1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:12,333 --> 00:00:13,625 MIKE AFRICA JR. I've been livin' in a prison for 38 years 4 00:00:13,709 --> 00:00:15,583 because my mother and father are both in prison. 5 00:00:15,667 --> 00:00:17,041 Four minutes of gunfire, 6 00:00:17,125 --> 00:00:19,291 one policeman killed, and members of group MOVE 7 00:00:19,375 --> 00:00:20,917 have been routed from their house. 8 00:00:21,375 --> 00:00:23,166 So, this would have been her cell? 9 00:00:23,250 --> 00:00:24,083 Yeah. 10 00:00:24,750 --> 00:00:27,166 The MOVE organization experienced so much hate 11 00:00:27,250 --> 00:00:29,000 and anger from the system. 12 00:00:29,083 --> 00:00:31,291 What can I do about that except just keep on pushin'? 13 00:08:29,083 --> 00:08:32,250 Bishop Gerardi was the parish priest 14 00:08:32,333 --> 00:08:34,333 at the church of San Sebastián 15 00:08:34,417 --> 00:08:37,834 in an old historic center of Guatemala City. 16 00:08:37,917 --> 00:08:40,542 It's location is super interesting 17 00:08:40,625 --> 00:08:45,417 because it's only blocks from the, uh, National Palace, 18 00:08:45,500 --> 00:08:48,542 uh, the Presidential... you know, offices. 19 00:08:48,625 --> 00:08:51,291 Uh, the... It's inside 20 00:08:51,375 --> 00:08:53,917 what they call the security perimeter. 21 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,542 It's also only a few blocks away from the cathedral, 22 00:08:56,625 --> 00:08:58,458 where the offices of the archdiocese, 23 00:08:58,542 --> 00:09:00,917 office of human rights were located. 24 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,041 San Sebastián is a, uh... 25 00:09:06,125 --> 00:09:08,875 old-fashioned neighborhood parish. 26 00:09:08,959 --> 00:09:12,333 He shared his duties there with another priest, 27 00:09:12,417 --> 00:09:14,000 Father Mario Orantes. 28 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,875 Why would they kill someone as eminent as Bishop Gerardi? 29 00:09:45,959 --> 00:09:48,375 A 78-year-old bishop, 30 00:09:48,458 --> 00:09:52,417 two days after he's released this human rights report 31 00:09:52,500 --> 00:09:55,458 that has captured the world's attention. 32 00:09:55,542 --> 00:09:59,333 Given Guatemala's history, everyone's going to assume 33 00:09:59,417 --> 00:10:00,542 it was the army that did it. 34 00:10:00,625 --> 00:10:02,417 That's gonna be... that's what I first thought 35 00:10:02,500 --> 00:10:03,583 when I first heard it. 36 00:10:03,667 --> 00:10:05,667 You know, everybody was gonna react that way. 37 00:10:05,750 --> 00:10:07,875 This is a country that had just come out of 38 00:10:07,959 --> 00:10:12,000 more than 35 years of war. It signed peace accords. 39 00:10:12,083 --> 00:10:16,083 And so for him to be murdered in the way he was, 40 00:10:16,166 --> 00:10:19,917 a lot of people really felt that it was gonna restart the war. 41 00:11:07,792 --> 00:11:10,917 Church and human rights leaders fear the Bishop's murder 42 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:12,959 could jeopardize the work they've been doing 43 00:11:13,041 --> 00:11:15,375 to uncover Guatemala's savage past. 44 00:11:15,458 --> 00:11:18,250 That victims may now be too scared to come forward 45 00:11:18,333 --> 00:11:19,583 with their stories. 46 00:11:19,667 --> 00:11:22,750 Too scared to fight to prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes. 47 00:11:22,834 --> 00:11:25,917 Because they say, "If a bishop who was searching for the truth 48 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,834 can be murdered, then no one is safe." 49 00:11:28,917 --> 00:11:32,500 Joan Leishman, CBC News, Guatemala City. 50 00:11:59,875 --> 00:12:02,041 CLAUDIA MÉNDEZ ARRIAZA: You will read the papers, 51 00:12:02,125 --> 00:12:04,458 you know, see the TV news shows, 52 00:12:04,542 --> 00:12:07,792 and see a lot of voices claiming for justice. 53 00:12:07,875 --> 00:12:11,166 The murderers cannot get away with this murder. 54 00:12:11,250 --> 00:12:15,417 This murder happened inside the security circle 55 00:12:15,500 --> 00:12:16,667 of Álvaro Arzú. 56 00:12:16,750 --> 00:12:18,583 I mean, it happened two blocks away 57 00:12:18,667 --> 00:12:20,458 from the presidential house 58 00:12:20,542 --> 00:12:23,083 of the most powerful man in Guatemala. 59 00:12:23,166 --> 00:12:27,375 So, you know, the intelligence services must know something. 60 00:13:08,667 --> 00:13:12,250 Whether out of incompetence, panic, 61 00:13:12,333 --> 00:13:14,458 uh, some devious design, 62 00:13:14,542 --> 00:13:17,959 uh, the crime scene was very seriously mishandled. 