Elders Jeffrey Brent Ball and Todd Ray Wilson, two American missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) were killed in La Paz, Bolivia on May 24, 1989, by members of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación-Zarate Willka terrorist group who associated them and the church they represented with perceived American imperialist activities. Later, three Peruvians, Elders Manuel Hidalgo, Cristian Ugarte, and Oscar Zapata were killed in Peru for similar reasons on August 22, 1990, and March 6, 1991.
Government officials of both the United States and Bolivia employed their resources in bringing the assassins to justice, and the accused assassins suffered deprivations to their persons and families, including the murder of a brother.
Some assassinations of missionaries are because of anti-Mormon hostility, some are due to political reasons, and some are simply random attacks. The LDS Church views slain missionaries as martyrs. Their names "will be engraved forever in the history of this Church as those who lived as faithful servants of God and died as martyrs to His eternal work."
The circumstances surrounding the politically motivated assassinations of Ball and Wilson affected people of many different groups. As one sister of Wilson expressed over ten years later, "It is something you never forget."
Elders Ball and Wilson
Jeffrey Brent Ball was born December 8, 1968, the second of three children born to Alfred Brent Ball and Lois Joyce Bates Ball of Wanship, outside Coalville, Utah, who operated the Rafter-B Gas 'N Grub as a family business. Jeffrey was a stockily built athlete and an all-state American football player for three consecutive years, acting as the varsity team captain for two of those years. He was also active in student politics at North Summit High School in Coalville, where he served as student body vice president. His older sister, Wendy, described him as "a powerful authority who also had a caring soft side he tried to hide but couldn't." His desire to serve a mission was manifested by his selling his Jeep that he "dearly loved" to finance it. He entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in June 1988, and served at the same time as his sister, who labored in the Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission. Their eighteen-year-old brother Greg was preparing to serve a mission as well.
Todd Ray Wilson was born May 5, 1969. He was the seventh of ten children born to mine electrician Arvil Ray Wilson and his wife Elaine Bunderson Wilson of Wellington, a small town about five miles southeast of Price, Utah. He had been an honor student at Carbon High School, and had begun attending the College of Eastern Utah, while working as the night manager at Wendy's Restaurant in Price. Todd had a friendly, gregarious personality and an exceptional academic aptitude, especially excelling in accounting. In order to save more money for his mission, he dropped his classes and continued to work late at night. He had "looked forward to his mission above all else." He was the third of his siblings to serve a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ. Todd entered the MTC in July 1988. At the time of his death, his brother Brad was preparing to depart for his mission. Brad left just 3 months after Todd’s death and served in the Spain, Seville mission. His youngest brother, James, later served a mission in Eastern Canada.
Terrorism in Bolivia
When Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson arrived in Bolivia in 1988, they entered an environment of severe political unrest and anti-Mormon antagonism in the nation and in Latin America generally. The first violent attacks against the LDS Church occurred in Colombia in 1983 where two meetinghouses were bombed eight times. Between 1984 and 1989, targets of the LDS Church in Latin America were hit by terrorists sixty-two times. The majority of these attacks (46) occurred in Chile, though five attacks took place in Bolivia. The LDS Church in Latin America was attacked in this period more frequently than any other American-based bank, business, church, or other institution.
One group that specifically targeted the LDS Church in Bolivia was known as the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Zarate Willka (Zarate Willka Armed Forces of Liberation, hereafter referred to as FAL Zarate Willka), named for a nineteenth century Indian hero. FAL Zarate Willka was a relatively unknown terrorist group apparently formed around 1985. It first surfaced in August 1988 in connection with a failed attack on former US Secretary of State George Shultz, who was in La Paz for talks with government officials. A bomb exploded near his motorcade, but no one was hurt. The group later claimed responsibility for an attack on the Bolivian Parliament and caused a blackout in La Paz with another bombing. Later that year on December 20, 1989, protesting American intervention in Panama, they attacked the U.S. Embassy in a failed attempt to assassinate U.S. Ambassador Robert Gelbard.
This group had previously assaulted the LDS Church on several occasions. At one point, not long before the assassinations, it bombed the Villa Victoria chapel in Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson's area, which sustained severe damage to the entrance and exterior facade. Graffiti on the side of the chapel said "Americans go home."
Other chapels were robbed, and another nearby chapel was nearly bombed. This chapel was also vandalized, with graffiti saying "Americans go home." A young man attending a youth activity saw a cardboard box in the chapel and took it home to his family, who lived across the street. When he showed it to his mother the next morning, she discovered a bomb inside the box. The family left their home and called the police, who came to investigate. The police reported that the bomb had a main wire and a backup wire and that, although the first wire was disconnected, the second was still intact. They had no explanation for why the bomb had not gone off. The mother was convinced that it was a miracle.
