Nov. 20, 2025

The 1989 Jesuit Massacre

The 1989 Jesuit Massacre
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On Nov. 16, 1989, six Jesuit scholars/priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were murdered by the U.S. backed, trained, and equipped military in El Salvador. The priests were scholars who wrote and spoke extensively against the war.

In this episode, Cristina tells Carmen about this massacre, CW: this episode is heavy.

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email Historiasunknownpodcast@gmail.com or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_murders_of_Jesuits_in_El_Salvador
https://www.derechos.org/nizkor/salvador/informes/truth.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacio_Ellacur%C3%ADa
https://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/the-jesuits-massacre-case/
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/16/774176106/i-miss-them-always-a-witness-recounts-el-salvador-s-1989-jesuit-massacre
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/scholars-priests-killed/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/26/el-salvadors-former-president-charged-over-1989-massacre-of-six-jesuit-priests
https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/spain-convicts-sentences-salvadoran-man-133-years-1989-jesuit-massacre
https://www.ncronline.org/news/el-salvador-try-former-president-1989-killing-jesuits-companions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacio_Mart%C3%ADn-Bar%C3%B3
http://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/the-jesuits-massacre-case/clients/?id=116


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WEBVTT

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Hi everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is

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Estoria's Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history.

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Sometimes it's horrible and deals with tavy topics like raises,

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some corruption, and genocide, but more than that, it's also

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by resistance, power and community. And warning, this episode is heavy.

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It's depressing. Now, oh now, almost like all of our

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fucking episodes. Now, sometimes there's a like nice uplifting message

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somewhere in there, there's a little something of hope. This

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has nothing of that to me, to me personally, because

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like interested, okay, well let's just jump right into this then.

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But trigger warning, it is very heavy, okay, Like it's

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a massacre. So like I'm gonna cry. I cried so yes,

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so at the time of recording, the anniversary of the

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nineteen eighty nine murders of six Jesuits and two civilians

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in at Saint Vralod just took place. It's November seventeenth

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right now, and this happened November sixteenth, nineteen eighty nine,

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and this is now looked back as one of the

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worst incidents of violence during the Salvadoran Civil War, which

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we have talked about before and that's what I'm telling

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you about today, this massacre. Okay, Before we talk about

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that day and the massacre specifically, I do want a

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brief refessional on the Salvadorian Civil War because it's been

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a while. I think, Yeah, what it's been like two

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years or so since our series on San vaalord mm hm.

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So the Salvadoran Civil War lasted twelve years, from nineteen

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eighty to nineteen ninety two, and by the end of it,

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nearly seventy five thousand Salvadorians had lost their lives. And

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we know that a war doesn't just start out of nowhere.

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Right before the civil war officially started, there's there was

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moments of unrest, there was repression, there was inequality, and

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there was already resistance that had been happening for a

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long time. The opposing groups during the civil war were

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the US backed Soulduran right wing government, slash military and

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the robo groups key emphasis on the US fact exactly exactly,

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and the rebel groups which joined together to form La

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Frente Fbundo Marti or the FMLN, which would then become

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a political party after the nineteen ninety two peace accords.

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Like I just said, a few seconds ago. A war

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doesn't start out of nowhere, and the Frente fundo Marti

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that name comes from like an event that directly ties

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into the Civil War. So that incident of myvilence is

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now known as Lamatanza, where the fmlen got their name from.

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And so again we're just gonna go through this brief

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briefly as well Lamatanta, because we cover that way back

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in episode one. But Lamatansa and that event and the

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events that followed Lamatanza directly like informed the Civil War

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and the repression that like never left. Yeah, they shaped

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and as a country. Oh, thank you. Every time I'm talking,

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I just need to stop and let you like say

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what I was saying, because you say it so succinctly.

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One of the things I harp on my interns all

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the time is be more succinct, get to the point,

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get summarizes, summarizes. Yeah, yeah, I know, And I am

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bad at that anyway, It could be worse. Thank you,

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So la Matanza. On January twenty second, nineteen thirty two,

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thousands of indigenous people farm workers armed themselves with sticks,

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mancetes and poor quality shotguns and rebelled against the Ednandez

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Martinez regime. They were led by the Communist Party, which

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includes Agostine Farabundo Marti and others. This rebellion, they overtook

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aciendas and the military barracks in Ahuachapan, Santa Tekra, and Sonsonate,

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and they took control of Huayua, Nawisalco, Isalco and Lacopan.

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When they did this, the rebels they killed no more

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than one hundred people. The only confirmed deaths included twenty

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civilians who all worked at these or who all owned sorry,

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who were all part of the upper class you could say, right,

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and thirty soldiers that's who was for sure. So fifty people,

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for sure were killed by the rebels. It's believed by

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historians that two uprisings occurred at the same time, one

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by the Communist Party and members of the Communist Party

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and one separate rebellion by or uprising by the indigenous

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pope workers. And they just happened to happen at the

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same time, and they weren't like working together to do this,

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but it happened. So in order to suppress this rebellion,

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and sorry they were they were rebellion against like terrible,

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terrible terrible like enslavement type conditions, working conditions right right, inhumane,

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horrible And if you want to learn more about that,

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you can go back to our what first episode, episode

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one episode of the coffee Yeah, the coffee episode, And

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if you want to learn more about it, you have

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sources on that. Yes, they're all listed in the show

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notes always. So in order to surpress this rebellion, the

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Salvadoran military quickly organized and Canadian and United States Navy

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ships arrived because the whenever there's like a working class rebellion,

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you know that the the how would you say, not

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the uphelders, because that's not a word. The rich, the oligarchy,

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the arbiters of capitalism, Yes, will be there to shut

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that shit down. Yes, and that's because who owned the

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coffee plantations, the US, the British, and the Canadian the

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west you could say, yes, okay, So yeah, they arrived

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and they were waiting there in case they were needed.

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But the Salvadoran military took carav It, who was in

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the business of supporting the oligarchics, to carab It, Yes, right, right,

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and so the Chief of Operations formed the Canadian and

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US navies that peace had been achieved and that forty

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eight hundred Bolsheviks were wiped out. That's what they used.

