Original subtitles

He will have to get accustomed to it.

Very good.

Miguelito will be so glad to be here. He won't even notice the cold.

Maria, a la derecha.

The two officers patrolling that sector and another pair for major crimes.

Lieutenant, if you think four men are going to be able to handle this, you're

wrong. There is a call in to the Federal Bureau. I've already notified the

chief. I'm just waiting for his call.

Lieutenant, please.

I know what those men are doing to her. This isn't just a kidnapping.

It's an act of terrorism. They were Escuadron de la Muerte.

You'll have to excuse me. My Spanish is limited.

Death squads, Lieutenant.

Assassins, terrorists.

I know the term in English, Simon.

Listen to me, everybody, please. I understand your concern.

And I will try to convince my superiors to view this as more than just a

straight abduction.

Lieutenant, Detective Courtney over at County Receiving. Your lines.

The lady is cool under fire.

For how long?

Hey, come on. Give the devil her due. She's handling it better than I would. A

lot better than you would.

Maria's been found.

She's alive.

She's in the emergency room.

Lieutenant, tell me.

I can't say anymore.

She's my best friend. Please.

Come with me. We'll go to the hospital.

Come on.

How could you envy Abby Marsh? She was that damn thing in a basket of

rattlesnakes. All right, all right. Maybe not envy exactly.

The highlight of our day was catching Morris Luberman in flagrante delicto

the pool mat. I mean, at least she's in a position to make a difference in the

world. Well, you think what you want. I'm just glad this particular brouhaha

on somebody's... No!

Hi. Um... I hope you don't mind my letting myself in.

Oh, Mom, I'm sure you have some perfectly wonderful reason for wanting

a coronary in your sons.

Hello, Rick.

Hey, Jay.

Father Tom took over Our Lady of Mercy in San Ysidro.

Tough beat, Padre.

Good for you.

What brings you up this way?

An 18 -year -old girl was attacked outside the refugee center yesterday.

We know. We were at the police station when the center committee came down.

How is she?

Tell him, Father.

I saw Maria early this morning.

She has been burned.

Figurettes pressed into her thighs.

The palms of her hands had been slit with a blade.

She was raped.

She had to write to tell me what had happened.

Because they cut her tongue with a knife.

Three days in the land of freedom.

And this is the welcome she gets.

Father. These horrible things, why did they do them to her?

It's something that my people will understand immediately.

It's a signature.

Death squad signature.

My parish has taken up a special collection.

Please. No, we don't want your money, Padre.

It isn't mine.

It's theirs.

No, it's yours.

Will you help?

Ms.

Montero? If you're from the newspaper, I'll talk to you when we close.

No, actually, I'm Rick Simons, my brother A .J.

Didn't Father Hernandez tell you that we were coming?

No, I haven't seen him today.

Montero, he hired us to catch the men who attacked Maria Varga.

Maria has been my friend since we were children in San Salvador.

Andinle, her father was a baker.

Brought bread to my family's door every day.

Until it was disappeared in 1981.

You mean until it disappeared?

No, fue desaparecido.

In my country, people don't vanish.

They become disappeared.

Erased. But they didn't erase Maria.

No, Maria was a message.

A message to the center and to me to stop our work on behalf of the refugees.

What?

What?

Why would anyone want to stop somebody from having enough to eat?

In El Salvador, disagreements are not settled by discussion.

Intimidation has been a way of life for centuries.

Kill a few people, rape them, starve them, and the rest will do what you ask.

For $40 a month, you can buy all the off -duty hours of a policeman or a

soldier, and he won't ask why you want things done.

He will simply carry out your wishes.

We call them the death squad.

This is San Diego, not San Salvador.

The things that were done to her, no one from my country could mistake.

Forgive me.

But you see, it was me that they were after.

I had given Maria my jacket. She was complaining about the cold nights.

They thought they were raping me.

What does it say?

Hours ripped from the earth, wither and die.

You are the next to fall.

It's fine.

Death squad number one.

I'm not going to let you keep me locked up here.

No. Until we decide just exactly how to protect you, it doesn't sound like such

a bad idea.

To you, maybe not.

To me, it says two things.

Fear and failure.

Elena, those men want to kill you.

Or to stop my work, in which case you are guaranteeing their success.

The brick today, that could just as easily have been a bomb or a bottle of

gasoline. Look, don't fight us. I mean, we're on your side.

Please.

I've had to run from one home already.

I'm not running anymore.

Besides, I can assure you in my house I'll be safe.

I really wish you'd reconsider staying somewhere else.

