WEBVTT - Part 3: May 2, 2016 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:04.720 High listeners. A quick note before we start. A previous 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:09.000 version of this episode implied that two people, Sergio Rodriguez 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:13.520 and Mariano Diaz, had had direct telephone contact with one another. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:18.200 That section has been updated for clarity. Thanks, and here's 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:24.960 episode three. Felix Molina is a former radio journalist who 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:29.840 lives in Montreal, Canada, but his home is Honduras, where 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.320 his family is, his friends, the colleagues he worked alongside 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.120 for decades. But that's the country he can't return to. 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:45.760 He says, it just isn't safe for him. You you 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:50.360 always think about going back. It's just that living in 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.360 exile isn't the solution. Exile is just a way to 0:00:55.040 --> 0:01:04.160 prolong my life. Alex Celio is the reason why Felix 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.480 had to leave Honduras can't be separated from the story 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.320 of Berta Cassarus's murder. The two of them met in 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.200 the nineteen nineties. Felix was working for a radio station 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.920 where he covered human rights and indigenous issues. Naturally, his 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:27.280 path crossed with Bertasana on a flint. She seemed like 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.839 an important source for a subject that I was passionate 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.319 about the visibility of those communities that were culturally distinct 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.479 and Nonduras the ones that for years we've been taught 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:45.880 about or wrongly taught about in school or Brindio. Over 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.920 the next two decades, Felix went on to host a 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.120 variety of radio programs in Honduras, and he often reached 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.560 out to Berta. She became something more than a source. 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:03.440 She was also a good friend, one he respected dania characteristic. 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:11.400 She had this characteristic where she'd laugh almost always, and 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.600 I'd even say that included when she was going after people, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.760 giving them grief and reprimanding them. Even then she'd be 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:25.720 smiling fambience. But the very last time Felix Sawberta, that 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.679 playful quality had been replaced by something heavier. He spotted 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:35.240 her unexpectedly at an airport in El Salvador. Both of 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.800 them were catching connecting flights. He guesses it was about 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.840 a week before her murder. Felix could tell Berta was 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.960 worried about something. In fact, she straight up told him so. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:56.760 Never before had she been so convinced she'd be assassinated 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:04.560 as she was in that conversation. Never Over the years, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.320 Felix had talked to Berta many times about the dangers 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:13.000 activists faced in Honduras, but not with this sense of urgency. 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.400 She seemed convinced something bad was going to happen, and 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:23.600 soon she was certain of it. She said, they're gonna 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:31.399 kill me, Felix. They're gonna kill me, Libant Felix. When 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.119 Berta said they were going to kill her, Felix says 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.200 she was talking about the people working for Dessa, the 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:43.320 company overseeing the hydro electric projects she'd been protesting. About 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.920 a week after that encounter at the airport, Berta was dead, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.080 and Felix started digging into Dessa, trying to find out 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.120 all he could about it. He worked alongside an international 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:59.160 human rights organization. He won't reveal the group's name. It 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.119 says that at a high aired private investigators to poke 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:11.520 around the company. Joe Dania Buenola I had a good 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:16.680 relationship with this organization for the past fifteen years. They 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:21.520 trusted my work, in my journalistic credibility, and they shared 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:27.120 with me the preliminary findings of their investigation. Those preliminary 