In 1982, 250 men, women and children were massacred in the village of Dos Erres in Guatemala. Two little boys were spared, and were the keys to an investigation into the coverup and subsequent fallout:

“In the summer of 2000, Oscar was living near Boston when he received a perplexing letter.

“A cousin in Zacapa sent him a copy of an article published in a Guatemala City newspaper. It described Romero’s search for two young boys who had survived the massacre and had been raised by military families.

“‘AG Looks for Abducted of Dos Erres,’ the headline declared. ‘They Survived The Massacre.’

“The story went on to explain that prosecutors had identified both young men. Prosecutors believed that one of them, Oscar Ramírez Castañeda, was living somewhere in the United States. It was quite possible that he had been too young to remember anything about the massacre or his abduction by the lieutenant, the prosecutors said.

“The newspaper ran a family photo showing Oscar as an 8-year-old.”