63 00:13:18,041 --> 00:13:21,458 If you were going to make video to show 64 00:13:21,542 --> 00:13:26,458 future forensics people how not to handle a crime scene, 65 00:13:26,542 --> 00:13:29,208 I guess you could show them a video of what happened there 66 00:13:29,291 --> 00:13:30,667 that night. 67 00:13:30,750 --> 00:13:33,125 They did everything wrong. 68 00:13:33,208 --> 00:13:35,250 When they did finally get around to putting up 69 00:13:35,333 --> 00:13:37,458 yellow security tape, it was way too small 70 00:13:37,542 --> 00:13:40,291 and protected too little space and it was just-- 71 00:13:40,375 --> 00:13:41,625 People were allowed to just come in 72 00:13:41,709 --> 00:13:44,458 and literally tramp blood all over the place. 73 00:13:44,542 --> 00:13:47,125 'Cause imagine what a bloody crime scene it was 74 00:13:47,208 --> 00:13:48,583 and anyone that came into the garage 75 00:13:48,667 --> 00:13:50,792 and walked anywhere else in the house was gonna be 76 00:13:50,875 --> 00:13:52,125 tramping blood around. 77 00:13:52,208 --> 00:13:54,583 So the crime scene itself, in terms of 78 00:13:54,667 --> 00:13:57,834 the kind of forensics you expect were gone. 79 00:15:15,291 --> 00:15:18,083 The first thing and the first hypothesis 80 00:15:18,166 --> 00:15:22,125 that you're tempted to think of is it's political. 81 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,333 But as an investigator, you have to try and-- 82 00:15:31,417 --> 00:15:33,875 you really have to try hard to remove that 83 00:15:33,959 --> 00:15:35,750 from your thought process 84 00:15:35,834 --> 00:15:38,375 and you have to go through the evidence 85 00:15:38,458 --> 00:15:40,625 and you have to follow the evidence. 86 00:15:40,709 --> 00:15:44,250 So in those first days, as we were all sad, 87 00:15:44,333 --> 00:15:45,583 we were all shocked, 88 00:15:45,667 --> 00:15:48,333 but on those first days of the investigation, 89 00:15:48,417 --> 00:15:50,792 we talked a lot about being objective 90 00:15:50,875 --> 00:15:54,000 and to follow the evidence and to follow the leads. 91 00:16:27,041 --> 00:16:30,208 RUBÉN CHANAX: 92 00:17:22,834 --> 00:17:25,208 Monsignor Gerardi was killed on a Sunday. 93 00:17:25,291 --> 00:17:30,333 Monday, some, um, media outlets already had theories 94 00:17:30,417 --> 00:17:32,417 of what happened. 95 00:17:32,500 --> 00:17:36,166 ARTURO AGUILÁR: Theory about this being a crime of passion. 96 00:18:12,417 --> 00:18:17,083 People got confused, and they're confused even today. 97 00:18:17,166 --> 00:18:18,834 I mean, just go out... 98 00:18:19,625 --> 00:18:21,917 to any Guatemalan in the street 99 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,750 and ask, "Who killed the bishop?" 100 00:18:24,834 --> 00:18:29,000 I mean, they are confused. They can't say, like, 101 00:18:29,083 --> 00:18:31,417 "Oh, it was in a homosexual thing. 102 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:34,166 There were things going on inside the church." 103 00:18:34,250 --> 00:18:36,375 Or, "It was a gang." 104 00:18:36,458 --> 00:18:40,291 I mean, they don't have an idea of, you know, 105 00:18:40,375 --> 00:18:42,583 what was the real cause. 106 00:21:02,166 --> 00:21:06,041 I think Bishop Gerardi always represented justice to people. 107 00:21:06,125 --> 00:21:08,667 in a country where there was no justice. 108 00:21:08,750 --> 00:21:13,333 I think he represented a figure of authority and power 109 00:21:13,417 --> 00:21:14,750 who would listen to people 110 00:21:14,834 --> 00:21:17,542 in a country where nobody who had authority and power 111 00:21:17,625 --> 00:21:18,750 would listen to anybody. 112 00:21:18,834 --> 00:21:22,417 And when the archbishop's office of human rights, 113 00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:27,667 ODHA, gets established in 1989, which is to say, 114 00:21:27,750 --> 00:21:29,709 through all those long years of the war, 115 00:21:29,792 --> 00:21:31,875 Guatemala had basically been without 116 00:21:31,959 --> 00:21:33,625 consequential human rights groups. 117 00:21:33,709 --> 00:21:35,625 Whenever one would form, 118 00:21:35,709 --> 00:21:38,834 either their leaders would be murdered, 119 00:21:38,917 --> 00:21:40,834 or chased into exile. 120 00:21:40,917 --> 00:21:43,000 Uh, why was this different? 121 00:21:43,083 --> 00:21:44,500 Because it was the church. 