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.320 findings included the articles of incorporation for the company. This 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:39.400 a a lacta constitute. It was now Monday May two, 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:44.039 exactly two months after Barta's murder, and for the remainder 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.720 of this episode, we're going to stay here. On this day, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.080 it was Labor Day for much of Latin America, a 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:56.520 day off, but not for Felix. If they around Dia normal, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:02.520 this was normal work day for me, while everyone else 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.760 was probably resting, probably Misconsando. He got out of bed 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:12.800 that morning expecting a slow, easy day. Neither he nor 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.320 the rest of Honduras could have realized how much would 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.440 change over the course of that day. The lid would 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:24.360 be ripped off Barta's investigation, new details and new evidence 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:28.279 would be revealed, and the lives of several people Felix 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:40.280 included would permanently veer into new directions. I'm monterereel for 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:45.440 Bloomberg Green and the Story of may Sewo is this 0:05:45.520 --> 0:06:06.880 episode of Blood Ripping. M Felix hosted a radio show 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:11.560 into Goosagalpa, the Honduran capital. As it happened, his guest 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:16.640 on may Sewod was going to be Berte Cassarus's oldest daughter, Olivia. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.200 Not long after Felix got out of bed, he opened 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:24.680 his computer. A few days before, that nonprofit group he'd 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.560 been working with had provided him a file information they 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.440 dug up about Dessa, the hydro electric company in Honduras. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.039 It's not always easy to figure out who really runs 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.720 a company or whose money is behind it. Records can 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.280 be difficult to access, and even when they are available, 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:48.440 they're often full of holes. But this document listed names 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.039 of some of Dessa's executives and shareholders. Many of those 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.719 names hadn't been revealed to the public yet. As soon 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.279 as he saw it, Felix had wanted to publish it, 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.359 to send it out to the world, but a mentor 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:09.600 of his warned there might be risks Pucia. She advised 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.640 me to use caution. She said it was dangerous, and 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:22.320 in fact I understood that comeboy effectivement. But on that 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:27.400 Monday morning, Felix opened his Facebook page and took the leap. 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.880 He posted the document. Then he got ready for work, 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.440 stepped outside and flagged a taxi to go to the 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:40.880 radio studio. Traffic was lighter than usual because of the holiday, 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.520 but one road was still pretty busy, the one that 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.800 runs right in front of the presidential Palace and passed 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:56.320 some of the city's swankiest hotels. We were waiting at 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.600 the stoplight for the light to change and through this 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.600 I was distracted because it was a relaxed day and 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:10.600 always in this intersection there's constantly people around, street vendors, 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:16.200 people asking for money, jugglers, street artists. It's a stufflight 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.960 that's always full of street performers. It was a spectacle 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.440 that was too common for me to be concerned about them. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.080 But the taxi driver was keeping an eye on the scene, 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.439 and that's when he noticed a young woman with blonde 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:40.000 hair coming up behind the car. She was holding a gun. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:50.360 But before the driver could tell Felix about her and 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.120 another man came from another direction towards the taxi and 0:08:55.200 --> 0:09:00.120 he tried to unexpectedly and forcibly grab my arm. I 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.880 reacted by throwing myself all the way to the other 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:11.439 side of the back seat of the taxi. In pre taxi, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.880 the driver slammed his foot on the gas to escape. 