WEBVTT - Avenger | 8. The Bodies 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.880 Hello, Avenger listeners, It's Steve Fishman and I'm really glad 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.120 you've tuned in. I hope you love this show as 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.200 much as we do. A quick word on an upcoming 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:14.160 bonus episode. We're doing a bonus with Miriam, the real Miriam. 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.720 We'll be asking her questions, your questions, and getting answers. 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.840 She'll update us on what's going on in her world 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:26.040 and a lot has Please email your questions or thoughts 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:32.840 or comments too. Info at Orbitmedia dot fm. Oh and 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.120 Fisher Stevens can answer your questions too. He's our co 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.639 founder and resident Oscar winner. He's an actor you saw 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.520 him in Succession and director of actors like al Pacino 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:48.760 and Justin Timberlake. For Avenger, he directed Alexis Bledel, who 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.720 voices Miriam. If We're lucky, Alexis who was the star 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.400 of Gilmore Girls and Handmaid's Tale and is the daughter 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:01.639 of an Argentine. We'll chip in answers to so let 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.600 us know your thoughts and questions, hopes and prayers. Info 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:14.759 at Orbitmedia dot FM. Thanks. In this episode, justice happens finally, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:20.600 but a question remains, one that brings Miriam to the edge. 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:26.320 Why did I survive or answer will move you. A 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.240 quick word about subscriptions. If you love ads, listen on. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.560 If you're not so keen on ads, sign up for 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:38.520 True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. That's our subscription channel. 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.280 You'll get no ads, and also you can binge the 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.240 entire Avengers series. It's just two ninety nine a month. 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:52.160 Thanks. Before we begin, please note that for this story 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.400 we interviewed Medium and everyone else for dozens of hours 0:01:55.440 --> 0:02:07.360 in Spanish. We hired actors to voice their words in English. 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.760 It's twenty eleven, almost three decades since Medium's released from prison, 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:16.320 since the fall of the dictatorship and Argentina's returned to democracy. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:20.320 By now, a judge has attached the investigation against the 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.720 three pilots to the Big SMA case. It's gearing up 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:28.639 to be the biggest human rights trial in the country's history. 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.200 Months before the trial begins, a prosecutor investigating the Death 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.480 Flights makes a surprise announcement. 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.840 He said they had identified the pilots of the death Flights, 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.200 who flew the Santa Cruz church group in December nineteen 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:44.040 seventy seven. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.720 He doesn't release any names, but once it's in the news, 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.079 the pilots will know it's them. Medium is confused. Why 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.919 should the prosecutor do this before the pilots were arrested. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:56.720 It doesn't make sense. 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.840 Was he trying to give the pilots a chance to 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.200 leave the country. 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:03.960 But things get even weirder. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.320 Mario Danielle Arub He was sixty two. He had been 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:13.400 flying for the National Airline. This pilot went to the 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.880 judge's office and turned himself. 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.079 In instead of arresting him, the judge confirms he's being 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.120 accused of flying a death flight in December nineteen seventy seven, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.320 of piloting the sky van that Medium and Giancarlo had 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:28.280 found in Florida. 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.960 So the judge tells the pilot not to worry that 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.520 he could go home, that someone would contact him soon. 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:43.840 I mean, what the risk of the pilot's fleeing vanishing? 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:45.920 It kept me up all night. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.200 Several weeks later, Medium wakes up, makes coffee, and then 0:03:54.600 --> 0:04:04.200 she hears breaking news coming from the radiotoria. 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.800 Finally, the judge ordered the arrest of the three pilots 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.720 involved in the flight that killed the Santa Cruz church group. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.840 Among them were the two French nuns and the mothers 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.520 who were looking for their disappeared. 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:25.200 From Orbit media. I'm andres caaba schedo. This is Avenger 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:41.680 the story of Medium Lewin Episode eight. 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.480 Justice. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.680 When it comes to putting the top generals, the junta 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.240 leaders in prison for life, the path was hardly a 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:54.120 straight line. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.560 After the amnesty laws went into effect. There were trials 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.400 that tried to expose the truth, but the accused were 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.000 able to admit they had kidnapped and tortured people, and 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.000 then they were just able to return to their homes 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.320 and their everyday lives with zero consequences. 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:17.000 Remember, the laws passed by the democratically elected government gave 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.960 amnesty to anyone who claimed to be just following orders. 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.280 The human rights trials against military officials were halted by 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.000 those laws. Then, in two thousand and five, two years 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.520 before Medium and Gen Carlo started their investigation, the Supreme 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:38.240 Court finally declares the amnesty laws unconstitutional. Now the trials 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.160 are back on, more people are speaking up, more evidence 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:49.920 is emerging. The Junta leaders, once spared prison sentences, are 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:51.040 vulnerable again. 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.640 The Supreme Court annulled the amnesty, opening the door for 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.080 Videla to be sentenced again. On thirty one, New counts 0:05:58.120 --> 0:05:59.480 of torture and murder. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.320 Jorge Rafaele Videla, who orchestrated the military court the. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.400 Highlight of a week of convictions against violators of human 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.479 rights and life sentence for eighty five year old for 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:11.719 her Rafaele Videla. 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.880 In twenty twelve, a year after being convicted for torture 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.920 and murder, Videla is facing a new trial. 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.120 Activists were gathered outside the court in a nearby square. 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.320 A television link had been set up to beam the 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:32.599 court proceedings to the hundreds of people who had assembled outside. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.480 The charges were horrific. During its rule, the junta stole 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.080 roughly five hundred babies from their mothers and then sold 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:44.160 those babies or give them to military families deemed politically acceptable. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.920 Prosecutors believed the baby stealing was so widespread that there 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.120 was no way the orders weren't coming from the top. 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.520 They charged Videla with masterminding it all. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:59.280 Vidella has repeatedly justified his regime's brutal tactics. 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.800 Videla's defense, yes, babies were confiscated, but he had nothing 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.400 to do with it. It wasn't some sort of grand 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.440 government plan. Apparently he wanted people to believe it was 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:20.400 some sort of freelance project by military underlings. The jury disagreed. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:25.000 Videla was found guilty and got another fifty years in prison. 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.000 Less than a year later, he was found dead in 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:32.160 his cell, sitting on a toilet. He had reportedly fallen 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:33.960 and never got medical attention. 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.880 There are still some eight hundred other alleged rights violators 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.320 awaiting trial, and given their advanced age and the lately 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:52.080 legal process, they may never face Justice. 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.840 Alfredo Ignacio Attis, Antonio Perniaz. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:04.119 It's over twenty eleven. Alfredostis, known as the Blonde Angel 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.400 of death sits in a packed courtroom. It's sentencing day. 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.320 Once Astes used his angelic face to infiltrate a group 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.360 of mothers of the disappeared. He had kissed those he 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.119 wanted kidnapped. Then they were taken to a clandestine center 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.280 and put on death flights. He no longer has that 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.920 baby face. Now he looks disgruntled. His hair's combed to 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.400 the side, and he's wearing a dark gray suit with 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:36.800 a black tie. A few rows behind him, a glass 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.480 wall has been installed to separate defendants like Astees from 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.680 the justice hungry relatives of the disappeared watching everything unfold. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.959 I sat just feet away from Astise. At one point 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:55.000 he looked right at me with resentment, as if I 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.439 owed him some sort of loyalty. It was absurd, as 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.319 if he were telling me, how could you? 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:08.280 Astis had really believed Medium was an ally twenty years earlier, 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.800 when Medium was still under Junta control. He had written 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.760 his contact information on a napkin in case she needed 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.840 anything after she was released from prison. The same napkin 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.240 Medium had produced in the nineteen eighty five Junta trial 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.400 to implicate Astis. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:29.640 In the Ciencia Parsial del Suez. Doctor Ricardo Louis Fardiez. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.360 Two rows in front of Astis is Jorge Eltira Costa, 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.640 the guy who used to say that Jesus sat on 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.120 his shoulder every night and told him who to put 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.160 on the death flights. Medium knew him well. He had 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:42.719 taken her and her parents. 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.319 To dinner Bigamoo Condo Ajorge. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.600 The families and activists were anxiously waiting, so were the 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.320 people who couldn't get in, watching live through a big 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:03.679 screen outside the court. Gian Carlo was also there, taking pictures, 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.120 but we barely saw each other. There were so many people. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.560 A Coostaynastis were sentenced to life in prison for crimes 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.960 against humanity. In the years to come, these commanders would 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.480 be tried and sentenced over and over again. But the 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.960 biggest human rights case in Argentina's history is still in 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:27.520 the making. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.720 The trial over what happened at the Navy Mechanical School 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.000 is the largest ever human rights trial in Argentina. It 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.160 will be a long process, but one many are hoping 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.280 will bring closure to a painful chapter of Argentine history. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:48.520 This trial marked the first time that Argentina's justice system 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.240 acknowledged that the death flights were a systematic plan to 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:58.320 kill thousands of dissidents, a state sanctioned assassination program. The 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.600 pilots were in the spotlight, especially those who flew the 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.839 planes that killed the mothers and the nuns, the victims 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.520 chosen from the crowd by asties. They'd been loaded on 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.400 a death flight in December nineteen seventy seven, a sky van, 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.240 the same plane that Medium and Giancarlo had tracked down 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.760 in Florida, with the flight lugs and the pilot's names. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.079 Pilots who for thirty years after flying death machines had 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:27.319 filtered back into civilian life, leading normal lives as if 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.120 nothing had happened. At the time of the trial, two 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:35.319 of these pilots were flying regularly to Europe for Atlinias Argentinas, 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.760 the country's national airline. One of them was rue. 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.200 That Arula's name. I heard it before. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.880 Whenever Giangadlo went to Rome, he would fly with Arolinias Argentinas. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:51.920 The thing is that in this flight they tend to 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.640 say the names of the pilots, and the Arula's name 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.199 stuck with me because it was a Sardo last name 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.160 from Sardinia, Italy. So when we looked at the list 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.640 of pilots from the sky, then I immediately recognized the name. 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.480 It was the same Arou I had actually flown with 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:08.200 a death flight. 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.800 Pilot. Eru and Saint George had asked to leave the 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.160 military around nineteen seventy eight, but not all of the 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:19.960 pilots did. One pilot, Alejandro Domingo de Agustino, stayed and 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.000 eventually ran airplane maintenance. 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.200 Seventeen days after the flight where the nuns and the 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:31.360 activists were killed, a military superior wrote a letter praising 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.720 the Agustina for his ability to follow instructions, his ability 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:38.160 to be level headed. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.480 Just how deeply they were involved in the death flights 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.960 would determine their punishment. The pilots claimed they only flew 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.840 the planes and didn't know about the executions happening a 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.760 few feet away from the cockpit, while Enrique Mirinto, the 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.720 aviation expert who had helped Medium and gian Carlo understand 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:01.000 what happened, told the jury no way. The pilots had 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.240 to be an intimate part of the death machine. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.880 Inside the plane, a person must be assigned as a 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.559 flight technician of sorts. This would have been the actual 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:17.080 person operating the latches. Those latches enabled the cargo doors 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.560 to be opened during flight, but for this to happen, 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.360 that technician has to inform the pilot about it so 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:25.680 that it's done safely. 