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But this was yeah, and you also did mention there

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was two separate uprisings going on at the same time,

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so like one was a communist thing, which I'm the

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Bolshevik thing is referring to, and then the other group

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was the indigenous people. That's the issue with the imperial powers,

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the supposed democracies, whenever they're trying to stop the spread

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of communism, the first people they are attacking, they're repressing,

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they're violently murdering, or the indigenous people of whatever land

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they are currently trying to Like, well, that's what I

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was gonna say to like no matter what, well like

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relating to that, no matter what, like the working class,

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the indigenous, it's all anti capitalists, and so they put

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that under you know, they label that as subversive as communists. Yeah,

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And just like during this Matanza in nineteen thirty two

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when the target of the state was the indigenous Pepe.

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During the South Duran Civil War, a lot of the

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areas hit the hardest were the rural indigenous areas like

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the Morasan Department Yea. These areas these rural areas. So

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these were not Bolsheviks, these were indigenous people people and

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the exact number is not confirmed, but it is estimated

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that seventy two hours after the rebellion, another twenty five

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thousand had been killed. Wow, all indigenous. Those that were

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not killed in these seventy two hours after the rebellion

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were arrested and then sentenced to death. Anyone with a machette,

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found to have Indigenous features or indigenous clothing was found guilty,

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like this is Jena's side, one hundred percent. Any male

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over twelve years old, and again these are these kids,

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but this is the words they use. Any male over

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twelve years old was a target, like they were considered

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part of the rebels because they were. Anyone older than

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twelve was automatically like guilty, which again you can look

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at and sailor now and say the same thing was

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done during the Civil War. Any boy over twelve easily

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was targeted, was thought of as either taken by the

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military to force them to join, or they were thought

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to be subversive and targeted. And also now, any anyone

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over twelve that looks like a gang member is subject

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to the jails. Savalora right now. So like boys can

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just never get catch a break. Yeah, it's very sad

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and so, yeah, this was literal genocide, Like under the

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definition of genocide, this would have fallen under that. But

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we don't learn about these things, right One plantation, this

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is like an incident of the violence that followed the rebellion.

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One plantation owner told his employees to come to the

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plantation so they could receive identification cards that would identify

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them as indigenous. And when they arrived to receive these

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identification cards, they were all killed, all of them, just

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right there on the spot, five hundred on the coffee plantation.

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People were forced to dig mass graves, then killed and

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thrown in those graves. They had to dig themselves. They

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were forced to dig their own graves. Yeah, yes, this yeah,

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this was a genocide of the people speaking people in

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so many were killed and those that survived had to

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abandon their traditions in order to avoid death and persecution.

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By the end, at least forty thousand. Additionally, from aside

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from that, seventy two hours were killed during this at

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that time, and it was in it till twenty ten

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that the South During government acknowledged that this happened and

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apologized for the genocide. This rebellion directly contributed to the

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factors that led to the South during Civil War, because

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as we said back then in episode one, all of

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this was done to keep the oligarchs happy, to keep

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capitalism going, to stop communism. The conditions that led to

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the rebellion in nineteen thirty two didn't change the economy.

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That inequality, income, inequality, like it only grew. Yeah, yeah,

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and so yeah, that's those are the kind of things

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that led to the civil war in the nineteen eighty

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or some say nineteen seventy nine. But the people were

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still being repressed, like those same things that the government

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put in place back then, they kept doing it and

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they kept adding on more and more things. So yeah,

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back to the civil war. Some say it began officially

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in nineteen eighty, but again, periods of violence were happening

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as early as nineteen seventy seven leading up to the

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civil war, not that far into the actual civil war.

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So like early nineteen eighties, there were already growing reports

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of human rights violations committed by the Salvadoran military. We've

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already talked about the archbishop of Nzarabador now canonized Saint

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Osca Romero, who in nineteen eighty published a public letter

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where he urged Jimmy Carter to stop sending money to

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the Salvadoran armed forces because the Salva Duran armed forces

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were only repressing their people and defending the interests of

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the oligarchy, and that this money was going straight to

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the hands of the forces that were violating the rights

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of the Solidarian people. Like the letter says all this,

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and this was early, early into the civil war, but no,

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the money kept being fluttered into it. Yeah, and this

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letter was one of the many reasons that Oskarmnos's assassination

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was ordered by Major Roberto Dawison, who is the fucking

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bitch who sent his son to the illegitimate state Israel. Yes,

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Israel safe while he to escape the civil war. Well,

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he committed atrocities against the Solidarian people. Yeah so yeah.

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He also would eventually be the founder of ARENA, the

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Nationalist Republican Alliance, and ARENA and FMLEN today are both

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political parties. Uh, and albeit their dying because the New

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Ideas Party was no I say as is taking took

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over completely. I don't. I wouldn't even say it. Is

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taken over. They have taken over. Yeah, yeah, so yeah,

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he is the founder of Varenna and the Truth Commission,

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for which is the was put together by the UN

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to investigate the war basically, and so this commission concluded

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that the majority of human rights violations and civilian deaths

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were committed by the military slash Arenna. Like, this is

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a third party who concluded this, And yet and yet

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there are nay sayers, just like there are naysayers about

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I think there's plenty of evidence for like the Holocaust,

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exactly exactly. So something very common that we have said

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so many times, but that you'll hear people Savadoran say

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today is that both sides were wrong. Both sides, both

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sides did horrible things. And that's just unfactual. It is

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a fact. And I forget the percentage. I didn't like

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go and search for the percentage, but it is high.

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It is high, and you mentioned it in the other

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episodes where we covered this. I have said the percentage

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in the past. Yes, so yeah, they were mostly committed

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by the right wing regime. And this includes the nineteen

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eighty nine killings of the Jesuit scholars, priests, their housekeeper,

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and her daughter, and so now onto the actual massacre,

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now that the context is done. Yes, now the massacre.

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On the evening of November fifteenth, nineteen eighty nine, Coronol

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Guillermo Alfredo Benavidez Moreno, who led the infamous at La

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cart Battalion, met with his officers at the Military College.

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We've talked about the Atla at battalion before, sure, but

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do you want to remind people about them. That's the

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battalion that trained at the School of Americas here in

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the United States, and also the battalion that committed the

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Oscar at Maste. Yes, this, that is correct. This battalion

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was formed in nineteen eighty trained at the School of Americas.

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They were this battalion specifically was responsible for some of

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the worst, the most violent acts during the Civil War,

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and their whole purpose was counterinsurgency. They were directly trained

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by the US. Actually, I'm reading a book right now

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about counter resurgency and the police are police who worldwide

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went to other countries. I didn't know this, oh until

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like recently. Okay, sorry, while while you were talking about this,

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one of the people who trained these death squads and

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the Atla Battalion is the current ambassador in Mexico. Oh,

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I think I heard this. Yeah, I forgot his name.

