Miriam Lewin
Appearances
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
This episode includes discussions of murder, sexual assault, torture, kidnapping, and suicide. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health and suicide, visit Spotify.com slash resources. In December 1978, 35 decomposing bodies washed ashore in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Most were missing their heads and hands.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam survived that first detention center only to be brought to another. And at some point, she heard rumors as well as firsthand accounts about what was happening to some prisoners. Stories she didn't want to believe about a method of killing that was difficult to trace.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
To this day, Miriam Lewin doesn't know what happened to the young man she unofficially married before her capture, but she believes he was most likely arrested and killed. As for her friend Patricia, Miriam's abductors claim she blew herself up with dynamite during a confrontation with the military.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Incredibly, Miriam says, she's buried in the military sector of a cemetery in Buenos Aires, a decision that couldn't possibly have been her own. Miriam's second detention center was a place called ESMA. It's now a World Heritage Site. But at the time, its public-facing purpose was as a mechanic school for the Navy.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Few knew that around 5,000 Argentine citizens were being brought through its doors and detained against their will.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
An estimated 30,000 people were disappeared and brought to centers like Esma. We now know many of them were taken from their cells, drugged, hooded, bound, and thrown out of planes alive. a method of execution that has since been referred to as death flights.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
According to witnesses, military officers would sometimes tell the prisoners they were being released and play music for them to dance in celebration as the sedatives took effect. Miriam is reportedly one of about 150 desaparecidos to survive detention. She can't say with any certainty how she got so lucky.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
But at a certain point, she says, members of the government saw value in prisoners like her.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. And we would love to hear from you. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. For today's episode, our team spoke with a survivor of Argentina's clandestine detention centers.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Those with useful skills were given specific tasks. As a former journalism student who could speak multiple languages, Miriam was made to translate news stories from abroad. The Argentine government was worried about reports being published overseas about human rights violations happening in their country. They also made Miriam Wright articles they could send to media outlets as propaganda.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
For example, when the World Cup came to Buenos Aires in 1978... They made Miriam write a piece about it. The event served as a source of national pride and an easy distraction from the allegations of abuses. The same abuses Miriam was a victim of. She could hear the roars of the crowd celebrating when Argentina won the final game.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Unbeknownst to most, she was hidden away in a prison cell near the stadium, listening from behind a wall just a few feet away from some celebrants. Miriam believes, after spending so much time as an unwilling participant in her government system, they eventually assumed she was a willing participant. That, after everything, she had somehow been reformed.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
It's how she found herself having dinner with General Macera at a fancy restaurant. A dinner he invited her parents to. Miriam hadn't seen her parents in nearly two years. They didn't know any of what she'd been through because she hadn't told them. She hadn't been able to. Even sitting across from them, she knew that to speak ill of her abductors could risk her life or her family's safety.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
She remembers her parents gifting General Macera a bottle of nice scotch and thanking him for keeping her safe. Miriam was eventually allowed to leave ESMA and move into an apartment, paid for at great cost by her parents. But even then, she wasn't free. She was kept under surveillance while continuing to work for General Macera's press bureau and other departments of the government.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Around this time, she fell in love with a man who was her fellow prisoner. She got pregnant, she married, and shortly after, she asked her repressors for permission to leave the country. They denied her request at first, and her son was born in Buenos Aires. But by the spring of 1981, they finally let her leave the country.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
She moved to New York, and for the first time, had a moment where she felt free.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam says she later found evidence that the military was surveilling her even in New York. She and her family remained in the United States until democratic elections were restored in Argentina in 1983. Later, the men who abducted her were put on trial for their crimes against humanity. Survivors of the detention centers were asked to testify in court. Many were afraid to.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
At 19 years old, Miriam Lewin was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires and thrown into a concentration camp. She survived, became a journalist, and later launched a campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Miriam's story is the subject of the documentary audio series by Orbit Media, Avenger, available on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The trials, which are now known as the truth trials, were unprecedented. The outcome of each was known before they began. Due to two pieces of legislation passed in 1986 and 1987... Members of the military junta could not be criminally sentenced or punished. The first, known as the Full Stop Law, suspended all judicial proceedings for anyone accused of forcibly disappearing another person.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
And the second, known as the Due Obedience Law, prevented any member of the military below the rank of colonel from being punished for following orders. regardless of what those orders entailed so while the trials resulted in a lot of ugly truths coming to light they ultimately held no consequences you run across the perpetrators
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