122 00:21:44,583 --> 00:21:46,625 The army can't move against the church, 123 00:21:46,709 --> 00:21:50,625 and the church has incredible reach throughout the country 124 00:21:50,709 --> 00:21:53,083 through all its parishes, through all its churches, 125 00:21:53,166 --> 00:21:55,291 through all its people who work for the church. 126 00:21:55,375 --> 00:21:58,083 It has trust in all the communities, basically. 127 00:21:58,166 --> 00:22:00,750 And because of that, this human rights group 128 00:22:00,834 --> 00:22:03,166 is capable of doing what no other group 129 00:22:03,250 --> 00:22:06,083 had ever been able to do, which is sort of gather 130 00:22:06,166 --> 00:22:08,750 information from everywhere. 131 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,166 REMHI was the first 132 00:25:32,250 --> 00:25:34,375 really ambitious full accounting 133 00:25:34,458 --> 00:25:38,000 of the human rights violations of the war 134 00:25:38,083 --> 00:25:40,333 that anybody had attempted. 135 00:25:40,417 --> 00:25:43,750 The army and the powers that be in this country 136 00:25:43,834 --> 00:25:47,959 never thought it could amount to what it amounted to, 137 00:25:48,041 --> 00:25:52,875 never foresaw such a thorough undertaking. 138 00:25:52,959 --> 00:25:55,333 In the end, it was a four-volume report. 139 00:25:55,417 --> 00:25:58,792 They identified specifically, you know, 140 00:25:58,875 --> 00:26:01,667 something like 435 massacres. 141 00:26:01,750 --> 00:26:06,583 The final volume lists by name 50,000 of the war dead. 142 00:26:06,667 --> 00:26:13,041 It had extraordinary volumes dedicated to unprecedented 143 00:26:13,125 --> 00:26:15,834 investigation and analysis 144 00:26:15,917 --> 00:26:21,083 of how various military units had operated. 145 00:26:22,959 --> 00:26:24,542 The conclusions of the report 146 00:26:24,625 --> 00:26:26,417 were that the military committed 147 00:26:26,500 --> 00:26:30,458 far and away the vast majority of atrocities in the war. 148 00:26:36,125 --> 00:26:38,458 The report had made it seem 149 00:26:38,542 --> 00:26:41,583 that this terrible reign of silence and terror 150 00:26:41,667 --> 00:26:43,250 could finally be broken. 151 00:26:43,333 --> 00:26:46,375 Let the truth be known, which is incredibly liberating. 152 00:26:46,458 --> 00:26:47,542 NEVER AGAIN 153 00:26:47,625 --> 00:26:49,166 WE CONDEMN THE MURDER OF MONSIGNOR JUAN GERARDI 154 00:26:49,250 --> 00:26:50,625 Bishop Gerardi spoke publicly 155 00:26:50,709 --> 00:26:52,542 about the importance of having that hope 156 00:26:52,625 --> 00:26:58,709 and the importance of at least creating some conditions. 157 00:26:58,792 --> 00:27:02,041 by which justice could be achieved. 158 00:27:45,583 --> 00:27:49,583 they had a fight, and the other man kills Gerardi. 159 00:28:49,083 --> 00:28:53,709 The prosecutor's office thought that Father Mario 160 00:28:53,792 --> 00:28:59,333 had, um, sort of a relationship with Monsignor Gerardi, 161 00:28:59,417 --> 00:29:02,875 and that because of that relationship 162 00:29:02,959 --> 00:29:07,041 they had gotten into an argument, into a dispute, 163 00:29:07,125 --> 00:29:10,375 and it escalated all the way up 164 00:29:10,458 --> 00:29:14,917 as for Mario Orantes, Father Mario, to sic his dog 165 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,583 on Monsignor Gerardi. 166 00:29:52,959 --> 00:29:55,208 Balú's arrest really did turn 167 00:29:55,291 --> 00:29:58,667 this incredibly grave murder 168 00:29:58,750 --> 00:30:02,792 into a carnival, into an incredible show. 169 00:30:02,875 --> 00:30:05,000 People were just fascinated by Balú. 170 00:30:06,375 --> 00:30:08,583 Rather than talking about the REMHI report, 171 00:30:08,667 --> 00:30:12,208 people were... talking and speculating about 172 00:30:12,291 --> 00:30:14,834 the sex lives of the church. 173 00:30:14,917 --> 00:30:17,291 Priests and gay crimes of passion 174 00:30:17,375 --> 00:30:20,166 and dogs and everything else. 175 00:30:20,250 --> 00:30:24,458 Well, the story took off because it had all the... 176 00:30:24,542 --> 00:30:27,667 the elements you need to entertain. 177 00:30:27,750 --> 00:30:29,375 You have full entertainment. 178 00:30:29,458 --> 00:30:31,750 Otto Ardón needed proof. 179 00:30:31,834 --> 00:30:33,125 He took this to Spain. 180 00:30:33,208 --> 00:30:37,542 To Spain's most revered forensic anthropologist... 