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I don't remember either, but if you look up current

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ambassador in Mexico, current US Ambassador in Mexico, he was

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training these desquads and he has never faced accountability for anything.

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So throwing that out there, I don't think he has,

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because he's still working. I'm sure right, Like if he had,

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he wouldn't be working, right. Most of these people didn't

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face accountability at all. No, no, so yes, that is

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the Atlakat battalion. And so the officers of the battalion

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met at the military college, and that's where the Colonel

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Benavideesmoreo informed them that the subversive elements were to be

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eliminated and their newest target was Spanish salvadoran Jesuit philosopher

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and theologian Ignacio and Yacuria. And of course not to

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say that just because someone is like a whole figure

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in the church doesn't mean they're like a good person.

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But what kind of like, right, what kind of military

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what kind of people get to be to just be

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killing fucking Jesuits? Yeah, the good kind of Catholics, And

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I mean the the Jesuits who were working as at

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the time were so passionate, so good. They were actually

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good because obviously so much can be said about the

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Catholic Church and churches and religion in general, but these

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people were doing actual good work. Yeah, and that's why

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they were targets. So he yes, he was talking to

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his officers and he told them like the Father Ignacio

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Yakuria and any witnesses are to be eliminated. And the

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following night, the Atla Gade battalion descended upon the Jose

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Simeon Kanyas Central American University and made their way to

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the residence of the Jesuits in the university. There they

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demanded for the Jesuits to open the door, and when

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the Jesuits did so, these soldiers forced them to lay

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face down in the back garden. Then they searched the

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residence and once that was that was done, and they

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gathered like all the money to steal. I guess Lieutenant

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Guerra gave the soldiers the order to kill the priests.

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So Prive Grimaldi shot and killed Father Eyakuria, Ignacio Martin Baro,

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and Segundo Montes. Deputy Sergeant Antonio Ramiro Avalos Bargas shot

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and killed father Lopez and father Montes. As they swept

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the house. Other soldiers found father Joaquin Lopezi Lopez and

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killed him. Then Deputy Sergeant Tomas Sarpate Castillo found Julia Elbarramos,

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who was the housekeeper, the cook she did it all,

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and her sixteen year old daughter Selina mariseth Ramos and

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shot them. And as if that wasn't enough, Private Jose

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Alberto Sierra Asensio went up to them and shut them

277
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again to confirm their deaths. And when they were done,

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the Atla Cate Battalion further framed the operation as a

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rebel attack. Yeah, because they had already decided in their

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meeting the day prior that they were going to use

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AK forty sevens that they had taken from the FMLEN

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to carry out these killings. But that wasn't enough. They

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also used rockets, grenades, and a machine gun to fire

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at the residence from the outside to make it look

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like it was this big attack. Okay, this wasn't one

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of those cases where they spray painted like supposedly they did,

287
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didn't they, well, Carmen. Then they placed a cardboard sign

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that read fmllen executed those who informed on it victory

289
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or death FML. Then I kind of remember that. I'm like, wait,

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did they Oh? They most certainly did. And if this

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doesn't show you how all struggles are connected, because who

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00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:16.240
the fuck was doing this? Who's been doing this? The

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Atakad battalion had been instructed to leave no witnesses, but

294
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little did they know that at a nearby house inside

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the same university, Lucia Sedna, another housekeeper, was woken up

296
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by all the noise she could hear as doors were

297
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kicked in, things were thrown around, and shot after shot

298
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after shot was fired. Oh my god. She went to

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look in the window and that's when she saw men

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in uniforms descending upon the house. So she knew it

301
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wasn't that femline. Yes, literally my next sentence, she knew

302
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this was the Salvadorian military. Yes, she heard as the

303
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Jesuits were killed, and she remembers hearing vice rector and

304
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rector is like ahead of the university. I didn't know that,

305
00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:04.240
so I had to tell myself and mind I learned

306
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that somewhere. Yeah, we probably did, because you have a degree. Oh,

307
00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:09.000
but we don't call them that really am no, but

308
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you just know things because now I think it's from

309
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researching like our stuff. Oh really, I think because you

310
00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:18.839
have a I didn't that you know every No, I

311
00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:24.599
wasn't from that. I'm pretty sure. Okay, well, yeah, I

312
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don't know that. So that's what a vice rector is,

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like the assistant principle of a college university. So that's

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when she heard the vice rector, Ignacio Martin Batto screamed,

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this is an injustice, and then she heard as they

316
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killed him. Wow, during for her life. She fled and

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Salvador with the help of Jesuits and European diplomats, and

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she arrived in Miami, where she was supposed to feel safe,

319
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but instead she arrived at the Radisson Hotel in Miami,

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where the FBI and a Salvadoran colonel questioned her about

321
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what she saw that night, and she told them what

322
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she saw Salvador in military uniforms, but they did not

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believe her. Well, wasn't the FBI like in communication with

324
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and like, I don't know, like friendly in contact with

325
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are we son? Yeah? That we soon? And then also

326
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someone else at the top I don't remember who, welled

327
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the president blah blah, oh yes, whatever, Yeah, the president

328
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knew about everything that was happening. Yeah, and Masota massacre,

329
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the Masota massacre the day or two after it happened,

330
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some big us And when we talked about in the

331
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actual episode, I had his name written down. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

332
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Now it's off the top of your head. Now yeah,

333
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now I'm saying this from the top of my head.

334
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And so a day or two after some head either

335
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in the CIA or some person high ranking in the

336
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US military arrived, I saw the bodies like that. I

337
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feel like that sounds like remembering, like bits and pieces.

338
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As we're talking, like the FBI, you had direct knowledge,

339
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had direct knowledge of all of it, and of course

340
00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:07.920
did nothing to prevent any of it because it was

341
00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:12.640
another interests, right. So yeah, the FBI and a Salvadoran

342
00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:14.680
colonel questioned her about what she saw, and they didn't

343
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believe her. They called her a liar, just like they

344
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did with Rufina Maya. They accused her of being a

345
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communist and get a Yerra or get a Yetra sympathize her,

346
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and I'm like, fleeing a violent attack. If that makes

347
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you a communist, so be it. But what kind of

348
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fucking bullshit is that, like people are so crazy leave

349
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their homes. People are forced to leave their homes. I mean,

350
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some people want to leave right, right, right, but a

351
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lot of people were forced. She was forced to flee.

