> From the article itself:
>
> Farrell is counting on the fact that no one remembers another
> part he played one Friday night, 18 years ago in San Salvador. For
> 2 1/2 hours, Farrell, who played a surgeon on M*A*S*H, assisted
> Dr. Alejandro Sanchez in a real-life operation to restore movement
> to the arm of Nidia Diaz, a guerilla leader of the Marxist Central
> American Worker's Party. Just two months before, the group had
> claimed responsibility for the slaying of four U.S. Marines, two
> American businessmen and nine civilians. Diaz is still barred
> from entering the U.S. for her role in the murders.
>
> It appears the stuff about Farrell helping in the ER is true. What about
> this Diaz woman and her party? If Front Page is calling her a terrorist,
> she's probably a humanitarian of the first order. Anybody know?
>
> Curtiss
Nidia Diaz was (is? gotta check it out) a militant in the FMLN. In fact in 1987 she was appointed director of the FMLN's Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights.
This is from a Farrell fanpage:
"Still, it came as a shock to Farrell when, he recalls, a real doctor "looked at me and said, 'Put on gloves and a gown. I need your help.' I said, 'Doc, you've got to be kidding.'" But Dr. Alejandro Sanchez was serious. He and Farrell, a longtime human-rights activist, were in El Salvador in 1985 after persuading the government there to allow Sanchez, a U.S. surgeon, to operate on Nidia Diaz, a female guerrilla leader who'd suffered a hand wound while being captured. Lacking a nurse, Sanchez recruited Farrell. The surgery was a success, and Diaz used that hand, says Farrell, to sign a 1992 peace treaty between the guerrillas and the government. Says the temporary medical assistant: "I'm very proud of that." "
Diaz had been shot while being arrested in April, and didn't receive surgery for her injuries until 4 months later. She was intensely interrogated for days while her bullet wounds remained basically untreated. Horowitz thinks this is what she deserved, I suppose. The FMLN then kidnapped President Duarte's daughter and exchanged her for Diaz, who went to Cuba. Her account of the experience is in her book, "I Was Never Alone", published by Ocean.
LP