Ricardo Chavira Chicano

Coffee With a Monster

“Are you a communist?” Roberto D’Aubuissson shouted at me, his face contorted by rage.

With that question, I found myself in one of the most perilous interviews I have ever conducted. Minutes earlier, he and I sipped coffee. Then things turned ugly.

My inquisitor was among El Salvador’s most savage killers, a death squad leader and ultra-right-wing politician. In the name of fighting communism, D’Aubuisson kidnapped and tortured hundreds of Salvadorans. Years after the crime, he was found to be instrumental in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

He was a presidential candidate in 1984, and I went to his home for an interview. A chain smoker and non-stop coffee drinker, D’Aubuisson always appeared tense and sometimes angry.

A former intelligence officer, he founded the rightwing party, National Republican Alliance. As the party’s standard bearer, he made public, thinly veiled threats against alleged communists.

D’Aubuisson continued his savage rampage with the full knowledge and implicit blessing of Washington. The United States and the mass killer shared the same anti-communist fervor.

This is relevant history because it underscores the current U.S. government’s working alliance with the Salvadoran government. The Trump regime and the Nayib Bukele dictatorship have common ground in how to manage those who break the law.

Trump and Bukele put no premium on human rights.

I enraged D’Aubuisson by asking about what were then rumors of his death squad activities. Several of his hulking henchmen moved close to me as the fanatic berated me for asking questions he did not like

In that moment, I felt a palpable menace and feared that I might not leave unscathed.

Throughout my 30-year journalistic career, only a handful of individuals have emanated pure evil. This man did, and it is chilling to think that our government turned a blind eye towards this monster.