181 00:30:37,625 --> 00:30:39,458 Dr. Jose Reverte Coma. 182 00:30:42,625 --> 00:30:45,583 OTTO ARDÓN: 183 00:30:54,625 --> 00:30:58,834 Ardón ordered a second autopsy to resolve the question 184 00:30:58,917 --> 00:31:00,875 of whether they were dog bites or not. 185 00:31:00,959 --> 00:31:03,291 Because this was so controversial, 186 00:31:03,375 --> 00:31:06,333 Jose Reverte Coma himself, the great eminence, 187 00:31:06,417 --> 00:31:09,125 was going to come and conduct the autopsy 188 00:31:09,208 --> 00:31:13,583 and draw his own conclusions to confirm his findings. 189 00:31:13,667 --> 00:31:15,417 Ardón certainly seemed convinced 190 00:31:15,500 --> 00:31:17,834 of the truth of those accusations. 191 00:31:24,750 --> 00:31:27,500 MÉNDEZ ARRIAZA: 192 00:31:31,166 --> 00:31:36,250 You could hear people saying, "Let this man rest in peace." 193 00:31:36,333 --> 00:31:39,500 It was unbelievable. It was a shock 194 00:31:39,583 --> 00:31:42,542 to hear that he had to be unburied 195 00:31:42,625 --> 00:31:45,291 to find out if he was bitten by a dog. 196 00:31:47,458 --> 00:31:48,917 NEVER AGAIN 197 00:32:52,875 --> 00:32:56,000 The church needed an internationally prestigious 198 00:32:56,083 --> 00:32:58,709 counterweight to Dr. Jose Reverte Coma. 199 00:33:00,333 --> 00:33:01,875 They needed experts 200 00:33:01,959 --> 00:33:03,709 that you couldn't get in Guatemala. 201 00:33:03,792 --> 00:33:07,000 They needed real experts, gente de peso, you know? 202 00:33:07,083 --> 00:33:09,458 People whose names would mean something 203 00:33:09,542 --> 00:33:11,417 and even raise eyebrows. 204 00:33:14,166 --> 00:33:18,125 I was contacted by Amnesty International 205 00:33:18,208 --> 00:33:19,917 and the Catholic Church. 206 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,542 Rather different than my usual clients. 207 00:33:29,750 --> 00:33:32,000 We were in this cavernous space 208 00:33:32,083 --> 00:33:36,709 and there are 50, 60, 70 people, coming in, going out. 209 00:33:38,583 --> 00:33:43,500 And over it all is this Spanish character. 210 00:33:43,583 --> 00:33:45,250 Coma was his name. 211 00:33:46,834 --> 00:33:49,667 He had a really imperial presence 212 00:33:49,750 --> 00:33:54,583 and fully anticipated he would be always the final authority. 213 00:33:57,250 --> 00:33:58,792 And one of the first things he does 214 00:33:58,875 --> 00:34:01,667 is he decides to remove the fungus 215 00:34:01,750 --> 00:34:03,750 that is covering his face 216 00:34:03,834 --> 00:34:07,750 by scraping it away with a scalpel, causing abrasions 217 00:34:07,834 --> 00:34:09,834 on the very skin that you want to examine, 218 00:34:09,917 --> 00:34:12,834 destroying the possibility, already difficult 219 00:34:12,917 --> 00:34:14,542 given the deterioration of the body, 220 00:34:14,625 --> 00:34:17,458 of picking up serious forensic evidence off of it. 221 00:34:19,083 --> 00:34:21,542 The dog has a canine, 222 00:34:21,625 --> 00:34:23,834 and it's the reason we call these canine teeth. 223 00:34:23,917 --> 00:34:27,875 The dog has long canines and small incisors, 224 00:34:27,959 --> 00:34:31,291 much more differentiated than a person. 225 00:34:31,375 --> 00:34:34,709 So if, in fact, the four little marks over, uh, 226 00:34:34,792 --> 00:34:37,250 the Bishop's left eye 227 00:34:37,917 --> 00:34:40,458 are made by a dog bite, 228 00:34:40,542 --> 00:34:43,750 then... and the incisor is a part of that, 229 00:34:43,834 --> 00:34:46,750 then the canines would have to penetrate through the skin, 230 00:34:46,834 --> 00:34:49,333 and penetrate into the skull. 231 00:34:49,417 --> 00:34:54,083 The skin is peeled back and there are no marks at all 232 00:34:54,166 --> 00:34:55,458 on the skull, 233 00:34:55,542 --> 00:34:58,834 which means it could not physically be a dog bite. 234 00:34:58,917 --> 00:35:00,959 You could not have the marks on the skin 235 00:35:01,041 --> 00:35:03,250 without penetration through the skull. 236 00:35:03,333 --> 00:35:05,291 At the end of the second autopsy, 237 00:35:05,375 --> 00:35:09,333 it was clear that it had not been dog bites, 238 00:35:09,417 --> 00:35:11,500 and I think that Ardón at that point 239 00:35:11,583 --> 00:35:14,333 knew there was no way you could take this to trial. 240 00:35:15,166 --> 00:35:16,667 He had lost all credibility. 