352
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She literally fled for her life. If she was lying,

353
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why would she be fleeing for her life. If they

354
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would have seen her, they would have killed her. That's

355
00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:54.119
why she fled, exactly the most ridiculous shit. Yeah. And

356
00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:57.839
she was harassed, intimidated, and insulted until she changed her

357
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story to state she never versas US banked Salvadoran soldiers

358
00:25:02.359 --> 00:25:06.000
on the night of the attack. To this day, the

359
00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:10.000
FBI denies this, of course they do. Well, she maintains

360
00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:13.240
her truth, and I choose to believe her, of course. Yeah.

361
00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:15.640
And she wrote this in her book, which I have

362
00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:19.960
added to my TBR. But is it no mas espanon?

363
00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:24.119
Oh you know what nose well, it's titled l'averrade A

364
00:25:24.200 --> 00:25:27.440
Witness to the Salvadoran Martyrs. I think it's been translated.

365
00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:30.400
Oh yeah, it came out in twenty fourteen, I want

366
00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:34.519
to say. And in the book she wrote, I always

367
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tell the truth. That's what the priests taught me. In

368
00:25:38.920 --> 00:25:41.759
a twenty nineteen interview, she told NPR that to this

369
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day she wonders if she could have somehow changed the

370
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minds of the soldiers who killed her friends. She said, quote,

371
00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:52.400
if the soldiers have spoken to me first, they wouldn't

372
00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:53.960
have done it. I would have told them not to

373
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and they wouldn't have done it. I missed them always.

374
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This is right, cried I know, I got children now, Yeah,

375
00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:05.400
And it isn't it such a like salve mom thing

376
00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:08.400
to be like, well, they would have listened to me. Yeah, no,

377
00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:11.279
it is, it is, it is. And it's like because

378
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:14.000
who would think? But who would? Yeah, It's like how

379
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:18.680
it's unfathomable to think your own people would do this,

380
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:23.240
and in places like Latin America. Well, I mean any

381
00:26:23.319 --> 00:26:29.039
religious like like your your religious leaders give you give

382
00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:31.799
the community faith and hope. And when they're killed, like

383
00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:35.200
cold murdered just like this, Like what does that say

384
00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:37.000
to the people, you know what I mean, after they've

385
00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:42.359
already been through so much? Like Yeah, when the killings

386
00:26:42.359 --> 00:26:45.119
took place, she had been a housekeeper at the university

387
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:49.400
for ten years, and she loved working there. She says

388
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:51.400
that she knew the place like the back of her hand.

389
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:54.000
She knew every hall, every room, every corner of the

390
00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:58.119
priest's office. She could identify each one of them by

391
00:26:58.119 --> 00:27:00.480
the way they walked into their office without even turning

392
00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:03.240
to look at them. Wow. And she went on to say,

393
00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:06.400
I felt so happy, even when all I did was

394
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:11.720
sweep and dust. Before the tragedy, I smiled. Everything I did,

395
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.680
I did it with a smile. But after that happened,

396
00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:18.319
I went into a deep depression. I cried at this

397
00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:23.400
part too. I know I have children now. As she

398
00:27:23.799 --> 00:27:27.240
saw that night, and as the UN Truth Commission report concluded,

399
00:27:27.480 --> 00:27:30.880
it was one hundred percent the US backed at Cat

400
00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:36.000
battalion who did this. And even so today you will

401
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:40.839
see Salvadorans insist that the FMLN were the ones to

402
00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:45.039
commit these atrocities. You will also see them agree that

403
00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:48.440
these were just communists, as if being communists made them

404
00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.400
means that they deserve to die like this, right, because

405
00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:54.680
it's like okay, And even as they were so, I

406
00:27:54.759 --> 00:27:57.200
someone left the comment and I don't never even replied

407
00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.319
to it. I've been meaning to I had been meaning

408
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:01.160
to make a video, replied, but then I was like whatever,

409
00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:04.119
But someone in my video about oscarro Meto, someone was

410
00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:08.319
like he was a communist. I saw that he was

411
00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.440
not a communist. And even if he was, that's what

412
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:17.200
I'm saying. If wanting your community and your people to

413
00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:22.519
be fed, to be clothed, to have h fair wages,

414
00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:27.680
to have fair working environments, to have a quality of

415
00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:32.720
life that doesn't involve slaving away, if that makes you

416
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:37.119
a communist, then okay, right, Like I see nothing wrong

417
00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:43.079
with that. No, And like not to get too off

418
00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:46.960
the rails here, but like people kept questioning the Latino

419
00:28:47.160 --> 00:28:50.000
voting block, the Latino voting block, and how these Latino

420
00:28:50.039 --> 00:28:55.319
men voted for Trump. But this goes back to this

421
00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:58.000
isn't just like a right now issue. This goes back

422
00:28:58.039 --> 00:29:02.319
to everyone's respective countries and the brain raw brain washing

423
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:05.240
that was done to make people believe that communism is

424
00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:08.799
the worst thing ever and that every communist serves to die.

425
00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:13.920
Like it's the same thing in in Chile, in Argentina,

426
00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:20.720
Like it's I over lat in America because of the

427
00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:23.599
Cold War, because of the United States. Yeah, and I

428
00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:27.079
have to wonder and even before that, because like look

429
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:31.359
at oh, yeah, we've talked about it obviously. Yeah, it's

430
00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:33.759
just it's just I don't know. Sometimes I like, what

431
00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:36.200
would the world be like if the US just left

432
00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:41.720
everywhere everything alone? If I ask myself that every day anyway,

433
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:43.400
and people will hear us say that, and then we'll

434
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:47.039
leave comments like oh, you would be in bread eating

435
00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:55.079
shit and like, uh no, that's what Europeans were doing. Yeah, anyway,

436
00:29:55.880 --> 00:30:02.440
I don't know, I said that. Yeah, like I was saying,

437
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:05.039
you will still see Sawa Dorians insists that the fmlane

438
00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:07.240
were the ones who did this, the ones who killed

439
00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:10.400
Oscarro Metro, so on and so on, and it's just

440
00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:13.480
simply not the truth. The Jesuits and the Catholics, and

441
00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:16.319
then said Balod were a long time target of the