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.600 A pilot must know what's happening inside the plane at 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.280 all times, from the number of passengers to how much 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.760 cargoes on board. Weight is an important safety consideration, So 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.640 when the pilot hears that a technician wants to open 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.880 the hatch mid flight, he has to ask. He has 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.679 to know what's happening. There is no chance they're not aware. 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:54.680 No possible way. Begnetto's testimony is strong, convincing, but was 0:13:54.720 --> 0:14:02.319 it enough to build a solid case. In twenty twelve, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.680 Medium finds herself in a unique position, a journalist whose 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.000 investigation led to this trial and is also a witness 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.160 to what happened at the Esthma clandestine center. 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.000 I have to be ready to talk with lawyers and 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.959 public defenders, and then I have to testify over and 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:24.160 over again, which as long as I'm alive, it's my responsibility. 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.320 At this point, a new prosecutor comes into the picture. 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.840 Mercedes Sosa Riley has the big task of consolidating all 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.760 of the survivor's testimonies people at ESMA with the evidence 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:38.840 from Medium and gian Carlo's investigation. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.960 Ila pruea mediam al huisio foe absolute am. 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.600 That's Mercedes. She's explaining how the evidence Medium brought to 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.200 the case is incredibly revealing. The flight logs are the 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.080 missing link we needed to solve the case, she says, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.320 the names of the pilots, signs of abnormal flights, and 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.680 details about the flight that killed the church group. 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:09.720 Yes a la Santa Gruz. 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:15.160 Once all the claims, testimonies and evidence are compiled, Mercedes 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.120 is ready to present a case where the whole isthma 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.520 structure would, for the first time in history, be on trial. 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:28.640 The kidnappers, the infiltrators, the torturers, the pilots, any superior 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.920 who gave them orders, all would now face. 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:40.120 Justice Buenodiyas by Mosaicio. 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:49.560 Finally, on November twenty eight, twenty twelve, the trial begins. 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:56.160 And there they were, sitting side by side, sixty eight 0:15:56.360 --> 0:16:00.880 people accused, a chain that started with us tie and 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.920 ended with the Pilots Ru, the Saint George and the Agustino, 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:10.840 and went straight to Altigre Acosta. Every single one of 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.480 those sixty eight had done their part to complete this 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.440 horrifying mission successfully. 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:20.640 Pedro Santa Maria Antonio Anyek. 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.560 Inside the courtroom, the glass wall divides the accused from 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.560 the crowd, including relatives of the victims. The accused sit 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.880 with their defenders in a row just feet away. The 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.760 three judges take the bench. One speaks into a thin 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:40.720 black microphone and starts the proceedings, and Rigapinto sits among 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.640 the crowd quietly in a corner. He had been instrumental 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:49.120 in validating Medium and Gian Carlo's findings, but today. He 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.040 just wants to be there and Seattle. 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.160 As soon as the judges entered the room, I got 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.280 a feeling that this could really lead to something good. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.400 The hearings go on for months. Then it's Medium's turn 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:12.280 to testify. She sits near the prosecutors and the judges. 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:14.960 The lawyers of the pilots are there, but the pilots 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.720 themselves watch from a screen inside prison. They'd been given 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:20.560 the choice whether or not to be there. 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.040 It was such a shame. I would have loved to 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:30.400 see their faces, but the pilots were following everything from prison. 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:35.320 Medium walks up to the stand, sits down and begins 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.199 telling her story. Is Timonio the Medium? 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:39.480 Yes. 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:48.520 Mercedes says that Medium's account her investigation were essential to 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.480 the larger argument to bring those who took part in 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:57.080 the death flights to justice. The hearings go on for 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:01.760 another two years. The prosecutor has nearly eight hundred testimonies 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:06.360 against the sixty eight accused, including the three pilots. By 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.640 then many were elderly. Fourteen died of natural causes during 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.560 those two years, so now there are only fifty four 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.919 defendants left. At the end, the prosecution demanded life sentences 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.000 for all the accused. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.760 The Saint George died mid trial, so that day only 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:29.240 two of the three identified pilots were there, Aru and 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:30.120 di Agostino. 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:35.080 In November twenty seventeen, the judges finally hand down sentences 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.280 for the pilots, along with others who participated in the 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.840 flights and the asthma operations. 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.439 Dozens of people gathered outside this court house in Buenos 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.400 Aires to hear the sentences against fifty four former members 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:57.119 of security forces, among them Alfredo Atis, known as the 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:01.159 Angel of Death, who infiltrated human rights and had some 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:02.280 of their members killed. 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.159 The sentencing could legitimize all the work Giancarlo and I 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:11.439 put into the investigation. The press was spreading rumors that 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.480 the pilots wouldn't be convicted, that there wasn't enough evidence. 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:24.520 Tura alberedicto filmato oral. 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:32.119 In court, everyone is in place, witnesses, lawyers, prosecutors behind 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.280 them in the glass wall, medium and the relatives of 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.679 the victims holding pictures of the disappeared. The defendants are 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.760 huddled together on one side of the room. Many are 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:47.560 well past their seventies. Alfredostie, the blonde angel, more like 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.800 a gray haired Angel now is sitting wearing a suit 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.040 with an Argentine flagpen. He looks pensive. To his right 0:19:55.280 --> 0:20:00.520 is Altigra Costa. He looks skinny, tired. He's wearing glasses 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:04.439 in a blue zipped up jacket. To Astis's left is 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.680 Mario Ru, one of the Skyban pilots. He's wearing jeans 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.880 at tucked in shirt. He leans back in his chair 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.359 with his arms crossed, as if he were watching a play. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.719 The judge sentences Ru to life in prison for the 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.280 death of the nuns and the mothers, and his face 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:32.639 changes completely. He looks surprised, tense, angry. He shakes his 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.360 head in denial, covers his mouth with his left hand. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.680 The judge continues, ordering a life sentence for the other 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:49.000 living pilot, Alejandro Domingo di Austina. Finally, Astis in Acosta, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:54.480 the blonde Angel, and Altigre Medium's captors were given additional 0:20:54.520 --> 0:21:04.400 life sentences. Are Astis. He denied wrongdoing until the very 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:11.840 end was important. In one of his previous closing statements, 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:16.080 he said, quote, I will never apologize for defending my 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:27.800 country end quote. A decade had passed since Medium met 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.159 giancadlo at that cafe for the first time when she 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:36.560 found him bizarre, impudent, but also charming. A decade since 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.840 their first dinners and shared cigarettes, and since Giancarlo convinced 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:45.960 Medium that this was a story worth pursuing. Now they 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.880 finally helped bring the pilots of the Death Flights and 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.400 some of Argentina's most powerful Junta members to justice. 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:58.080 I was sad when the sentencing began. Giancarlo couldn't make it. 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.680 He was in Havana for world But when they read 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.200 the sentencing, I was sitting next to the daughters of 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.240 some of the mothers that had been killed on the 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:13.600 sky van, and being around them in that moment it 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.400 felt special. It was like some form of healing. 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:20.680 I remember Miriam calling me the day of the sentencing. 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.480 She was ecstatic, she was yelling, And after that I 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:28.000 went on a long walk. I had decided to be 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.440 here instead of in the court. I didn't want to 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.240 take pictures of caged animals, so to speak. I felt 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.560 happy about the sentence, of course, but I also felt 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:40.720 happy about my decision to take it all in from 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:48.240 Afar alone. 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.680 Forty five years have passed since Medium was held captive 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:58.000 inside ESMA the Mechanics school. It's spring twenty twenty one 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.320 and Medium is invited to ESMA to receive an award 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:06.639 along with other survivors. Now this former clandestine torture site 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:11.000 is a place of remembrance, transformed into a museum. The 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.000 hope is that Argentina never forgets this horrific history and 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.080 what went on inside those walls. 