241 00:35:17,667 --> 00:35:18,792 He knew it. 242 00:35:18,875 --> 00:35:22,750 And he had no other option left other than to resign, 243 00:35:22,834 --> 00:35:24,333 which he did. 244 00:35:24,417 --> 00:35:26,166 The bottom line here is that... 245 00:35:27,500 --> 00:35:29,667 the real murderer, 246 00:35:29,750 --> 00:35:32,750 the real attack has nothing to do with a dog, 247 00:35:32,834 --> 00:35:35,041 and is still out there and the government has basically 248 00:35:35,125 --> 00:35:36,625 come up with a theory that keeps them 249 00:35:36,709 --> 00:35:38,458 from having to look for them. 250 00:36:03,834 --> 00:36:07,000 People had reason to be suspicious of Father Mario 251 00:36:07,083 --> 00:36:10,000 early on, in part because of something 252 00:36:10,083 --> 00:36:13,041 that the homeless witness Rubén Chanax had said. 253 00:36:15,750 --> 00:36:18,709 RUBÉN CHANAX: 254 00:36:37,542 --> 00:36:38,875 MÉNDEZ ARRIAZA: 255 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:57,208 We investigated the background of Father Mario. 256 00:37:57,291 --> 00:38:00,875 We found a lot of information about his connections 257 00:38:00,959 --> 00:38:03,458 and his connections to the elite. 258 00:38:03,542 --> 00:38:05,750 To me, one of the most striking things, for example, 259 00:38:05,834 --> 00:38:08,834 having grown up here, and having partly grown up here, 260 00:38:08,917 --> 00:38:10,375 and having been around, and having been here 261 00:38:10,458 --> 00:38:13,583 all through the '80's, and being really... 262 00:38:13,667 --> 00:38:17,667 known way, um, right wing upper class Guatemalans... 263 00:38:17,750 --> 00:38:20,250 express things, and what they mean to say, 264 00:38:20,333 --> 00:38:25,583 so when a week after the murder, Father Mario says, 265 00:38:25,667 --> 00:38:26,959 the reason Bishop Gerardi was killed 266 00:38:27,041 --> 00:38:29,291 was he was a jefe de todos los guerrilleros. 267 00:38:29,375 --> 00:38:31,375 He was the chief of all the guerrillas. 268 00:38:32,583 --> 00:38:34,083 That is... I can hear, like, 269 00:38:34,166 --> 00:38:36,125 my most right-wing aunt saying that. 270 00:38:36,208 --> 00:38:38,500 That's exactly the kind of thing they say. 271 00:38:55,333 --> 00:38:56,417 You know... 272 00:39:32,917 --> 00:39:36,959 He told us then the story about how he was assigned 273 00:39:37,041 --> 00:39:40,000 to Monsignor Gerardi's case, file 27. 274 00:39:40,083 --> 00:39:43,583 And how he, um, kept the records, 275 00:39:43,667 --> 00:39:45,250 cassettes at that time, 276 00:39:45,333 --> 00:39:49,792 and how other members of the intelligence community 277 00:39:49,875 --> 00:39:54,750 fed him information and pictures and reports, 278 00:39:54,834 --> 00:39:57,375 and he kept all the files together. 279 00:40:23,291 --> 00:40:28,750 Monsignor Gerardi was seen as an enemy of the state. 280 00:40:31,333 --> 00:40:32,667 but way before. 281 00:45:01,625 --> 00:45:03,709 HISTORIC CLARIFICATION COMMISSION 282 00:45:03,792 --> 00:45:06,041 GUATEMALA, REMEMBERING THE SILENCE 283 00:45:54,458 --> 00:45:59,083 Now, you can declare an amnesty as the Guatemalans did, 284 00:45:59,166 --> 00:46:01,875 for prosecutions for war crimes, 285 00:46:01,959 --> 00:46:05,291 but you cannot declare an amnesty 286 00:46:05,375 --> 00:46:07,250 for a crime against humanity like genocide. 287 00:46:07,333 --> 00:46:10,083 So, essentially that undid the amnesty. 288 00:46:10,166 --> 00:46:14,875 But it didn't undo the fear of trying to prosecute 289 00:46:14,959 --> 00:46:17,500 military officers for war crimes. 290 00:50:16,458 --> 00:50:18,000 People were afraid again. 291 00:50:18,083 --> 00:50:20,875 Like when Monsignor was killed. If they can kill Monsignor, 292 00:50:20,959 --> 00:50:22,083 they can kill anyone. 293 00:50:22,166 --> 00:50:24,750 If they can do this to Ronalth Ochaeta, 294 00:50:24,834 --> 00:50:26,333 they can do it to anyone. 295 00:52:32,834 --> 00:52:35,709 And I confirmed that he's a great investigator, 296 00:52:35,792 --> 00:52:38,875 has an acute mind, and he's very great with details 297 00:52:38,959 --> 00:52:42,125 and he's really great connecting dots. 298 00:52:58,875 --> 00:53:01,041 Rubén Chanax, the homeless witness, 299 00:53:01,125 --> 00:53:04,709 is sort of the forgotten person in this case up to this point. 300 00:53:04,792 --> 00:53:07,166 He has been for the longest time now, 301 00:53:07,250 --> 00:53:10,000 in a kind of protective custody 302 00:53:10,083 --> 00:53:14,125 of the police, sitting in these kind of pensiones, 303 00:53:14,208 --> 00:53:17,834 these sort of hotel flop houses in the center. 304 00:53:17,917 --> 00:53:22,041 Strangely forgotten, but yet they're keeping him. 305 00:53:22,125 --> 00:53:26,000 And probably they were getting ready to let him go, 306 00:53:26,083 --> 00:53:27,458 I would guess, 307 00:53:27,542 --> 00:53:33,834 when Zeissig gets the case, and Zeissig makes the decision 308 00:53:33,917 --> 00:53:36,500 that turns the Gerardi case around really, 309 00:53:36,583 --> 00:53:39,458 and says, "Let's go take another look at this witness." 