442
00:30:16.440 --> 00:30:20.519
right wing regime. Yeah. During the war, national radio shows

443
00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:27.839
and TV shows regularly called Catholics and Jesuits communists, and

444
00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:31.119
in the months before the killings, state controlled radio stations

445
00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:36.559
talked NonStop about hatred toward the subversive Jesuits and specifically

446
00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:40.920
father A Yakurya. They did the same thing with Oscadro Metro, Yeah,

447
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:44.799
they did. If the Salvadoran security forces found anyone with

448
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.680
the Bible, they were immediately suspicious. The Bible was considered

449
00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:54.880
a subversive book. And this is actual Christian persecution. Yeah,

450
00:30:54.920 --> 00:30:58.640
to the white evangelicals who want to make themselves martyrs,

451
00:30:58.680 --> 00:31:01.319
you don't know what it's like to be martyr. No,

452
00:31:01.400 --> 00:31:03.519
you don't want to know what it's like. Ask no,

453
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:06.440
ask the Jesuits who's survived, Ask Lucy. I said, now,

454
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:09.039
what it's like to be a martyr. And you know what,

455
00:31:09.079 --> 00:31:11.359
And this is not the only Like you said, there's

456
00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:14.759
same oscatro metal, there's these Jesuits, And isn't it there's

457
00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:17.000
still a separate incident of the nuns. This is not

458
00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:19.599
the same. Yeah, no, this is not the same one.

459
00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:21.839
That's what it's like to be a martyr. And for

460
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:26.440
what for the United States? Yeah? Yeah, where was that? Yeah,

461
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:31.319
the Bible was considered a subversive book. The military would

462
00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:35.880
scattered flyers outside of churches and these fires read sorry,

463
00:31:35.920 --> 00:31:39.440
this is fucking horrible, these fires read quote be a

464
00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:43.960
patriot kill a priest end quote, oh my god. And

465
00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:47.119
they were they would leave these scatter these flyers, scatter

466
00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:50.319
these fires in front of churches. Wow, And that's what

467
00:31:50.359 --> 00:31:55.759
they said. And before this massacre on November sixteenth, nineteen

468
00:31:55.799 --> 00:31:59.079
eighty nine, Catholic priests again like I said, they were

469
00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:01.720
a long time target of the right wing regime. As

470
00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:05.559
we know, Saint Oscar Romero was assassinated on March twenty fourth,

471
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:09.599
nineteen eighty and that same year, but in December nineteen

472
00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:14.279
eighty four American churchwomen were raped and killed by security forces.

473
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:18.319
These are the nuts. Before that, in nineteen seventy seven,

474
00:32:18.559 --> 00:32:22.359
Catholic priests Rutilio Grande was killed on his way to mass.

475
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:25.240
These things were regular, and it was all because of

476
00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:29.880
the practice of liberation theology, because these Jesuits in Salvador.

477
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:32.720
It wasn't just Savado, but at the time there was

478
00:32:32.759 --> 00:32:37.119
this resurgence of like actually caring for the poor. They're like,

479
00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:39.640
why aren't we not doing what Jesus said to do?

480
00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:43.880
And so that's what they were doing and that made

481
00:32:43.960 --> 00:32:47.920
them targets. And I guess an episode on liberation theology

482
00:32:47.960 --> 00:32:51.359
would have made sense before this, but I am working

483
00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:53.839
on that. We've talked about it here and there, because

484
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:58.680
we also had an episode on Camilo Estrepo, Yes what

485
00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:06.319
the revolutiontionary priests I think they called him. Yeah, Because Brazil, Columbia,

486
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:10.559
a lot of countries in Latin America had resurgence of

487
00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:14.359
this belief of like let's actually do what Jesus said.

488
00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:16.640
And it's very interesting because at the same time you

489
00:33:16.759 --> 00:33:20.319
had the Catholic Church in Chile who was helping the

490
00:33:20.440 --> 00:33:25.920
right wing, so it's very interesting. Yeah. Anyway, I don't

491
00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:29.759
want to get too off the rails again, so I

492
00:33:29.799 --> 00:33:33.960
am working on an episode on Liberation Theology to follow that.

493
00:33:34.039 --> 00:33:40.480
With the I want to explore the conspiracy theory about

494
00:33:40.519 --> 00:33:45.119
the CIA infiltrating not only in SA but other Central

495
00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:51.359
American countries with evangelical missionaries purposely to destroy the Liberation

496
00:33:51.400 --> 00:33:56.400
Theology movement. So that's why I want to do that.

497
00:33:56.680 --> 00:34:01.519
So that's coming in the near future. So just days

498
00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:06.759
before the massacre, Segundo Montes had spoken to NPR and

499
00:34:06.839 --> 00:34:09.800
he said, we all must risk a little and again

500
00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:12.679
he was one of the six Jesuits who were killed,

501
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:14.480
and that's what he said, we all have to risk

502
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:17.159
a little bit to like make the world a better place.

503
00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:21.760
And they were targeted not only for their repeated messages

504
00:34:21.800 --> 00:34:25.320
and actions to support the most vulnerable, but all of

505
00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:27.599
them had also been speaking out against the war because

506
00:34:27.639 --> 00:34:31.039
I mean, supposedly, if you're a follower of Jesus, you

507
00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:36.199
would also be against war. Oh right, yeah, you would think.

508
00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:41.599
And so for that they were called communists, Marxists, guerrilleros, subversives.

509
00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:45.440
The list goes on. Even when reporting on their murders,

510
00:34:45.480 --> 00:34:50.679
the New York Times called them leftists, intellectuals. Yeah, And

511
00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:55.800
in response, the then Archbishop of San Francisco offered them

512
00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:59.760
the words of a different archbishop, Elder Camara, who was

513
00:34:59.800 --> 00:35:03.519
the archbishop during the twenty one year Brazilian dictatorship that

514
00:35:03.639 --> 00:35:07.559
ended in nineteen eighty five. So he wrote back to

515
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:13.079
them quoting this archbishop, and that quote is, when I

516
00:35:13.119 --> 00:35:15.880
feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I

517
00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:19.599
ask why they have no food, they call me a communist.