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.199 Felix was still holding his cell phone as the taxi 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:27.840 lurched forward, tires squealing, and as a moment conductors a salto. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.120 At that moment, the taxi driver had no doubt that 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.320 this was an assault, and he fled the scene, as 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.560 they say, and going the wrong way to get us 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:58.120 to safety. Pul delamos and contra villa robberies are pretty 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.760 common in Honduras. Felix figured the couple probably had just 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.280 wanted to steal his cell phone. He considered himself lucky 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.480 to have held onto it and to his life when 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.760 he finally made it into the studio. Felix described the 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:17.079 attempted robbery in a Facebook post. He ended it by typing, 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:25.960 what a country we live in? Pensicki it Alava. I 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.200 thought it was something that happened to thousands of people 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.880 in Honduras. They rubbed phones and if people resist, they 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:44.520 kill them. Maybe it was just a routine, though terrifying 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.480 example of petty street crime. Or was there more to 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.080 it than that? For Felix, that question would grow bigger 0:10:54.480 --> 0:11:06.840 and scarier as the day pushed on. The Morning of 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.120 May two also got off to a rocky start for 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:15.720 Sergio Rodriguez. Remember Sergio. He was Dessa's point man for 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.840 the ahwa's Arca Damn and Rio Blanco, where Berta had 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:23.679 rallied protesters against the project. Sergio had started off as 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:28.200 the man in charge of environmental standards. Later his duties 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:34.360 expanded to include community relations. After Berta was killed Some 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:39.079 of her colleagues had told investigators that Sergio had threatened her, 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.280 and so a couple of weeks after the murder, the 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.720 investigators called him in to ask him about it. He 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:52.120 denied the threats. After that questioning, they also made Sergio 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.480 list his address into Goosey Galpa in case they needed 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.959 to reach him. Sergio had an apartment in the capital, 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:04.240 but that not the address he listed. Instead, he told 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.720 them the address of his mother's house. He says he 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.560 wasn't trying to deceive them, and he didn't really think 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.720 anything about it until that morning on May two, the 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.240 same morning when Felix Molina had experienced that strange encounter 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:28.760 in the taxicab. That morning, Sergio's phone woke him up 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:33.160 at about five thirty. It was his attorney calling. He 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.360 told Sergio the police had a warrant to search what 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.800 they thought was his house. So Sergio got out of bed, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.760 put on a yellow Polo shirt and a pair of khakis, 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:50.320 and went to his mom's. When I got there, I 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.800 saw all the police cars and military vehicles, people wearing 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:58.040 balaclavas from the Federal Agency of Investigation and the prosecutors. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.120 I was there before or six in the morning at 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.840 my mom's and they told me I was being arrested 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:18.800 for the death of Betts. As they read him his rights, 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.600 Sergio watched them search every corner of the house. They 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.480 searched one bedroom at a time, going through the closets, 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.840 the bathrooms. Officers were noting the colors of the closet 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:36.079 doors and the bedspreads. His mother struggled to sort through 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:44.280 the confusion in lyme pres Obviously, I was concerned about 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.520 the impression this had on my mom. My mom is 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:51.520 an eighty four year old woman. I was worried about 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.280 her health, so I asked them, please, please, could you 0:13:55.320 --> 0:14:04.120 avoid exposing me to the media? VANDAM released. The investigators 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:09.240 had other priorities they were hunting for evidence. The only 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.920 item of note they collected from this raid was Sergio's 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:17.600 cell phone, a gold Samsung Galaxy Edge with a black case. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.600 But this wasn't the only place being searched that morning. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.640 At the exact same time, ten separate teams of investigators 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:33.480 and military police were launching simultaneous raids. While Sergio watched 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.840 them pick apart his mother's place, another team was rifling 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.400 through the Dessa offices inside it to goose Galpa high rise, 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.760 and other teams were raiding the houses of five other men. 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.080 Three of those men would be arrested that same morning, 0:14:50.640 --> 0:15:01.680 along with Sergio. By the time of police escorted Sergio 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.760 out of his mother's house, dozens of reporters were outside. 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.520 Their cameras were ready as he was escorted past them. 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.240 The police draped a fuzzy yellow blanket over Sergio's head 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.360 and led him into the back seat of an unmarked car. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:23.480 Sergio's request to the police to keep things quiet apparently 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:31.760 had backfired. Thea Luno from Mikasa. The only place the 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:37.040 media showed up was my house, Sergio, and the news 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:41.160 of the arrests flooded the airwaves in Honduras that morning. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:51.080 Being practical, military spokesman listed the names of Sergio and 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:55.040 the three others who've been arrested that morning. The first 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.120 was a former Honduran military officer who previously had been 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.440 in charge of secure Purity Fordessa, near the Gualukakee River. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.120 The second was a veteran of the Hondurans Special Forces, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:12.320 an army major who worked in military intelligence. The third 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.000 was a year old one of at least three suspected cicadios, 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:21.840 or hitman hired to kill albert To the police hauled 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:26.800 all four men to a federal building into Gooseagalpa. Meanwhile, 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.360 other officers were cataloging the evidence collected during the raids. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:37.600 They had cell phones, tablets, and hard drives. Agents turned 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:42.000 the home of the accused hitman inside out, and then 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.560 they searched the home next door, where his twin brother lived. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.240 They stripped the sheets from the beds and lifted the mattresses. 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:56.560 Underneath one mattress they found something interesting, a gun with 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.760 a white plated handle. It was a Smith and Wesson 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.919 thirty eight special, the same kind of gun that had 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:28.080 killed Berta. Police called it Operation Jaguar. For weeks, the 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.320 investigators had been planning this morning of raids in the 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.679 two months after the murder. The Cassarra's family and really 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:41.960 everyone in Honduras saw the investigation as a series of missteps. 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:47.560 Those missteps were real, and investigators wasted weeks following too 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:52.479 many false leads. They'd seemed too suspicious of Berta's friends, 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:59.320 her colleagues, and especially of Gustavo Castro. Suberta's family and colleagues. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.399 It seemed in those early days that no one was 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:07.040 looking at Dessa the hydro Electric Company. But now, exactly 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.679 two months after the murder, it was clear that investigators 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:15.480 had in fact shifted their focus away from Barta's close friends. 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:21.240 Several disconnected clues had come together, and police believed they 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:25.040 pointed to Dessa. A couple of days after the murder, 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.159 police had gotten their hands on a thumb drive, the 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:30.880 kind you pop into a USB port on a computer. 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.600 This drive actually had been plugged into a security camera. 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.160 That camera had captured grainy images of the road leading 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.640 into Bartas subdivision. Investigators scanned the files on the thumb 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.280 drive and found the footage from the night Rita was killed. 