310 00:55:18,375 --> 00:55:22,625 Cases like this don't rely on a single piece of evidence 311 00:55:22,709 --> 00:55:24,667 or on a single testimony. 312 00:55:24,750 --> 00:55:27,458 Cases like this are complex cases. 313 00:55:27,542 --> 00:55:32,583 So they rely on the integration of information of several, 314 00:55:32,667 --> 00:55:35,083 many, many pieces of evidence. 315 00:56:16,125 --> 00:56:20,125 In the early days of the investigation, a tip came 316 00:56:20,208 --> 00:56:24,041 and it was naming the Lima family 317 00:56:24,125 --> 00:56:26,625 as-- as one, um... 318 00:56:28,041 --> 00:56:29,959 as people that we should look into. 319 00:56:30,041 --> 00:56:33,417 It just was afterwards when... 320 00:56:34,417 --> 00:56:37,208 several other pieces of information 321 00:56:37,291 --> 00:56:38,625 led up to that name. 322 00:58:27,041 --> 00:58:28,458 RUBÉN CHANAX: 323 01:00:13,333 --> 01:00:15,166 RUBÉN CHANAX: 324 01:00:37,583 --> 01:00:38,959 JORGE MANUEL AGUILAR MARTÍNEZ, 325 01:00:39,041 --> 01:00:41,917 A MILITARY EX-SPECIALIST OF THE PRESIDENTIAL GUARD... 326 01:02:54,291 --> 01:02:57,542 MÉNDEZ ARRIAZA: 327 01:03:01,083 --> 01:03:05,875 The suspicion on Father Mario has always been that he was... 328 01:03:07,458 --> 01:03:11,417 the person inside the parish house, 329 01:03:11,500 --> 01:03:15,333 who opened the door to the man who killed Gerardi. 330 01:03:19,375 --> 01:03:21,709 Colonel Byron Lima Estrada 331 01:03:21,792 --> 01:03:25,625 was one of the most notorious figures of the war. 332 01:03:25,709 --> 01:03:29,000 He was your classic, um... 333 01:03:29,083 --> 01:03:33,667 gung-ho, uh, insanely anti-communist, 334 01:03:34,542 --> 01:03:36,417 extreme right wing, 335 01:03:36,500 --> 01:03:39,333 very vocal military commander. 336 01:03:39,417 --> 01:03:44,417 But he had also been head of G2 military intelligence 337 01:03:45,458 --> 01:03:46,709 at a time when they were committing 338 01:03:46,792 --> 01:03:49,041 some horrible human rights crimes. 339 01:03:56,417 --> 01:03:59,917 And his son, Captain Byron Lima Oliva, 340 01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:01,917 was a member of the EMP, 341 01:04:02,000 --> 01:04:05,375 the President's bodyguards and that intelligence unit. 342 01:04:10,083 --> 01:04:13,291 Which is the most feared unit 343 01:04:13,375 --> 01:04:17,041 of not only the Guatemalan army but in Latin America. 344 01:04:18,750 --> 01:04:22,000 Sergeant Obdulio Villanueva, he's working in the same unit 345 01:04:22,083 --> 01:04:23,333 than Captain Lima. 346 01:04:23,417 --> 01:04:27,041 Even though he's a low-rank member of that unit, 347 01:04:27,125 --> 01:04:29,917 he's always next to Captain Lima. 348 01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:31,542 Like his right hand. 349 01:04:51,792 --> 01:04:52,917 ANOTHER MILITARY MAN CAPTURED 350 01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:54,542 OBDULIO VILLANUEVA EX-SPECIALIST TO THE EMP 351 01:04:54,625 --> 01:04:56,583 LINKED TO THE ASSASSINATION OF GERARDI BY THE POLICE 352 01:05:31,208 --> 01:05:34,208 There were meetings and... and discussions 353 01:05:34,291 --> 01:05:36,083 about how to keep everybody... 354 01:05:36,166 --> 01:05:37,834 or try to keep everybody safe. 355 01:05:37,917 --> 01:05:40,667 As soon as that witnesses have given their declaration 356 01:05:40,750 --> 01:05:43,792 to the judge, at which point, you know, 357 01:05:43,875 --> 01:05:46,917 it becomes known that they've become witnesses, 358 01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:48,625 they have to get out of the country. 359 01:05:48,709 --> 01:05:49,917 They have to get them out. 360 01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:52,333 The threat just felt so real. 361 01:07:00,250 --> 01:07:03,291 YASSMÍN BARRIOS: 362 01:08:54,959 --> 01:08:58,083 No, uh, Guatemalan military officers 363 01:08:58,166 --> 01:09:02,792 had ever, um, been found guilty of participation 364 01:09:02,875 --> 01:09:06,041 in a state sponsored execution. 365 01:09:06,125 --> 01:09:10,417 I believe Captain Lima thought that he was going to be 366 01:09:10,500 --> 01:09:14,125 out of prison before getting into a trial. 367 01:09:14,208 --> 01:09:19,750 I believe Captain Lima was sure that he was not going to step 368 01:09:19,834 --> 01:09:23,083 in the courtroom and face a trial 369 01:09:23,166 --> 01:09:25,041 for the Gerardi case. 370 01:09:25,125 --> 01:09:28,709 And so this was the huge test of which... 