518
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:26.119
And those words, oh my god, tour words have not

519
00:35:26.280 --> 00:35:30.840
been sent like that is spot on with There's a

520
00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:34.840
reason again that all these Jesuits were targeted, and that's

521
00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:39.960
because of their This is encapsulating what they believed in

522
00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:44.920
one sentence. And so the Jesuits who were killed on

523
00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:49.039
November sixteenth, nineteen eighty nine were Ignacio e Yacuria, Ignacio

524
00:35:49.039 --> 00:35:54.840
Martin Barro, Seguno Montez, Juan Ramon Moreno, Joaquin Lopez I Lopez,

525
00:35:55.440 --> 00:36:00.000
Amando Lopez, and then Elber Ramos, who was the housekeeper,

526
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:05.320
the cook and her daughter Selina Ramos, and Ignacio Ya Kuria.

527
00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:07.920
He was the rector or, the head of the university,

528
00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:12.800
but he also contributed greatly to the field of liberation philosophy,

529
00:36:13.159 --> 00:36:16.559
which focused on the liberation of the oppressed in order

530
00:36:16.599 --> 00:36:21.679
to reach the fullness of humanity. So he contributed greatly

531
00:36:21.679 --> 00:36:24.400
to that field. And he of course was also a

532
00:36:24.639 --> 00:36:28.320
strong follower of liberation theology and contributed to the practice

533
00:36:28.360 --> 00:36:32.480
of that too. Semuno Montez was the assistant rector of

534
00:36:32.519 --> 00:36:35.920
the university and he also again they were all liberation theologists.

535
00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:37.719
I don't need to keep repeating that. But he was

536
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:42.800
also a scholar of social anthropology and he researched and

537
00:36:42.840 --> 00:36:48.000
wrote about land ownership, democracy, the military power distribution, and

538
00:36:48.039 --> 00:36:52.039
its effects on the Salvadoran emigration to the US. He

539
00:36:52.119 --> 00:36:56.800
published articles on the economic and political motives for Salvadoran's

540
00:36:56.880 --> 00:37:01.000
leaving and emigrating to the US, and in these articles

541
00:37:01.079 --> 00:37:05.400
he criticized the US government's claims of Salvagorian immigrants being

542
00:37:05.480 --> 00:37:08.800
they wanted to kill him and right they He criticized

543
00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:13.599
them the making of them economic refugees, which unqualified them

544
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:17.000
for political asylum. Yeah, so he straight up called that out,

545
00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:20.679
which I talked about in the sanctuary movement. You did, yes,

546
00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:27.000
you did everything. You just connected right every Oh, well

547
00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:32.760
we were duh. Well it was also Nicaragua. Yeah, so

548
00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:40.519
oh and there's a community founded by refugees of the

549
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:45.800
civil war in Morassan who named there's town after him?

550
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:52.000
So it's called, yeah, an area that has now been

551
00:37:52.519 --> 00:37:57.920
heavily policed by the regime. Might I add I repeat?

552
00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:05.840
Everything is connected? Yes. Ignacio Martin Barro was also a scholar, philosopher,

553
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:11.239
and social psychologists. He argued that psychology should be developed

554
00:38:11.239 --> 00:38:15.519
to address the historical contexts, the social conditions and aspirations

555
00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:20.239
of the people, and he believed students of psychology should

556
00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:23.760
learn to analyze human behavior in the location of their practice.

557
00:38:24.119 --> 00:38:27.079
Of course, yes, to bear in mind where they are.

558
00:38:27.800 --> 00:38:31.599
So he and I was not floored, But like amazed,

559
00:38:31.639 --> 00:38:34.760
I guess he believed the solution to mental health problems

560
00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:38.880
in societies was to transform that society to transcend the

561
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:42.639
historical reality of oppression. And then as long as systems

562
00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:46.039
of oppression continued, mental health problems would persist. That's why

563
00:38:46.039 --> 00:38:48.800
they wanted to kill him. You're going to find yourself

564
00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:51.280
saying that with every one of them. Yeah, they were

565
00:38:51.320 --> 00:38:55.480
not only like so caring of the people in their community,

566
00:38:55.639 --> 00:39:00.480
they were like highly intelligent people who like published art goals.

567
00:39:00.519 --> 00:39:04.079
Like again, he literally he was a huge contributor to

568
00:39:05.119 --> 00:39:09.559
the practice of like this different kind of psychology, right,

569
00:39:10.280 --> 00:39:14.199
which I'm just I'm in awe really like all they

570
00:39:14.199 --> 00:39:17.519
were doing. They were ahead of their time. Yeah, And

571
00:39:17.559 --> 00:39:20.480
those the three that I just named were Spanish Salvadoran

572
00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:27.920
citizens born in Spain. Father Juaquin Lopez and Lopez was

573
00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:34.280
born in Chalchuapa in Salvador on August sixteenth, nineteen eighteen,

574
00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:39.639
and he became a Jesuit with the Mexican Jesuits, first

575
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:44.840
in en Paso, Texas, and he began his theological studies

576
00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:48.400
in the US and then finished them in Spain. A

577
00:39:48.440 --> 00:39:52.599
few years after completing his studies, he began efforts in

578
00:39:52.840 --> 00:39:58.039
Salvador to create the foundation called fe Faith and Joy,

579
00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:02.480
which he directed until the time of his death. And

580
00:40:02.559 --> 00:40:08.639
this organization they opened thirty educational centers in marginalized communities

581
00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:13.599
where forty eight thousand people received vocational training and education.

582
00:40:14.360 --> 00:40:16.400
And that's what they wanted to kill him, No, but

583
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:20.840
he considered his work with fay A crucial to address

584
00:40:20.880 --> 00:40:24.679
the problem of lack of education because in educated people, yes,

585
00:40:24.760 --> 00:40:27.480
they can't grow together, they can they can, you know,

586
00:40:27.559 --> 00:40:29.679
that's how you One of the things you can do

587
00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:32.760
to address poverty is to teach people jobs that will

588
00:40:32.760 --> 00:40:35.360
get them out of poverty. And to him, this was

589
00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:37.519
one of the most pressing problems in the country and

590
00:40:37.559 --> 00:40:40.639
that's why he was working with fay Alga to help this.

591
00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:45.320
And so again they were all doing such important work.

592
00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:50.639
Father Amando Lopez was also born in Spain, and he

593
00:40:51.079 --> 00:40:55.679
spent time in Salvador and Quito, Ecuador, to complete his education.