In fact, Miriam once ran into the young man who guarded her cell and fed her Christian texts when she was 19. He suggested they get coffee, and she agreed. Years had passed since they last saw each other, so Miriam asked if he still worked for the military. He told her no, that he was going back to college to study engineering, something they had discussed during her captivity.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam eventually learned he was, in fact, still working for the military as they sat there having coffee. He never went back to school for engineering. She says he worked in intelligence services until 2007. which may be around the same time Miriam helped put him behind bars. Human rights groups went on to protest the laws that kept Argentina's dictatorship immune from prosecution.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
In 2005, the country's Supreme Court struck both laws down, finally opening the door for criminal trials to begin. Miriam used photos to identify that man who guarded her cell. And she says he was sentenced to around 13 years in prison. Meanwhile, as a journalist, Miriam shied away from writing about her personal experience as a survivor.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam kept her distance from the topic for years. Then, one day, an Italian photographer named Giancarlo Serrato approached her with a request. He said he wanted to take her picture. She was hesitant, but ultimately agreed.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam was joined in the studio by Orbit's executive producer, Steve Fishman, and a producer and the host of Avenger, Andres Caballero. We are extremely grateful for their time. Stay with us.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
And so Giancarlo and Miriam launched an investigation to find the planes and hopefully bring those pilots to justice. Step one in Miriam and Giancarlo's investigation was locating the planes that were used for the death flights. Years had passed, and they had very little idea where to begin.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The Navy officer had participated in two of the flights. By the time Miriam and Giancarlo launched their investigation, he had blown the whistle and given an interview with two Argentine journalists. They then wrote a best-selling book on the subject called The Flight.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Through digital records, they could trace the transaction history of the planes. When they were first built, who bought them, and how many times they had exchanged hands since. They learned that three of the planes used were actually still in use. One was in Luxembourg and being used for commercial flights. Another was in the UK and operated by defense forces.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
And the third was in Florida, owned by a private courier. So they sent a Miami-based freelance journalist named Bruno to interview the owner. Miriam prepared a long list of questions for him.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
They tried to get in touch with the owner of the Florida plane, but Miriam says once he learned what they were doing, he fled the country. So they reached out to a second pilot who was able to identify some glaring irregularities in the plane's technical flight logs. From her experience as a survivor, Miriam knew the death flights typically happened on Wednesdays.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Records indicated that many of those flights had taken much longer than they should have if the plane was making a routine trip. A flight from point A to point B might take hours longer than it should, far more than could be accounted for by an unforeseen delay or margin of error. The only problem was their pilot wasn't willing to go public with his findings for their story.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The story eventually premiered on television news. Miriam says that at that point, they had the names of the pilots who flew those suspicious flights, but they chose not to reveal them. They needed more evidence, and they were worried that the pilots might flee the country before they could be charged. Many were still working for international airlines.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Coincidentally, Giancarlo might have flown with one of them on his many trips back and forth from Italy. Miriam handed all the evidence they found over to a judge so the judge could investigate further. She did so with the support of Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel. Esquivel was an artist, activist, and death flight survivor.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Kidnapped by Argentina's dictatorship in 1977 for his outspoken views, he was tortured for 14 months before being forced onto a plane. He would have been thrown into the ocean that day had radio calls not come in telling the pilot to turn around.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
international pressure was getting too great the military decided he was best kept alive despite testimony from survivors like esquivel and entire books on the subject the nature of the death flights have made physical evidence hard to come by an untold number of victims have been lost to the ocean But as we mentioned earlier, bodies have washed ashore. Among them, two kidnapped nuns.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
By chance, a storm with unusually strong southeastern winds washed their bodies ashore three days after they were last seen. Based on the timing and location, the judge was able to tie the nuns' deaths to the Florida Plain.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam's and Giancarlo's discoveries have played a role in the convictions of dozens more perpetrators. In 2023, the Florida plane used for the death flights was returned to Argentina and placed in a Buenos Aires museum at the site of a former detention center.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
According to the New York Times, by that time, more than 1,100 military personnel, police officers, and civilians had been convicted of crimes against humanity. And there were still more than 300 open investigations and 14 ongoing trials. Around 70 bodies have washed ashore in Argentina and surrounding countries. Many more victims have been found in mass unmarked graves.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The sheer breadth of convictions that the trials have led to is hard to believe. Everything from torture, rape, and murder to tearing newborn children from mothers and organizing their illegal adoptions. There are still adults living in the country today who likely don't know their real family. They've been called Argentina's recovered grandchildren, and at least 133 have been identified.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
One year after the plane's return to Argentina, 11 more officials were convicted in a trial that shed light on the overlooked population of trans women who had been targeted during that time. It's a lot to reconcile, but Miriam says not everyone in Argentina looks back on their shared past with the same reaction.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