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:54.679 On that video, at PM, you see headlights from a 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:59.800 vehicle nearing the subdivision. The vehicle stops and three p 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.800 bolt visible only as silhouettes run through the camera frame. 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:11.159 You can't make out any faces. This was one of 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:15.040 the first pieces of evidence that gave investigators an idea 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.760 of what they now think really happened on the night 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:30.920 of Berta's murder. It was just the start. Days after 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.760 the murder, police pulled data from the cellular phone towers 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.480 closest to Berta's house, but it took them about five 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.439 weeks to analyze it. Aside from the other residents of 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.560 the subdivision, five cell phones had been active near Berta's 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.800 house surround the time of the murder. The police believed 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.760 that three of those phones belonged to the hitman, including 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.639 one who had been arrested on May two at the 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:01.159 same time as Sergio Rodriguez. Sarah Geo's phone could not 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.359 be traced to the subdivision that night, but that didn't 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.800 mean he was cleared. There was still more evidence to collect. 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.760 Bread crumbs of The police were following clues that seemed 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.760 to connect Dessa to the others who had been at 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.960 the scene of the crime. One of the other three 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.480 men arrested in the early morning raids of May two 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:25.199 was named Mariano Diaz. He was the army major, the 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.640 guy who worked in military intelligence. But months before Berta's 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:34.320 murder on during investigators had started keeping an eye on him. 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.280 This had nothing to do with Berta, at least not 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.359 at first. They thought Diaz might be linked to a 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.320 drug trafficking and kidnapping ring. They began tracing his phone calls. 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.359 That phone tap turned out to be an incredible stroke 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:55.480 of luck. After Berta was killed, investigators realized that Diaz 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:03.919 had been in contact with people connected to Dessa. The 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.800 more they looked at the phone records, the more connections emerged. 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.520 Both Sergio and Diaz had also been talking to the 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.560 former deaths As security chief, a man named Douglas Bustillo. 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:22.480 He also would be arrested in the raids of may Sewo. Bustillo, 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:26.639 in turn, had also been in regular contact with two 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.600 suspected gunmen that police had tracked a Berta's house the 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.680 night of the murder. All of this information justified the 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:39.040 warrant the police used for the May second raids. Investigators 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:43.320 laid out a hypothetical plot they believed Sergio and Diaz, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.640 the expert in military intelligence, were each involved in planning 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:52.280 separate aspects of the murder. Sergio, they said, helped surveil 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:57.879 Berto through a network of informants. Diaz had handled other details, 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.000 like getting the guns in the vehicle used for the crime. 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.640 Both of them separately were in contact with the former 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:11.240 desks A security chief, Bustillo. The police alleged Boustillo helped 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:16.320 put together the team of cicarios, low level criminals willing 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:22.320 to kill for a payday. The company immediately denied all 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.800 involvement in the murder and continues to dispute this interpretation 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:31.639 of events, But for investigators it emerged as a working theory. 