I feel safer, ain't you? It's a little like San Salvador.

Cooler. Nobody's selling jugos on the corners.

Ah, no soldiers.

No, now we have immigration.

La migra.

Until yesterday, I could have said, no death squad.

This is true.

Hola.

Ay, que precioso.

¿Ya cenaron? No.

Váyanse a comer.

You know everybody here?

Do you know how many Salvadorans are here in Southern California?

I don't know, 30, maybe 50 ,000?

350 ,000.

What?

Yeah.

Come on, there are only 5 million in all of El Salvador.

Yeah.

The kids I love.

I always had at least one to take care of back home.

My mama would approve of me having such a brave, strong man watch over me.

My mama would approve of me taking care of such a beautiful, idealistic woman.

Well, you're ugly as ever.

I want to look just like you when I grow up.

Sit down, you old snake.

So, what do you need?

Hey, can't an old friend just drop by to say hello?

Anglos don't rip their neck down here just to exchange pleasantries with

like me.

Money?

You lonely, huh? You tired of sleeping with that brother of yours?

What I need is information.

Casadei Refugio. Girl was raped.

Don't look at me.

I don't fight for what I can buy.

I see your brain hasn't left the Stone Age.

Death squads, Jose.

Rick.

I am from Guadalajara, not Guatemala.

What do I know about Centro Americanos?

If it moves and speaks Spanish, you know it.

Believe me, some things you do not want to know.

Besides, all these newcomers, they are different.

My people and them, we do not mix.

I need who did it, and I need who paid him.

You do remember Durango.

Never again will I let a gringo save my life.

You owe me, Jose.

You give me something solid, we call it even.

Sorry.

Walk carefully Rick.

Yes, he is everywhere.

We don't even know his name.

Duarte is just a lobo negro.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Buenas fuertes, señor Simon.

I don't know why you want to do it here, but I'm not complaining.

No, you should not.

Couldn't bring the money. You today?

I had a couple of watchdogs with me.

Let's get out of here.

What's your hurry, Olaya?

Got anything to drink around here?

No.

I don't want to be found with you, so come on.

I saw him today.

You did?

Where?

Tell me.

The place where I stash all my clients.

Federales know not to mess with it.

Seemed a good kid.

Didn't have a change of clothing.

Had a pad he kept writing in.

That's him.

When are you going to bring him over?

Well, that's right. When I was coming back, customs made an intercept, 40 or

cars.

Lucky he wasn't with me. He'd be in some coral on right now waiting to fly back

to San Salvador.

You're dealing with the best.

It's important that we trust each other.

Let go of me.

You've got to understand, I don't do this work just for the money.

Everything you've asked, I've paid.

My mother's engagement ring I sold, and you've done nothing. Words!

They could be lies for all I know.

You put my brother Miguelito in front of me, safe and sound, or I swear to God,

Senor Wilson, I will kill you.

The Black Wolf?

El Lobo Negro, that's what he said.

Sounds like a Jack London novel.

From the way you talked, I thought you really had something.

Okay, Mr.

Wiseguy, I tell you what, I'll escort the lady around for a couple of days and

you check it out.

Cost me a stiff neck and a bruised throat, so don't knock it.

I'm not knocking it.

I just don't know where to go with it.

Well, maybe it'll mean something to Elena.

Hey, Jay.

Mm -hmm?

Want to check out that blue sedan a couple of car lengths back?

Yeah, what about it?

Well, it looks like a car that threw the brick at the center.

Also matches Elena's description of the kidnapped car.

Plus, it's been on our tail since we left the office.

Let's play hide and seek.

You looking for someone?

Señor.

Por favor, ayúdeme.

Get an ambulance.

Oh, no.

Lobo Negro.

¿Quién es?

¡Demon! Rick, stop it.

Señor. ¿Quién pagó? ¿Quién es el Lobo Negro?

Aguilar.

Aguilar.

Don't need them as evidence?

Just be able to produce them on demand.

Look, I don't know if it'll take the sting away, but this guy was wanted in

country, his own, and by Interpol.

What'll help a lot is if Maria Varga can ID him as one of her kidnappers.

Reminds me, if you're through with us...

This woman out there needs our help. I'm not through.

I'd like you to know that this whole incident has been yanked off my desk.

Seems we've got some bigger players than you and I interested in this.

INS? State?

Are they getting results?

Suffice it to say, you created the first break.

At least we got a name now.

But when the bureaucrats find out...

They're going to want to spend a lot of time asking you questions.