In 2024, Argentina's president, Javier Malay, and his administration released a video disputing the number of deaths that took place.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The estimate of 30,000 desaparecidos is often cited by human rights organizations, and it's based on a variety of sources, including now declassified documents from the military itself. According to The Guardian, those records stated the military had disappeared or killed about 22,000 people between the years 1975 and 1978, which was still five years before the dictatorship fell.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
But memory is imperfect. Andres Caballero was born in Buenos Aires, but isn't old enough to remember the military's rule.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
As people have fallen into other trends, Miriam has watched division take root in her country again.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us at conspiracystories at Spotify.com. Thanks again to Miriam Lewin, Andres Caballero, and Steve Fishman for lending us their time.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
For more information on Argentina's death flights and Miriam Lewin's investigation, check out Orbit Media's eight-part limited audio series, Avenger, out now on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth. Conspiracy Theories is a Spotify podcast.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
This episode was written and researched by Connor Sampson, edited by Mickey Taylor, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, and video editing and sound design by Alex Button. And I'm your host, Carter Roy.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam Lewin knew what she wanted to do with her life at an early age.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Their killers removed them to prevent identification. Only one body remained entirely intact. It belonged to an Argentine diplomat, and daughter of one of the country's most prominent families. But what really set her death apart from the rest was, she'd been a close friend and supporter of her country's current administration, her presumed killers.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam's father introduced her to political literature as a child. She immersed herself even further when she joined an anarchist club at 13 years old. She says she and the other members would read books and discuss theories. By college, she was an active member of another political group, one associated with the Peronist movement in Argentina.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Generally speaking, the Peronist movement supported the nationalistic and populist policies of Juan Perón, one of the most influential politicians in Argentine history. He first rose to power in the 1940s, serving as the country's Minister of Labor, gaining support from the working class and labor unions.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
He was elected president in 1946, overthrown and exiled in 1956, and then re-elected president in 1973. At the time of his reelection, Argentina was a deeply divided country, and Perón suffered from health problems. His third wife and vice president, Isabel, acted as president when he fell ill.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
After his death in 1974, she officially succeeded him in the role, and the country erupted into violence two years later.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Juan Perón himself first came to power as part of a military coup. According to Miriam, the people of Argentina, herself included, believed that a coup could benefit the country, that it might curb some of the ongoing unrest and return a sense of stability. But instead... the military put a lieutenant general named Jorge Rafael Videla in power.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Peronism in Argentina was replaced by a military dictatorship, and Videla launched a nationwide campaign to eliminate those he viewed as political dissidents, which included young activists like Miriam. Suddenly, everything about Miriam's life changed.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The government painted activists like Miriam as perpetrators of violence and justified their own violence by claiming they were fighting a civil war. But Miriam says the responsibilities she held in her group included writing, printing, and handing out leaflets at rallies. She says she was never violent. And even if she had been, that couldn't possibly justify what followed.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
There was no judicial process, no right to a fair trial. People were being taken off the streets, transported to clandestine detention centers and never heard from again. They became the desaparecidos, the disappeared. And by the time the state-sanctioned violence was finally over, they would number into the thousands. Early on, after Videla's rise to power, Miriam and her friends went on the run.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam says in the beginning, friends, family, and neighbors offered them support. But eventually, the threats became too great. Even associating with perceived dissidents could result in death. So many of Miriam's friends distanced themselves to keep their loved ones safe. Week after week, their support networks grew smaller. Miriam, at least, had love.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
She spent much of her time in hiding with her boyfriend, Juan.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Commenting on her apparent murder, a fellow diplomat said, quote, The revolution has begun to devour its own children, and nobody can do anything about it. Her murder seemed to prove nobody was safe. As for the other 35 bodies, their deaths barely made headlines.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam and Juan wanted to get married, but going to City Hall was too risky. So they held a secret ceremony at a coffee shop above a gas station in Buenos Aires. They exchanged whatever rings they could find and afford and asked a fellow activist to officiate.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Their group had heard rumors about what was happening at the government's secret detention centers, the cruelty and torture inflicted on those captured.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
You heard that right. Members of Miriam's group made homemade cyanide pills in case they were ever arrested. A grim reality for activists during this time and a reflection of the unimaginable conditions of military rule. For Miriam, the day of her arrest came when she was 19 years old. Argentina's secret police tracked her down in the streets. She had the pill on her person.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Miriam learned the military was interested in very specific information. They wanted to know the whereabouts of her close friend and fellow activist, Patricia. Patricia was the daughter of a high ranking Air Force officer. Miriam says she couldn't help them because she didn't know where Patricia was. But that didn't stop the torture.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