These incidents were reported to the Mission President, Steven R. Wright, who did not feel inspired to remove missionaries from the area, but counseled them to live close to the spirit and follow that inspiration. Not long after, tragedy occurred.
Assassinations
For several months, members of FAL Zarate Willka had been determining the schedules of the missionaries. Police discovered that one group member, Susana Zapana Hannover, had been a member of the LDS Church and another had been receiving discussions from the zone leader over the area. A rumor later surfaced of a hit list that the group held which named several other missionaries and Americans in the area. On Wednesday, May 24, 1989, after returning at about 9:30 p.m., Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson left their apartment. There are two theories explaining why they left. One says that they had simply returned home that evening without having eaten dinner, and decided to go get food. The other idea is that the assassins lured them out by having someone call them saying that the sisters needed a film projector. Such a call seemed plausible since the sisters didn't have a telephone. They were then followed back to their apartment as they returned at about 10:20 p.m.
As they were about to enter their apartment, a yellow compact car (possibly a Volkswagen) drove by, and they were shot with 9 mm machine gun fire.
One of the men was killed instantly as a bullet penetrated his heart. The other received a spray of bullets in his stomach and back. He remained conscious for a few minutes, then died in an ambulance.
Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson shared an apartment with two other missionaries, Thayne Carlson and V. Shane Mylroie. Mylroie was the first to find them. They called an ambulance and notified President Wright.
Within half an hour of the slayings, a note from FAL Zarate Willka was received at the newspaper offices of El Matutino Ultima Hora de La Paz. It read:
Motivations
At first, beyond the note received at newspaper offices, officials knew little about FAL Zarate Willka's philosophy. One United States House Foreign Affairs Committee member theorized that the attack could have come from the political left or right, "the left, because they [the missionaries] represent anti-communist America; the right because they proselytize the Indians, and (those on the right) want them left alone and unchanged. The right includes the big landowners and mine owners." Some guessed that this group might be a branch of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a prominent Peruvian terrorist group.
At this time, the United States had three main goals in Bolivia, "fostering democracy, supporting economic stabilization and development and reducing production of coca, the plant used to make cocaine," of which the single largest interest was "the impact that production of the coca and cocaine has on the body politic up here. The No. 1 U.S. interest in Bolivia is doing away with that problem." The general climate in Bolivia reflected dissatisfaction with these policies. One former sister missionary reports being accosted by groups of students demanding to know why Bolivia should change its coca culture because the United States had a drug problem. Years later, graffiti asserting that "Coca is not cocaine nor Coca-Cola" could be seen on walls in Bolivia.
It was early theorized by Bolivian and U.S. officials that this group resisted U.S. anti-drug policies, possibly being connected with drug traffickers. However, this drug theory later became seen as only part of a larger problem as officials discovered FAL Zarate Willka's Marxist ideology, which was mixed with the philosophies of an Indian Rights movement known as Katarismo. Such findings were further confirmed as authorities learned that one or more of the rebels had received bomb training in Cuba. "It's pure Cuban terrorism, I don't think there is any question about it," said Ambassador Robert Gelbard. Thus, Bolivian Marxist ideologues and politicians such as FAL Zarate Willka considered United States anti-drug and military aid programs as violating their national sovereignty. In addition to using the United States as a scapegoat for Bolivia's problems, FAL Zarate Willka "sought revenge for their political party's poor showing in Bolivia's recent national election," on May 15, blaming the United States for this as well, claimed Gelbard.
FAL Zarate Willka attacked religious targets, such as the LDS Church, because they viewed the church as an imperialist agent of U.S. interests. While this may seem unreasonable to an organization that constantly affirms its political neutrality and disavows any connection with any government, according to leftist groups, "the connection is so apparent that there is no need to explain or justify it." Latin America does not share the tradition of separation of church and state found in the United States. On the contrary, religion has played a prominent role in politics since the European colonization of the 1500s. Their idea of imperialism is not limited to territorial expansion, but "involves a whole series of political, cultural, and religious means," including the LDS Church. This view of the LDS Church as Yankee is reinforced by a heavy American missionary presence, midwestern worship styles, centralization of the church in the United States, and the church's doctrinal justification of the United States Constitution. This view is further substantiated by the tithes and offerings that go directly to church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, the church's extensive corporate holdings, and the impressive structure and location of its buildings.