Which would mean a lot of time spent in offices instead of finding Aguilar. I

didn't say that.

I also didn't give you that.

In a town this size, you'd think there'd be more Aguilars, wouldn't you?

We're sitting here working on our tan, pulling off another rape torture.

You thinking what I'm thinking?

Dad always said if you want peaches, you gotta shake the tree.

Put your hands up, senores, if you wish to keep living.

You don't look like robbers.

Or assassins.

So I give up, gentlemen.

Who are you?

When I left El Salvador, I thought I would no longer have to worry about

armed men invading my property without permission.

This young girl in a hospital downtown had thought pretty much the same thing.

My English is good. Oh, drop the old world charm, Pops. You know exactly who

are.

A couple of your hirelings had an altercation with us earlier.

One of them got shot, but before he died, he ID'd you as the man that hired

Excuse me, you ignorant puercos.

It's the same thing all the time.

You have trouble, blame Aguilar.

Things go wrong, blame Aguilar.

Gentlemen, it's the curse of being a rich man from a poor country.

Muchachos, también, calma.

Gentlemen, uh...

Forgive my indignation. It's just that I get frustrated.

Please let me try to explain.

You'd be so kind as to perhaps join me for a drink.

My Mati was the most beautiful girl in El Salvador.

The hair and gait of a Mayan.

The pride and eyes of a Spaniard.

When we were married, my father warned me.

Andro, he said, how do you know it is you, the man she loves, and

not the power and wealth that is yours by birth?

Papai said, take a look at her.

What does it matter?

Papa laughed also.

He blessed our union.

We were married in the great cathedral. I took my vows on the very spot that ran

with the blood of Archbishop Romero in 1980.

And then in 1982...

They took Mati.

She was standing right in front of our home.

The bullets ripped her apart like some kind of paper doll.

I lifted her face to mine as she died.

Not pain.

Not anger.

Her eyes simply asked.

Senor Aguilar, it's happening again right here in Southern California,

which is why we're here.

Yesterday, a young woman was kidnapped and raped, and a death squad is claiming

responsibility.

And you think that I am behind?

Gentlemen, I invite you to check the receipts from my checkbook.

So you can see all the monies that I have contributed to the sanctuary move.

Why the guards?

I mean, this place is like an armed camp.

Because I can afford them.

And I need them.

Because the death squad would love to murder the head of one of Salvador's

famous families.

Senor Aguilar, one question.

Have you ever heard of El Lobo Negro?

A black war.

It means nothing to me.

What do you want?

Heels off.

You can't do this.

Oh, yeah?

You're out of here since that rape. You're in all the papers. La Migra could

come in here and pick you up right now.

It's got nothing to do with your helping my brother. He won't last a day at the

Federalist in the back to San Salvador.

With 5 ,000 clients, why do I need to mess around with you?

No, Senor Wilson.

Not now.

Three months it took me to get across Mexico.

If you're angry about last night, please... Get out of my way.

Nothing. I was just... I was thinking about Maria.

So you were pouring your soul out to Jed Wilson?

You know him?

Worst coyote in San Ysidro?

Let's just say he was legendary in some circles I used to frequent.

Rick?

AJ, if I share something with you, will you promise me secrecy?

I lost my oldest brother in 1980.

Antonio was an engineering student at the university.

He didn't want to join the army, so they presumed that he was a rebel.

It was Easter week.

Good Friday.

He was supposed to come home for church.

We never saw him again.

Death was?

Day.

My next brother Pablo died in 1983.

Escuadron de la Muerte came in the night.

They made us stand in the living room and watch.

When my father tried to stop them, they clubbed them with the rifles.

Then they took Pablo.

And they...

Made him lie on the floor.

So you see, Miguel is all I have left.

He's 18 now.

The baby, the one we all took care of.

He's a poet, Miguel.

Even when things were the worst.

He used to write these poems.

So happy.

So beautiful.

Like he saw through it all to something better.

Now this Coyote Wilson has him hidden somewhere in Tijuana.

Miguel idolizes America. He doesn't understand that even after he gets here,

won't be safe.

Unless we wipe out the death squad.

There will be others.

And it's worse than that.

He's marked for death at home.

But he can't get political asylum here because the U .S. supports our

government.

They would send him right back.

So would the Mexicans.

That go for you, too?

Yes. I live with it every day.

He came up the Blanco Trail.

That's your own underground railroad for the slaves.

It leads from San Salvador to Tijuana.

Or what is?

Just when we reach the American border and our money and our faith are gone, we

must deal with Los Coyotes.