371 01:09:28,792 --> 01:09:33,375 it was the Guatemalan justice system ready to affirm 372 01:09:33,458 --> 01:09:36,250 the most basic, democratic values. 373 01:09:57,166 --> 01:09:59,667 When Captain Lima was talking about his case, 374 01:09:59,750 --> 01:10:02,000 by March 2001, 375 01:10:02,083 --> 01:10:06,291 you had to have in mind is, the trial was about to begin. 376 01:10:06,375 --> 01:10:10,000 It was two or three weeks before the trial begun, 377 01:10:10,083 --> 01:10:11,500 that we had the interview. 378 01:10:11,583 --> 01:10:14,375 So, he was not sounding really, really sure or confident... 379 01:10:14,458 --> 01:10:15,750 THE CAPTAIN IS LEFT ALONE 380 01:10:15,834 --> 01:10:19,875 ...about getting away with it, as he sounded before. 381 01:10:19,959 --> 01:10:23,333 I was very aware by that time that... 382 01:10:23,417 --> 01:10:28,166 he used reporters to spread his propaganda. 383 01:10:28,250 --> 01:10:33,458 And we were the perfect means to spread his threats, 384 01:10:34,500 --> 01:10:36,208 to spread his intimidations, 385 01:10:36,291 --> 01:10:41,083 to spread his, you know, subliminal messages. 386 01:10:41,166 --> 01:10:43,500 I was totally aware of that, and... 387 01:11:30,500 --> 01:11:34,959 People doubted, they said, "No, you're not gonna be able, 388 01:11:35,041 --> 01:11:38,291 and Public Ministry is not gonna be able to convict 389 01:11:38,375 --> 01:11:41,792 this military person. They're too powerful." 390 01:12:12,500 --> 01:12:16,083 I really thought that she was going to excuse herself 391 01:12:16,166 --> 01:12:17,917 from the trial. Come on, a bomb 392 01:12:18,041 --> 01:12:20,250 just exploded at her house. 393 01:12:20,333 --> 01:12:25,000 And I thought, like, I mean, it's your life or the trial. 394 01:12:46,583 --> 01:12:50,291 MÉNDEZ ARRIAZA: Then I looked at her and I thought, 395 01:12:50,375 --> 01:12:53,291 "Oh, my gosh, she's really brave." 396 01:12:53,375 --> 01:12:56,166 She didn't excuse herself. 397 01:12:56,250 --> 01:13:00,625 Standing so quiet and so, you know, firm. 398 01:14:22,208 --> 01:14:25,709 I think almost every reporter missed a lot 399 01:14:25,792 --> 01:14:27,959 of the most important testimony. 400 01:14:28,041 --> 01:14:30,917 They never heard it because it was boring. 401 01:14:31,000 --> 01:14:34,792 Because it would happen during the slow hours of the trial, 402 01:14:34,875 --> 01:14:37,291 when-- because so many of the important witnesses 403 01:14:37,375 --> 01:14:39,166 were in exile, 404 01:14:39,250 --> 01:14:41,709 were in prison, or missing, or... 405 01:14:41,792 --> 01:14:43,917 so a lot of the most important testimony 406 01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:47,291 was read out loud into the court. 407 01:14:47,375 --> 01:14:49,709 This was the taxi driver's testimony. 408 01:14:50,709 --> 01:14:54,208 This was Aguilar Martinez's testimony. 409 01:14:54,291 --> 01:14:57,291 Right? I think was Oscar Chex's testimony. 410 01:14:57,375 --> 01:15:00,041 A lot of the key witnesses, they weren't there. 411 01:15:00,125 --> 01:15:03,333 No. So, these people never heard it, 412 01:15:03,417 --> 01:15:06,333 because I think I only knew one reporter 413 01:15:06,417 --> 01:15:07,959 who was nerdy enough 414 01:15:08,041 --> 01:15:10,750 to sit there and listen to every word of it 415 01:15:11,166 --> 01:15:12,250 and take notes. 416 01:15:12,333 --> 01:15:13,709 And that was Claudia Méndez. 417 01:15:13,792 --> 01:15:16,083 It was a dangerous time, and you can feel it. 418 01:15:16,166 --> 01:15:19,458 You know the air was so thick in the trial, 419 01:15:19,542 --> 01:15:21,667 in the courtroom with the judges, 420 01:15:21,750 --> 01:15:24,375 with the witnesses, with the prosecutors, 421 01:15:24,458 --> 01:15:25,667 with the defense attorneys. 422 01:15:25,750 --> 01:15:28,917 The air was so heavy and thick that you could feel it. 423 01:15:29,000 --> 01:15:32,583 People had no idea of what was coming. 424 01:15:32,667 --> 01:15:36,542 People had no idea that ODHA and that prosecutor's case 425 01:15:36,625 --> 01:15:38,625 was really that strong or not. 426 01:17:45,375 --> 01:17:47,542 They thought he would be afraid, 427 01:17:47,625 --> 01:17:50,625 uh, they thought he'd be easy to intimidate. 428 01:17:50,709 --> 01:17:53,750 Um, they thought he'd be easy to confuse. 429 01:17:53,834 --> 01:17:56,792 You know? And they thought they could just show him up. 430 01:17:56,875 --> 01:18:00,333 And, uh, nobody was prepared for what happened. 431 01:18:00,417 --> 01:18:02,000 It was extraordinary. 