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.240 They still needed proof, of course, and that was the 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:40.840 mission of the raids that morning, to collect cell phones, computers, 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:45.800 and tablets, anything that might be hiding more evidence. That 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.560 thirty eight special they found under a mattress seemed to 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:53.919 back up the investigator's theory, or at least it didn't 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:58.080 contradict it. A ballistics expert would later examine the gun 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.639 alongside some of this shell fragments collected in Bertha's house. 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:17.200 They matched. That afternoon, Sergio and the other three men 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:25.440 were locked behind bars. They held me in preventative detention 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:30.200 and took me to a maximum security prison. It was 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:37.399 a huge shock. He listened to other inmates screaming, and 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:43.720 then all of a sudden, everything went dark. Ceph and Lewis. 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.159 The electricity went out, and the first thing I thought 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:51.600 was that they were going to kill me because of 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:53.720 all the stories you hear about what it's like in 0:23:53.720 --> 0:24:00.399 the federal penitentiary and Penitentially, it's late afternoon out on 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:05.800 May second, Felix Molina is inside the radio studio like 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:10.240 everyone else. He's been following the news, catching reports about 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:13.520 the raids and the arrests. Felix had planned to talk 0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:17.359 to Barratt's oldest daughter, Olivia on his show that afternoon, 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:20.800 but the Cassara's family had been caught off guard by 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:23.879 the events of that morning. They first learned of the 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:28.800 raids when reporters started calling them. Olivia and her sisters 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:31.920 said that because they didn't know anything about the arrests, 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:35.520 they couldn't be sure that the true architects of the 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:40.000 assassination had been captured. Olivia said that the four men 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:47.879 arrested might have been fall guys. We don't trust the 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:52.480 judicial system in this country. We don't believe in it. 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:57.960 Felix also had his doubts, and after the attempted robbery 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:02.120 that morning, he was thinking a lot about his own safety. 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:08.360 I mentioned it on air, and there were people who 0:25:08.400 --> 0:25:12.160 heard this and who saw my Facebook post and who 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:17.040 were worried for me. He call me post. Those calls 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:20.879 from concerned listeners included one from members of a local 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:25.399 human rights organization. They invited Felix to their office to 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:29.000 tell them more about the assault. They knew Felix had 0:25:29.040 --> 0:25:33.600 publicly posted the names of Death's executives and investors earlier 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:37.680 that morning, and they suspected the assault might be connected 0:25:37.720 --> 0:25:42.400 to that. So late that afternoon, Felix caught another cab 0:25:42.560 --> 0:25:45.960 to their office. He told them all the details of 0:25:46.000 --> 0:25:48.760 the hold up once he got there, about how the 0:25:48.760 --> 0:25:52.000 woman and the man had threatened him at gunpoint, how 0:25:52.080 --> 0:25:55.840 is quick thinking taxi driver had sped away just in time. 0:25:56.800 --> 0:25:58.879 By the time the meeting was over and it was 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:02.040 time for him to go, Felix actually felt a little 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:11.040 nervous those personas, And I asked two people who were 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:14.080 there at the office at the time if they'd come 0:26:14.119 --> 0:26:17.280 with me outside to look for a taxi. And it 0:26:17.320 --> 0:26:20.120 took a long time to find a cab to take 0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:23.200 me back to my house. Finally I grabbed the street 0:26:23.200 --> 0:26:31.760 taxi like I always do, Como on tax On his 0:26:31.840 --> 0:26:35.960 way home, he realized he was seeing the same familiar buildings, 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:40.040 the same familiar streets that he'd passed by earlier in 0:26:40.080 --> 0:26:44.119 the day on his way to work. This was the 0:26:44.160 --> 0:26:47.560 avenue where he had been assaulted that morning, near the 0:26:47.560 --> 0:26:53.160 Presidential Palace by the five star hotels. The taxi made 0:26:53.160 --> 0:26:56.400 its way to the very street light where Felix had 0:26:56.520 --> 0:27:00.760 narrowly escaped danger earlier that morning. He sat there in 0:27:00.800 --> 0:27:04.080 the taxi waiting for the light to change, just like before, 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:09.040 but this time he was paying attention. His eyes scanned 0:27:09.040 --> 0:27:14.000 the street. He noticed movement around the car. It didn't 0:27:14.119 --> 0:27:23.600 feel right, yea mislus generals personas sin person, and that 0:27:23.840 --> 0:27:27.040 the same street light. This time it wasn't two people, 0:27:27.200 --> 0:27:30.119 but rather five people who surrounded the taxi while we 0:27:30.240 --> 0:27:33.399 waited for the light to change. They told me, this 0:27:33.640 --> 0:27:43.119 time you won't escape. He may staves. A man reached 0:27:43.160 --> 0:27:46.760 into the taxi and grabbed Felix with one hand. In 0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:50.720 his other hand, the man held a pistol He made 0:27:50.720 --> 0:28:10.560 the sparrow. He shot me point blank. La valla. The 0:28:10.680 --> 0:28:13.480 bullet that he shot at me went through both my legs. 