Jed Wilson.

How do you feel about a little coyote hunting?

They are in season, aren't they?

They're always in season.

It's been a while.

It's good to see you again.

Thank you for coming so quickly.

One emergency call, one comes.

The work is going badly.

Well, it started well enough. Then we had a problem.

Manitas, he died this morning.

He was shot by two American detectives. The local help tries, but they don't

have your training and commitment.

It will be a pleasure to match with Los Americanos.

At home, after a while, it's like hunting chicken in a hen house.

I've missed you, my son.

Si, papa.

I've missed you, too.

You guys are not going to mess me up. You want to bet on it?

You got a client who wants a piece of me. Name a price I can beat.

You haven't got enough money.

Yeah?

Who is it?

Miguel Montero.

You got to be kidding.

No, it's a sister.

You got it into the girl.

I know that people are nothing more than pieces of meat to you, but when I'm

around, by God, Don't you remind me of that.

You're used to beating up on half -starved illegals and women. Do you want

try the real thing for a change?

I thought not.

You're going to bring Miguel across the border today.

I told the girl she is too hot.

Will you forget what you told her?

Because if you mess this up, there is not a place on God's green earth that I

won't find you.

Now, is that real clear to you, or do you want me to explain it a little more?

No, please.

You're having a bad day.

We're going to have a little conversation.

Squeeze tight.

Stop the bleeding.

Makes such ugly stains.

He's right, you know.

Look, what is wrong with you people? If you want something, tell me what it is.

Alberto, did you forget to tell him what we need to know?

Forgive me, senor.

What were you doing with those two detectives? They want me to deliver a

Salvadoran from Tijuana.

A kid named Miguel Montero.

Related to?

Elena Montero?

Oh, brother, just up the trail. Look, if you don't want him here, tell me. I

won't do it. Give me the word, I'm gone, I'll move. Texas, Tucson.

On the contrary, senor Coyote. My son agrees with me.

He presents us with the most unique opportunity.

Where is the delivery to be made?

I don't want to risk Santa Cedro. I'm going to pick him up and double back to

Otay Mesa. They're going to meet me at the old Mitchell farm.

Yes, I know that place.

What time?

I ought to be on my way now.

I told him around four, give or take.

Most excellent.

I hope that nasty cut on your hand doesn't mean that you can't drive.

Okay kid.

Let's go.

Oh, good.

Just the way you described it.

Well, we're early enough to check it out.

What?

Sounds quiet enough to me.

Okay, Noah, I want you to stay in the truck, no matter what you see, no matter

what you hear.

But he's my brother.

Hey, trust us, okay? For your own safety, please.

Okay, get out.

You loco.

No, senor.

When I left El Salvador, I swore when I reached America, I'd kiss the ground.

You are a loco. This is still Mexico. Can't you smell it? Come here.

Get in.

Señor. I said get in.

If you're going to scream, I'll gag you.

Helps to bite down on something to fight the pain.

I thought the trunk.

No, señor.

Mucha calor.

Too hot.

Look, kid, your sister managed.

The bandages came off her chest in a couple of weeks. Do you want the gag?

How long were you in Mexico, sir? Just the afternoon. Tank full of gas, a

duty -free.

Mind tripping that trunk latch?

No problem.

Looks fine, sir. Have a nice day. Okay, thanks.

I'm afraid I have no drink to offer you this time.

But you don't seem to understand, Senor Simon,

is that I have lost more than a wife.

I've lost an entire country, mine and families like mine. We are the only ones

who know what is best for El Salvador.

We know how to, as they say, steer her.

between the rocks of communism and your American domination.

Nothing justifies what you've done, either here or

in El Salvador.

Oh, no.

You're wrong.

If the right president is to take power, then Elena Montero and people like her,

well, they have to be eliminated. Yes.

She feeds people.

And poisons the minds of soft Americans.

Makes them want to get involved.

Metal with their stinking noses.

Wanted. You're insane.

You're the most vile subhuman animals I have ever seen.

I'm going to kill him.

Perito, do as you wish, but don't shoot him, please. Just remember.

His brother, the woman.

They're around here somewhere.

Quietly.

Bien.

Somebody's coming.

Is it?

Yeah. It's Wilson.

All right, Lena.

The girl's here.

You get to hang on for a couple more minutes.

No, you can kiss the ground, kid.

Elena!

Miguel.

Elena.

I love you.

I love my poem.

I love you too.

I love you.

I made it.

I made it, Elena.

Dios bendiga, America.

What did he say?

God bless America.