432 01:19:08,875 --> 01:19:10,959 Chanax did not change his testimony. 433 01:19:11,041 --> 01:19:12,375 He augmented it. 434 01:19:12,458 --> 01:19:15,667 Right? He always... it was like, 435 01:19:15,750 --> 01:19:17,917 first was like the basic narrative, 436 01:19:18,000 --> 01:19:20,291 and the basic narrative never changed. 437 01:19:20,375 --> 01:19:23,917 And he would just always add more and add more 438 01:19:24,000 --> 01:19:25,083 and add more. 439 01:20:01,625 --> 01:20:03,959 And one reason he had to do that 440 01:20:04,041 --> 01:20:07,000 was because Guatemala did not have 441 01:20:07,083 --> 01:20:09,792 a protected witness program. 442 01:20:09,875 --> 01:20:13,834 Right? If he said anything that implicated himself 443 01:20:13,917 --> 01:20:17,291 in the crime, he could be arrested right there. 444 01:20:17,375 --> 01:20:20,250 And I think the defense thought that might happen. 445 01:20:20,333 --> 01:20:23,291 That was one of the things-- ways they'd hoped to trick him. 446 01:20:23,375 --> 01:20:24,583 Right? But he was too careful. 447 01:20:24,667 --> 01:20:26,792 He's so wily, he's such a survivor. 448 01:22:21,083 --> 01:22:23,041 Nobody doubted that Father Mario 449 01:22:23,125 --> 01:22:24,417 had some involvement. 450 01:22:24,500 --> 01:22:28,375 Was it just unlocking the door to the sacristy? 451 01:22:28,458 --> 01:22:30,375 Or was it much more sinister? 452 01:22:30,458 --> 01:22:32,417 I think to this day, some of those questions 453 01:22:32,500 --> 01:22:35,000 are still hanging over the case. 454 01:22:35,083 --> 01:22:37,667 But that he was involved? Um, without a doubt. 455 01:22:37,750 --> 01:22:40,750 No, had he been blackmailed into doing something, 456 01:22:40,834 --> 01:22:44,208 or did he actively take part? 457 01:22:44,291 --> 01:22:48,166 In the build-up of the verdict, we were all waiting 458 01:22:48,250 --> 01:22:52,250 at the courthouse. It took many hours. 459 01:23:03,500 --> 01:23:06,542 You could cut the tension with a steak knife. 460 01:23:06,625 --> 01:23:08,458 It was crazy. 461 01:23:08,542 --> 01:23:10,125 The hours passed, the hours passed, 462 01:23:10,208 --> 01:23:12,333 and then it just came the time. 463 01:24:58,250 --> 01:25:00,834 MÉNDEZ ARRIAZA: 464 01:25:04,625 --> 01:25:09,583 is when she reads that the crime was political. 465 01:25:09,667 --> 01:25:13,500 It was a straight crime. That's the conclusion, 466 01:25:13,583 --> 01:25:18,625 which means they were not convicted only, you know, 467 01:25:18,709 --> 01:25:23,250 by the charges of assassination, but they were convicted 468 01:25:23,333 --> 01:25:25,750 by being state members 469 01:25:25,834 --> 01:25:31,250 and using all the state means, not only to commit the crime 470 01:25:31,333 --> 01:25:33,333 but to cover the crime. 471 01:25:33,417 --> 01:25:37,917 Um, proving to society that justice can be served 472 01:25:38,000 --> 01:25:40,375 no matter who the defendant is, 473 01:25:40,458 --> 01:25:43,792 and giving that hope and just breaking a little brick 474 01:25:43,875 --> 01:25:48,917 of that impunity wall that has done so much damage 475 01:25:49,000 --> 01:25:50,458 to the Guatemalan society. 476 01:25:50,542 --> 01:25:53,458 Guatemalans recognize that the place to draw the line 477 01:25:53,542 --> 01:25:56,291 to protect Guatemala from becoming 478 01:25:56,375 --> 01:25:59,166 the completely failed state, the narco state, 479 01:25:59,250 --> 01:26:02,250 was by protecting the justice system. 480 01:26:02,333 --> 01:26:04,208 And that's why we've seen so many 481 01:26:04,291 --> 01:26:06,417 of the, uh, extraordinary things 482 01:26:06,500 --> 01:26:07,875 that came out of the Gerardi case 483 01:26:07,959 --> 01:26:12,875 a strengthened, idealistic, ennobled justice department 484 01:26:12,959 --> 01:26:15,166 has pulled off some incredible things in Guatemala. 485 01:26:15,250 --> 01:26:16,750 That there are people here ready to-- you know, 486 01:26:16,834 --> 01:26:19,709 willing to wage these kinds of fights and to win them. 487 01:26:19,792 --> 01:26:22,083 They don't always, you know, and especially now. 488 01:26:22,166 --> 01:26:24,333 We're heading into some really dark times. 489 01:26:24,417 --> 01:26:25,542 GERARDI LIVES 490 01:26:25,625 --> 01:26:28,500 All of that is Bishop Gerardi's legacy, 491 01:26:28,583 --> 01:26:31,792 and it's why you still see his poster everywhere, 492 01:26:31,875 --> 01:26:36,625 and his spirit's behind the way Guatemalans are living now. 493 01:28:04,041 --> 01:28:07,667 GERARDI LIVES!