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:18.080 The assailants fled, and a group of bystanders rushed to 0:28:18.200 --> 0:28:26.440 Felix's taxi to see if they could help. I really 0:28:26.520 --> 0:28:30.680 could have bled to death in the taxi. I was scared, crying. 0:28:30.920 --> 0:28:34.800 I didn't know what to do. The people insisted taking 0:28:34.880 --> 0:28:37.679 me to the hospital because I couldn't move, I couldn't 0:28:37.720 --> 0:28:40.480 get up from the seat. I couldn't feel my legs. 0:28:41.440 --> 0:28:45.200 So finally I got to the public hospital, the teaching hospital, 0:28:45.320 --> 0:28:47.720 and just as I got to the entrance of the hospital, 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:56.640 I lost consciousness. Who's hospital. Felix had spent that late 0:28:56.720 --> 0:29:01.360 morning devouring media reports about the arrests in Barton's murder case. 0:29:02.480 --> 0:29:07.320 Now as evening approached, he himself had become part of 0:29:07.400 --> 0:29:11.880 the news and Honduras, a prominent radio journalist has been 0:29:11.920 --> 0:29:16.880 shot four times but survived. Felix Molina was reportedly attacked 0:29:16.960 --> 0:29:20.040 twice in the same day Monday. He was shot twice 0:29:20.120 --> 0:29:23.120 in each leg, and a statement released by human rights 0:29:23.160 --> 0:29:26.360 group Molina said he believed he was directly targeted and 0:29:26.480 --> 0:29:30.800 vowed to continue practicing journalism without fear. He said, quote, 0:29:31.040 --> 0:29:34.480 I declare myself a survivor of the insecurity that the 0:29:34.600 --> 0:29:39.080 majority of the country faces. Molina shooting came on the 0:29:39.240 --> 0:29:44.040 eve of World Press Freedom Day. So Felix is in 0:29:44.160 --> 0:29:47.760 his hospital bit and he's replaying everything in his mind. 0:29:48.560 --> 0:29:53.240 The news that morning suggested that current and former military officials, 0:29:53.720 --> 0:29:58.120 including at least one in military intelligence, had been detained 0:29:58.200 --> 0:30:02.040 in Barton's murder, and Felix begins to think about the 0:30:02.080 --> 0:30:06.720 assault on him. It seems so organized, so pre planned, 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:11.440 and he's growing convinced both of the assaults against him 0:30:11.640 --> 0:30:20.760 that day we're connected to Berta's murder the Swiss Siskyspitale. 0:30:21.360 --> 0:30:24.920 After the second attack, after I was in the hospital, 0:30:25.160 --> 0:30:27.920 I started to reflect on this, on the motus of 0:30:28.120 --> 0:30:32.480 arandi of criminal organizations in Honduras, it was all there 0:30:32.600 --> 0:30:36.520 in assassination of Bertha. You had military men who were 0:30:36.600 --> 0:30:40.720 experts and intelligence trained by the Special Forces, and then 0:30:40.800 --> 0:30:43.720 you had hired hitman without experience as a way to 0:30:43.880 --> 0:30:48.959 mislead investigations. So I started to reflect that what happened 0:30:49.000 --> 0:30:52.320 to me wasn't just an everyday crime, that it was 0:30:52.600 --> 0:30:55.920 a consequence of my coverage of the story of Verta Casis. 0:30:57.520 --> 0:31:01.959 His assailants were never caught, and he can't prove they 0:31:02.000 --> 0:31:06.520 were connected to the company or its shareholders, who completely 0:31:06.640 --> 0:31:11.760 deny all involvement. But Felix is convinced that the events 0:31:11.800 --> 0:31:16.240 of that day amounted to more than a chain of coincidences. 0:31:18.520 --> 0:31:22.320 And now now I can say without any doubt that 0:31:22.440 --> 0:31:25.760 I suffered the consequences of reporting on the work and 0:31:25.960 --> 0:31:30.840 on the assassination of Berta cas It is definitely covert. 0:31:32.840 --> 0:31:48.960 Ultravajo definite. It's nighttime now. On May two, the President 0:31:49.080 --> 0:31:53.480 of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, held a press conference a 0:31:53.520 --> 0:31:57.840 few hours earlier to celebrate the four arrests. Now, he's 0:31:57.880 --> 0:32:01.160 preparing for a trip the next morning. He needs to 0:32:01.200 --> 0:32:04.880 be in Washington, d C. That's where an energy summit 0:32:05.040 --> 0:32:08.240 is being held for leaders from the US, Mexico, and 0:32:08.320 --> 0:32:12.520 the Caribbean. Hernandez is scheduled to meet with some very 0:32:12.720 --> 0:32:17.840 high profile attendees at that conference. Vice President Joe Biden 0:32:18.200 --> 0:32:21.360 is one of them. Hernandez wants to assure him that 0:32:21.520 --> 0:32:26.720 renewable energy projects like hydro electric dams, our developments worth 0:32:26.840 --> 0:32:31.840 backing and integrated North America working to promote energy security 0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:35.200 beyond our borders can be a major asset for the 0:32:35.520 --> 0:32:39.880 entire hemisphere, and it is profoundly it's profoundly in the 0:32:40.000 --> 0:32:43.680 self interest of the United States to see the Caribbean 0:32:43.760 --> 0:32:48.640 country succeed. Secretary of State John Kerry has been optimistic 0:32:48.680 --> 0:32:53.680 about energy partnerships with Central American countries, especially those countries 0:32:53.920 --> 0:32:58.240 encouraging private sector involvement. Every one of US, I think, 0:32:58.880 --> 0:33:02.160 should take note of the that the Caribbean and Central 0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:07.200 American nations continue to pursue legal, regulatory and policy reforms. 0:33:07.240 --> 0:33:10.520 Are going to modernize and integrate their energy systems and 0:33:10.640 --> 0:33:13.760