594
00:40:56.360 --> 00:40:59.559
He not only you know, was a theologian Jesu Way,

595
00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:03.800
but he also studied classical humanities and philosophy. He received

596
00:41:03.840 --> 00:41:06.639
degrees in Europe and then returned to a SADOD to

597
00:41:06.760 --> 00:41:11.239
teach at the San Jose la Montagnes and then shortly

598
00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:17.280
became the school's rector, and he also taught philosophy. He

599
00:41:17.679 --> 00:41:22.800
arrived in Nicaragua Managua, Nicaragua in nineteen seventy five, and

600
00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:28.280
when he arrived he saw the Somosa regime regime and

601
00:41:28.639 --> 00:41:32.719
like there really like learned, like, yeah, liberation theology is

602
00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:37.440
even more important. During the bombing of civilians from the

603
00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:42.079
Samosa regime, he opened his university campus to as a

604
00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:45.519
what do they call it, like a refugee camp, to

605
00:41:45.639 --> 00:41:48.039
families and need And he didn't need to do that,

606
00:41:48.079 --> 00:41:52.800
but he did. Father Gjuandra Moon Moreno, he was also

607
00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:55.360
born in Spain. Oh, most of them were born in Spain,

608
00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:58.519
now that I'm thinking about it. He also taught the

609
00:41:58.599 --> 00:42:05.639
university spend time in Panama. He also taught philosophy, and

610
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:10.360
he supervised the construction of the Monsignor Romero Pastoral Center.

611
00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:15.280
And he had like he was very accomplished academically, but

612
00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:19.239
he aspired to be a priest at a rural parish

613
00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:21.000
and he did a lot of work in very rural,

614
00:42:21.079 --> 00:42:26.519
marginalized communities. And Julia Alberramos she was born in Santiago

615
00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:29.920
de Maria and Salvador on March fifth, nineteen forty seven.

616
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:34.440
She worked as a domestic employee in San Salvador and

617
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:37.519
during the coffee harvest, she would leave her job to

618
00:42:38.199 --> 00:42:42.039
cut coffee at the plantation where her husband worked. In

619
00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:46.199
nineteen seventy the plantation owner was kidnapped and killed, which

620
00:42:46.360 --> 00:42:49.119
is one of the things that the Geiros were doing.

621
00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:51.480
Taking like oh, it's like it sounds like something they

622
00:42:51.519 --> 00:42:54.880
were doing. Yeah, taking these people who were members of

623
00:42:54.880 --> 00:42:57.800
the Oligarchic in kidnapping them for ransom and sometimes killing them.

624
00:42:57.800 --> 00:43:00.119
That was a thing like, I'm not denying they and

625
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:08.239
also do violent acts. And so that's when she quit

626
00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:12.559
working at the plantation and they she moved to Hayake,

627
00:43:13.880 --> 00:43:16.800
where her husband worked as a watchman and she farmed

628
00:43:16.800 --> 00:43:21.239
corn and beans. They had four kids together, two of

629
00:43:21.239 --> 00:43:24.239
them died and so one of them, her sixteen year

630
00:43:24.239 --> 00:43:30.199
old Selena Meredith, was living with her at the university

631
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:34.599
when the massacre took place. She began to work at

632
00:43:34.599 --> 00:43:37.639
the Jesuits residence in nineteen eighty five, and then her

633
00:43:37.719 --> 00:43:41.800
husband started working there in nineteen eighty nine as a gardener,

634
00:43:43.320 --> 00:43:50.199
and her body was found wrapped around Selena's around her

635
00:43:50.280 --> 00:43:53.440
daughter trying to protect her. Oh my god, I'm going

636
00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:57.079
to cry, it's so sad. And speaking of her daughter,

637
00:43:57.199 --> 00:44:00.880
Selena Marise Ramos, she was born in haijak And Salad

638
00:44:01.159 --> 00:44:05.320
on February twenty third, nineteen seventy six. In nineteen eighty nine.

639
00:44:05.440 --> 00:44:07.920
She had finished her first year of high school at

640
00:44:07.960 --> 00:44:12.480
the josela mian VIACRDA Institute in Santa t clab And.

641
00:44:13.159 --> 00:44:17.679
On November eleventh, nineteen eighty nine, and Fmlen patrol bombed

642
00:44:17.760 --> 00:44:21.440
one of the entrances to the UCA, which shattered all

643
00:44:21.480 --> 00:44:25.639
the windows in the Dramo's household. And so from that

644
00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:28.159
night on, Celena and her mom slept in a small

645
00:44:28.239 --> 00:44:30.800
room next to the Jesuits dining hall. They thought they

646
00:44:30.840 --> 00:44:35.039
would be safer there. Yeah, on the night of the massacre,

647
00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:40.239
Selena's father stayed at their home that was bombed, and

648
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:43.320
they were at the Jesuits, which is why they were

649
00:44:43.400 --> 00:44:48.880
found by the Atla Gatte battalion, and he was the

650
00:44:48.960 --> 00:44:53.480
one to find their bodies at there at the Jesuits

651
00:44:54.280 --> 00:44:57.039
together along with the Jesuits. He found all of them.

652
00:44:57.320 --> 00:45:01.719
I can't imagine seeing all of that, right, Yeah, it's

653
00:45:01.800 --> 00:45:06.400
just it's horrible, and it's it's I don't know, Yeah,

654
00:45:06.840 --> 00:45:17.639
it's a lot, it is, and so unlike other instances

655
00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:24.559
of like wars, where like nobody is held accountable. I

656
00:45:24.599 --> 00:45:27.679
don't know if it's because it happened to like a

657
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:31.880
lot of Spanish. Maybe they were Spanish Chavadorian citizens. Yeah,

658
00:45:32.920 --> 00:45:38.079
but Spain pushed for prosecuting the people who did this,

659
00:45:39.159 --> 00:45:43.760
and so when was it so a judge Spain had

660
00:45:43.800 --> 00:45:46.239
already been calling for the arrest of these people. But

661
00:45:46.800 --> 00:45:52.719
in November eighteenth of in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty four,

662
00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:55.960
a judgment a little rule that the country's former president

663
00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:59.400
and ten others would stand trial for the killing of

664
00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:02.480
the sixth as a priest, the housekeeper and her daughter.

665
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:07.079
And at the time they wereabouts of Alfredo Cristiani, who

666
00:46:07.239 --> 00:46:10.800
was president and who ordered these murders to be done.