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:20.639 That idea sits well with me. 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:26.639 The Esthma now opens its doors to cultural events, music shows, 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:30.280 and they've purposely left the holding cells and the facilities 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.560 intact the way they looked during the dictatorship. 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:40.480 I always get a very particular horrible energy here. You 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:41.520 can feel it. 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:46.960 She walks past the place where officers would spend time. 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.760 She sees the torture rooms, the cells, in the room 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:55.760 where most new prisoners slept on old mattresses, no ventilation. 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:07.200 The walls are dilapidated. Can smell the humidity. 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:11.800 Last year I drove by Esthma. It was my first 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:14.439 time seeing it as an adult. I was in a 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:16.920 cab to visit the house where I grew up, where 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:20.160 my grandfather told me at age nine, how people had 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:23.840 been thrown from planes into the sea. I'd been reading 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:26.880 a lot about Medium's survival. I looked at the front 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.840 of the building, at stately white pillars. I could almost 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:33.399 hear the screams coming through the walls of the torture 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:39.720 chambers echoing through the hallways. I felt shame, anger, sadness, 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.719 confusion about how humans were capable of doing such things 0:24:43.960 --> 0:24:46.719 in the name of law and order, and how an 0:24:46.920 --> 0:24:50.679 entire country blindly celebrated a World Cup while Medium and 0:24:50.760 --> 0:25:00.639 thousands of others Abaracidos suffered from a mile away massa. 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:05.200 While researching the Dictatorship, I went through hours of archival footage, 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:08.879 dozens of speeches by General Videla talking about his religious 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:15.000 nationalist reorganization process, which he used to justify murder. During 0:25:15.040 --> 0:25:18.080 that research, I also came across a ton of comments 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:23.000 from regular people Argentines responding to those old videos, praising 0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:27.840 this brutal dictator. Hail to my General Videla. Some would 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:32.000 say the country needs you, or what a shame there 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:36.720 isn't another Videla in twenty twenty one. Thank you General. 0:25:42.160 --> 0:25:46.280 The dictatorship ended four decades ago, but who can guarantee 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:50.800 that this won't happen again. Medium witnessed the decay of 0:25:50.920 --> 0:25:56.400 Argentina's democracy, her survival, her determination to avenge the crimes, 0:25:56.800 --> 0:25:59.399 show me that there can be a path to some 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:07.560 form of justice. In twenty seventeen, Medium flew to Milan 0:26:07.760 --> 0:26:09.280 for the lunch of gian Carlo's book. 0:26:10.160 --> 0:26:13.359 One afternoon, on the way back to Rome, we stopped 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:16.879 at a small, medieval looking town. We walked around the 0:26:16.920 --> 0:26:20.640 main square, visited a small church, and then we sat 0:26:20.680 --> 0:26:22.359 somewhere to watch the sunset. 0:26:23.200 --> 0:26:26.120 I asked her if she remembered the conversation we had 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:29.760 at the bar at the beginning of our investigation about 0:26:29.760 --> 0:26:33.240 the captivity that horrible time. She started crying and asked 0:26:33.240 --> 0:26:34.639 me why am I alive? 0:26:35.200 --> 0:26:35.960 I should have died. 0:26:36.560 --> 0:26:40.080 She couldn't stop crying. It was her guilt for surviving. 0:26:40.640 --> 0:26:44.200 For me, it was my job I had this natural distance, 0:26:44.640 --> 0:26:47.439 But for her it was much more than that. It 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:51.000 was about finding a reason that justified her being alive. 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:57.600 Today, Medium stays quiet thinking. She reminds him how during 0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:00.359 that first meeting she thought he was so rude with 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:01.840 these intrusive questions. 0:27:02.359 --> 0:27:06.720 Without Giancarlo, we would have never started the investigation in 0:27:06.760 --> 0:27:07.560 the first place. 0:27:14.480 --> 0:27:18.800 Today, Medium continues testifying in human rights cases in Argentina. 0:27:19.320 --> 0:27:23.120 She's also still investigating crimes committed by the dictatorship. 0:27:23.640 --> 0:27:28.199 It's my responsibility. This is how things played out for me. 0:27:29.080 --> 0:27:32.280 If they had killed me, there would have been no 0:27:32.400 --> 0:27:37.840 witness to help put these criminals in prison. Later, Sometimes, 0:27:38.160 --> 0:27:42.280 when guilt starts taking hold of me, I still ask myself, 0:27:43.119 --> 0:27:47.479 why did I survive. I'll probably never find out why, 0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:51.600 but if I had to answer, I'd say it was 0:27:51.640 --> 0:27:54.639 to bring at least some of those pilots of the 0:27:54.680 --> 0:27:58.800 death flights to justice. I was able to help ensure 0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:03.160 that these pilots wouldn't die with impunity, and that alone 0:28:03.800 --> 0:28:04.679 gives me peace. 0:28:17.600 --> 0:28:21.800 Nearly fifty years have passed since Argentina's military cup. The 0:28:21.960 --> 0:28:24.960 Argentine junta never kept records of the people they targeted 0:28:25.080 --> 0:28:28.640 or murdered, which makes it difficult to quantify the number 0:28:28.640 --> 0:28:33.280