After hours of questioning and electric shocks on the verge of passing out, she made a decision. She gave them a location.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
Among them were the bodies of two nuns, last seen helping look for residents of Buenos Aires who had recently gone missing before they disappeared themselves. They went on to be buried in unmarked graves. They remain there, nameless and forgotten, for decades. Victims of a clandestine military conspiracy enacted by an administration no one elected.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The car ride was a momentary hiatus. Miriam would not be freed anytime soon. Her abductors made her call her parents and tell them she was safe and still on the run, while armed men stood by to ensure she cooperated. She spent roughly the next 10 months alone in a cell in a secret location just a few blocks away from the federal police headquarters in Buenos Aires.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
The questioning continued, as did the torture. Without any other company, she says she developed a deeply complex relationship with one of the officers who guarded her cell.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
During the last months of 1975, everyone already knew that a military coup was about to happen. It was March 24th, 1976. My mom barges into my room with a portable radio broadcasting about soldiers marching. And then she tells me that there was a coup. I remember being in bed and just getting into a fetal position and crying. I was crying because I felt afraid of the changes that were coming.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
More control, less freedoms. And I remember what it felt like to step out of my house for the first time, just after the coup, watching the tanks rolling down the streets in the middle of the city. We had seen this before, the military that targets activists, sending them to jail, trying them in court, We actually thought, we hoped, the military would help stop the violence.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I never imagined an underground extrajudicial process. Never imagined they would kidnap me, put a hood on me, torture me.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He would say things like the process would require time and effort. They had their own vision for the country, a right-wing neoliberal nation with conservative Christian values.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
That rhetoric about preserving Western Christian values, about creating paranoia, that communism was taking over our country, to me, none of that was surprising. I remember a friend telling me he was leaving the country because he'd heard that the military was planning a bloodbath. That they were going to kill us all. We thought it was an exaggeration.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
By then, it was much more than a feeling. I knew that I was being followed. I avoided going to my family's house because I knew they would be there waiting for me.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
We didn't see Argentina as a banana republic. And we had never witnessed the type of bloodbath my friend was predicting. We thought he was a coward.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
Rumors about horrific torture started going around.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
People having their arms ripped off their bodies, electric shocks, rape. The orders from our group leaders were clear. Do not be captured alive.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
The thing is that immediately after the coup, the military started arresting friends, people they knew, right? So we knew that the military were going to torture those friends. And they had information about where I lived. And the reality is not everyone can endure torture. So if they gave your information, the military would be at my door.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
The fear and terror was not only aimed at armed groups or known activists. It was aimed at society. They were going after school teachers, professors, union members, and then they were targeting their families too. It was too dangerous for me to keep sleeping at home. At one point, my dad didn't speak to me for at least six months. He was against my activism.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He knew how committed I was and he knew how dangerous it was. He was scared because people he knew were disappearing left and right and he didn't want me to get killed.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He was sweet, adorable. Never again did I feel the way I felt for Juan. His voice was so special. Just hearing him talk made me emotional. He loved his family and he loved me.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
Juan and I got a place at first, but I would only sleep there a few days a week. I would lie to my parents. I'd tell them I was going to sleep at friends' houses. But then more of our friends started to get kidnapped, so we had to leave. We were never in the life of a typical couple. We were on the move almost every week, living one day at a time. We never even thought about the future.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
And at that very informal ceremony, the guy called us a revolutionary couple. He said that our commitment to each other, our vow, was to fight to change Argentina, to make it a more just place. And we moved to the outskirts of Buenos Aires and we got this tiny, tiny apartment with a tin roof. It was in the back of a family's house.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
And we started buying some furniture, a couple of chairs, a table and some plates, a cover for our bed. And we put a Beatles poster in the bedroom.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I looked out the window and if we saw anyone that looked like an officer or a soldier, I would freak out. And Juan calmed me down. He always told me I was paranoid. Everything was so intense. The loss of our friends, attending nearly empty group meetings because most people disappeared... I mean, for us, one day felt like 10 years. We made love a lot.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
We loved each other, but we were living on the edge. So every time we could touch each other, every time we could kiss each other, it was like it could be the last time.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
We had decided to take our own lives before having to endure torture, which could lead to us giving away information and that could lead to our friends getting captured. Also, it was an order coming from the leaders of our organization. Don't get captured alive. To me, it was simple. You get captured and they own your body.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
They would pass you over from one force to another, or if they wanted to, they would just put a bullet in your head. So they would dictate when and how you died. But with the cyanide pill, we were in control of our death. So it was kind of like a small victory over them, you know?