667
00:46:11.159 --> 00:46:16.039
His warabouts were unknown when this was announced. When this

668
00:46:16.199 --> 00:46:20.360
ruling was announced, and there was a warrant issued for

669
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:26.400
his arrest, and there was no date when the ruling

670
00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:30.199
was announced, but the ruling did come thirty five, almost

671
00:46:30.360 --> 00:46:34.760
exactly thirty five years to the date of the killings. Yeah,

672
00:46:34.840 --> 00:46:39.519
that was twenty twenty four. Spain had already been convicting

673
00:46:39.800 --> 00:46:42.159
some of these people, though aside from it, because it

674
00:46:42.199 --> 00:46:46.159
looks like in twenty twenty Inocente, what a fucking coincidence

675
00:46:46.199 --> 00:46:51.519
of a name anyway, Spain convicted, No, for real, Spain

676
00:46:51.559 --> 00:46:55.679
convicted in Santa Montano, who was a Soudan colonel for

677
00:46:55.840 --> 00:46:57.960
the murder of five of the priests, and he sent

678
00:46:58.119 --> 00:47:01.079
he was entenced to one hundreds or three years in prison,

679
00:47:02.119 --> 00:47:03.920
and he was also going to be tried in the

680
00:47:03.960 --> 00:47:08.239
group of eleven in this ruling in Salvador, and the

681
00:47:08.360 --> 00:47:10.840
trial is supposed to take place even if those charge

682
00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:14.880
are not present, which includes some of the names I

683
00:47:14.960 --> 00:47:19.400
read already, but also the president, the former president Christiani,

684
00:47:20.199 --> 00:47:25.960
and Rolfo Parker, who was a legal advisor to the

685
00:47:26.039 --> 00:47:29.360
Salvadoran Armed Forces at the time of the killings, was

686
00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:32.599
also going to be tried for fraud and for covering up,

687
00:47:33.559 --> 00:47:38.519
and then another two separate military agents. And I'm trying

688
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:44.800
to find if this trial ever took place because oh sorry,

689
00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:47.719
before I look for the information on the trial. In

690
00:47:47.800 --> 00:47:51.800
August twenty twenty three, the Archbishop of Sant Sa Rador

691
00:47:52.559 --> 00:47:59.280
started the canonization process for the six Jesuits, specifically for

692
00:48:00.159 --> 00:48:06.440
Father at Yakuryah. So that's still ongoing. But let's see,

693
00:48:07.400 --> 00:48:10.440
I don't know that's about separate things because on topside

694
00:48:10.480 --> 00:48:15.119
from this already horrible stuff, Alfredado Christiani was also found

695
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:18.079
to have like a bunch of offshore accounts with money.

696
00:48:18.760 --> 00:48:24.000
Oh then that was revealed in the Pandora papers fifteen

697
00:48:24.039 --> 00:48:28.039
offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Panama. And

698
00:48:28.159 --> 00:48:31.199
this was first set up in nineteen ninety two. So

699
00:48:32.519 --> 00:48:35.639
so yeah, also stealing money, which should be no surprise

700
00:48:35.719 --> 00:48:40.519
to anyone. Yeah, and then sorry, here's the actual link

701
00:48:40.559 --> 00:48:43.800
that I wanted here it is okay, And so this

702
00:48:44.199 --> 00:48:47.440
is from Spain convicting the person I just said in

703
00:48:47.519 --> 00:48:49.760
twenty twenty, who was convicted for one hundred and thirty

704
00:48:49.800 --> 00:48:53.239
three years. But what I was trying to find. Oh sorry,

705
00:48:53.400 --> 00:48:56.239
and this man, you know, Cente, who was not in

706
00:48:56.320 --> 00:49:00.880
a Cente lived in Massachusetts, every Massachusetts for a while,

707
00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:04.119
and he was extradited from the US to Spain in

708
00:49:04.159 --> 00:49:10.159
twenty seventeen to face this trial. And the Spanish court

709
00:49:10.199 --> 00:49:13.280
found that Montano, a retired career military officer in Salvador

710
00:49:13.880 --> 00:49:17.000
and vice Minister of Defense at the time the mergers,

711
00:49:17.079 --> 00:49:18.280
was part of the h He was part of the

712
00:49:18.320 --> 00:49:21.159
meeting that gave an order, gave the order to kill

713
00:49:21.719 --> 00:49:24.920
a Yakuria and leave no witnesses. So he was part

714
00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:27.280
of the meeting. But what I what I was unable

715
00:49:27.320 --> 00:49:29.840
to find even earlier when I was actually writing my

716
00:49:29.960 --> 00:49:36.840
notes was the whereabouts of Cristiani, So I think his

717
00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:40.840
trial hasn't happened yet. I see, and supposedly the trial

718
00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:46.440
was going to take place with or without them the accused.

719
00:49:47.199 --> 00:49:50.400
But I also couldn't. I was trying to find information

720
00:49:50.559 --> 00:49:53.079
on the trial. It wouldn't be a surprise if this

721
00:49:53.320 --> 00:49:58.920
was all like halted during the Bukel regime. So because

722
00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:03.000
he halted some other trials, wasn't the trial for in

723
00:50:03.239 --> 00:50:08.320
moste Yeah, yeah, that was stopped, so it wouldn't be surprising.

724
00:50:08.440 --> 00:50:12.199
But I can't. I couldn't find more information, so we'll

725
00:50:12.440 --> 00:50:16.880
look out for that and hopefully update that in another episode.

726
00:50:17.719 --> 00:50:22.880
But yeah, that was the nineteen eighty nine Jesuits massacre. Wow,

727
00:50:23.599 --> 00:50:28.119
that was rough. It was It was okay, and that

728
00:50:28.679 --> 00:50:31.360
brings us to the end of the episode. I hope

729
00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:36.480
this was one less in Estadia Unknown for you, Bye bye.

730
00:50:39.039 --> 00:50:42.440
Estoria's ANNN is produced by Carmen and Christina, researched by

731
00:50:42.519 --> 00:50:45.719
Carmen and Christina, edited by Christina. You can find sources

732
00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:48.480
for every episode at Estoria's Unknown dot com and in

733
00:50:48.599 --> 00:50:51.159
our show notes. Creating the podcast has a lot of work,

734
00:50:51.199 --> 00:50:53.079
so if you want to help us out financially. You

735
00:50:53.159 --> 00:50:56.760
can do so by supporting us on Patreon at patreon

736
00:50:56.840 --> 00:50:58.639
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