Hello and thank you for downloading this witness podcast with me Rebecca

Keesby. Today we're heading for the Dominican Republic. It's November

1960 and the country is in the grip of an authoritarian regime.

But the assassination of three sisters

is about to signal the beginning of the end

for the dictator General Trujillo.

This is the story of the Mirabel sisters and I've been speaking to the

daughter of one of them. I remember her dressed wearing this military dream uniform, looking at herself in the mirror.

I remember that and I remember me thinking she was so beautiful because she was really beautiful.

Born into comparative wealth, Minerva Mirabel was an intelligent young political activist who, with her sisters, formed an underground movement against the dictatorship of General Raphael Trojil.

Mino Tavares Mirabal is her her daughter and she recalls her childhood as a frightening time.

I remember the fear that everybody had. I remember the night with the lights off, because the Kalez were around.

The intelligence servicemen used to be called in the Dominican Republic,

Kalez, and they were looking through the windows,

so we felt all the time watched,

afraid of moving inside the house house and there were really difficult times dark and

very dangerous. They were very dangerous times.

General Trujillo had a reputation for being the cruelest dictator in the region.

Around 30,000 people were executed during his 30-year reign, thousands disappeared.

Torture was standard issue for dissenters.

Minu remembers one night they came for her mother.

When they came to our house to take her to prison, I remember that I was crying like

...