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I was actually worried about my grandmother. It had been a while since I'd last seen her. She was 92 and she was frail. I just wanted to call, you know, check in. I get to the phone booth and I notice a man in line. He's young, slim, and he's wearing a jean jacket. And I see that when his turn comes up, he doesn't end up making a call. So now I'm on alert.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
It was raining that night. I notice a car with foggy windows. Inside, I see the silhouettes of three or so men. I start zigzagging my way through the streets and corners to evade it, but sooner or later, it would be there again.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
And I keep screaming off the top of my lungs, I'm Miriam Lewin, please help me.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I reach into the pocket of my leather jacket. I take out the cyanide pill and I put it in my mouth. I look up at the sky, and in my head I think, God, thank you for letting me die to help save my friends.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I tried to puncture the pill with my teeth as fast as I could, but the officers catch on and force me to spit it out. I never imagined they would catch me alive. I was young, healthy, but at that moment I didn't hesitate. I just wanted to die.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He says, Miriam, look at me. I am the man responsible for your life and your death. As long as you collaborate, as long as you're good, nothing will happen to you.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I start heading toward the nearest bus stop where at least there were more people around. First, he follows me to the bus stop. Then I see him inside the bus. I immediately jump off at a random stop, but he also manages to get out. So I turn my head and I see a dark red Ford Falcon and a long gun barrel hanging out from one of the windows. Now I'm running out of ideas.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I run into a nearby store and when I look back I see that three men were following. I try to stay calm and make my way through the meat aisle pretending I'm shopping. There's no back exit so I take off again through the front door. I try to catch a bus that was slowing down and the Ford Falcon speeds up right toward me.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
The bus driver, other people try to help, but the men pull out their guns and scare everybody away. The bus also takes off. They tackle me and they tell me they're police. So I start screaming, I'm Miriam Lewin. Please help me.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
We had no money to make the trip ourselves, so we hired a stringer, a freelance journalist, and actually, Bruno was a sports commentator.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I mean, we never even dreamed of running into something so valuable. And then the owner of the plane shows him the flight logs that were left inside, untouched. Those logs date back to the late 70s and early 80s, when the military junta was in power. It was all there. Dates, routes, origin, destination, and the most important part, the names of the pilots.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He says he's been assigned to take some portraits of me. I don't know, something about a story about survivors of the dictatorship.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I was in a bad place emotionally at the time. I was in my 50s. My two boys were in their mid-20s, so they were never home. The man I was with back then left me for a younger woman. I was alone, heartbroken. I needed some sort of distraction, something to occupy my time, even if it involved meeting a stranger to talk about trauma.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He says hi with a kiss on the cheek. He's clearly not American. He has this baby face that makes him look in his mid-twenties and long wavy hair, green eyes and an earring.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I'm thinking, how does this serious, prestigious Italian magazine send this guy to do a story about the dictatorship? He just doesn't seem very professional. And then he grabs his camera and starts taking pictures of me without even looking into the camera. I thought that was kind of weird, so I asked if he got the shots that he needed. Instead of answering, he smiles and asks me a question.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
He was kind of telling me, how come you never thought of this? I was an experienced investigative reporter, so that felt like a lack of respect, you know? How dare he ask me that? I'm a survivor of a concentration camp. Also, I'm like 12 years older than him. I have no idea where the planes could be. And why? Why should I care?
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
But then again, through those planes, we could get to the pilots and maybe identify them. And that would be amazing.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
And then Giancarlo pulls this strange-looking book from his backpack. He puts it on the table. It's written by a guy named Adolfo Silingo, a former Navy captain. He was the first Navy officer to admit to being part of a death flight crew. I knew about Silingo. I mean, I had heard about him. But I hadn't seen this book yet.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
Was there possibly something big to investigate? Something that had been overlooked? For a while, I avoided investigating the dictatorship, revisiting that trauma. I had friends who were put on those death flights. I didn't feel I could stick to journalistic boundaries like my emotions might betray me at any moment and send me into a breakdown.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
When my dad noticed me bringing flyers home, bringing the anarchist paper, he started feeding me more anarchist literature.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
I was into political militancy, but I also loved the idea of working for a newspaper. I was a good writer, so I signed up for journalism school. The problem was my parents wanted me to have a real career, so I had to enroll in economics at the same time to appease them. We were young, but we felt like we'd lived through a lot. Social change, access to education, better salaries.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
It all seemed at our fingertips. I mean, it didn't feel like a fantasy. It felt like we could actually change the world. I wanted to see a country where there was equality. We were young and we felt invincible.
Sea of Lies from Uncover
Uncover Introduces: Avenger from Orbit Media
Abandoning the cause wasn't even an option for us. We thought if we abandoned the militancy and activism, we would be betraying our friends who gave their lives for the movement.