A group of prosecutors, some who flew in from far reaches of the country and still had their luggage with them at the cinema, gathered yesterday in Quito for a special screening of the documentary “La muerte de Jaime Roldós” (The Death of Jaime Roldos). The audience of lawyers reacted with shock to the revelations the film made.

So far, the documentary about the 1981 event has only been shown at a handful of festival screenings, and has not seen wide release. But Ecuador’s president, other government officials as well as many journalists attended the festival screenings last month, and have begun to speak publicly about the possible impact that revelations in the film could have.

The filmmakers Lisandra Rivera and Manolo Sarmiento spent seven years making their film. For more about its contents, read our English-language review. 

Attorney General Galo Chiriboga informed his fellow prosecutors that last Thursday he met with the three Roldos siblings, who were orphaned by the plane crash that killed President Jaime Roldós in May 1981. With the siblings’ approval, the chief prosecutor has decided to re-open an investigation into the suspicious crash.

Chiriboga says the investigation will examine two main areas: the events in Ecuador that surrounded the deaths of left-wing president Roldós and hiw wife, and whether or not the president’s death was coordinated as a part of the Operation Condor, the secret right wing repression campaign carried out by Latin America’s military dictatorships in the 70s and 80s.

The prosecutors who gathered at the screening expressed their commitment to finding answers for the family. They agreed it’s a debt that the state has, because it was never fully investigated.

Chiriboga says his office has requested assistance from the American Association of Jurists, an NGO based in Argentina founded in 1975 to investigate human rights cases.

“It’s a commitment to democracy and to the truth, whatever that may be. We want the Ecuadorian people to know why President Roldos died, what the consequences were or what contributed to that death. And if it was murder, we will pursue it aggresively, because that would have made it an act of terrorism,” Chiriboga said. Many of those in power at the time, including Roldos vicepresident who succedded him and shut down the investigation after only a week, are still living in Ecuador. 

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