:29:00.600 --> 0:29:04.960 in pain. At least, that's the ending that most of 0:29:05.120 --> 0:29:07.800 l Savador's rich and powerful would like for us to 0:29:07.920 --> 0:29:11.840 leave with. But for people like me and for Nico 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:14.240 van Elston, that's not quite enough. 0:29:15.240 --> 0:29:18.720 There was a whole group of people that were funding 0:29:19.040 --> 0:29:23.000 these desk squad killings, which were largely organized and orchestrated 0:29:23.040 --> 0:29:24.840 by Delby Sum. But he wasn't the only one. 0:29:25.480 --> 0:29:30.760 That's Nico van Elston. Nico mostly focuses on environmental law, but. 0:29:30.800 --> 0:29:33.800 I've also done over the years a great deal of 0:29:34.720 --> 0:29:37.560 promono work, and in particular in the area of international 0:29:37.640 --> 0:29:38.400 human rights. 0:29:38.200 --> 0:29:41.600 Work, which I find to be an odd hobby. But 0:29:41.960 --> 0:29:44.840 Nico grew up in California like me, and he was 0:29:44.920 --> 0:29:47.240 introduced to the Oscar Romero story pretty early on. 0:29:48.240 --> 0:29:51.760 I was in high school in northern California, and I 0:29:51.920 --> 0:29:56.720 remember was the funeral for Oscar Romero, and I was 0:29:57.200 --> 0:30:01.160 generally aware of the growing number of death squad killing. 0:30:01.840 --> 0:30:03.680 So when Nico got the chance to work on a 0:30:03.760 --> 0:30:07.600 case that would hold Oscar Romero's murderers to account, well, 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:11.000 of course I leapt at it. After the coup plotters 0:30:11.040 --> 0:30:13.640 were arrested in the eighties, many of them managed to 0:30:13.680 --> 0:30:18.479 get released and disappear. Sadavia, that redheaded army captain who 0:30:18.560 --> 0:30:22.480 was Dawisoon's chief of security, was one of them. But 0:30:22.600 --> 0:30:25.560 in two thousand and four it was discovered that Sadavia 0:30:25.720 --> 0:30:27.600 was living in Modesto, California. 0:30:28.480 --> 0:30:31.320 He had a used car sales shop, as I recall. 0:30:32.120 --> 0:30:34.680 So Nico joined forces with the Center for Justice and 0:30:34.680 --> 0:30:40.200 Accountability to bring a civil lawsuit against Sadavia and his 0:30:40.440 --> 0:30:42.040 unnamed financial backers. 0:30:43.360 --> 0:30:45.840 Why Alberto Sadavia, Because he was in the US and 0:30:45.920 --> 0:30:49.040 we had jurisdiction, we could bring the case against him. 0:30:49.680 --> 0:30:51.800 The problem in Al Salvador is that there had been 0:30:51.920 --> 0:30:56.520 no criminal prosecutions concerning the Romero killing, and it wasn't 0:30:56.600 --> 0:31:00.120 possible at that time, so there was no justice this 0:31:01.000 --> 0:31:02.000 really terrible crime. 0:31:05.760 --> 0:31:09.240 In nineteen ninety two, the Salvadoran Assembly voted to enact 0:31:09.320 --> 0:31:14.400 a sweeping amnesty law. It absolved everyone of crimes committed 0:31:14.440 --> 0:31:18.200 during the war. That included not just the high profile 0:31:18.320 --> 0:31:22.040 crimes like the murder of Archbishop Romero, but thousands of 0:31:22.120 --> 0:31:26.680 other killings during the war. For every Oscar Romero, there 0:31:26.720 --> 0:31:31.160 are thousands of teachers, activists, journalists, and normal civilians who 0:31:31.240 --> 0:31:35.360 got caught in the crossfires, thousands whose names we don't know, 0:31:36.400 --> 0:31:39.040 who will never have a monument or plaque named in 0:31:39.120 --> 0:31:44.680 their honor. Likewise, for every Va we Son, there are 0:31:44.880 --> 0:31:50.680 thousands of military generals, politicians, and funders responsible for the 0:31:50.760 --> 0:31:56.360 violence who will never see justice. That's why Niko van 0:31:56.400 --> 0:31:59.719 Elston and the CJA filed their civil lawsuit in two 0:31:59.720 --> 0:32:03.320 thousand and four. They couldn't do a criminal suit in 0:32:03.360 --> 0:32:08.040 the US courts, but they could sue for damages, basically 0:32:08.320 --> 0:32:11.440 go after Sadavia and the people who had been bankrolling 0:32:11.480 --> 0:32:12.280 the death squads. 0:32:13.600 --> 0:32:17.840 There was definitely a core of oligarchs that were funding 0:32:17.960 --> 0:32:21.320 a lot of the death squads killings, and Dabisong was 0:32:21.400 --> 0:32:25.360