The 43 (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Episode #1.2 - full transcript

Friday night and early Saturday morning

in Iguala, Guerrero,
were marked by violence.

A series of clashes in several places

left six dead,

three of whom were normalistas,
students from the Rural Teachers' School.

A further 57 students are missing.

At 2:40 a.m., on September 27, 2014,

a public ministry agent,

forensics, and ministerial police officers
arrived on the scene.

They found three buses,

two belonging to Costa Line,



the other belonging to Estrella de Oro,
all of which were riddled

with several bullet holes.

Presumably, from .233 caliber rifles.

In their official statements,
all municipal police officers

denied having wounded anyone.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE

WE'RE ALL AYOTZINAPA

Fellow journalists
who are here with us today,

we know your work in the media
is decisive for solving this case

and punishing those who are guilty.

We condemn Friday night's events

and we offer our full support
to our students.

The government isn't doing
anything to find them,

so what we are sending brigades



of fellow students and their parents.

We're tense.

We're looking for a solution
to find our fellow students,

because they ran for the hills to escape,

and they must be very scared.

There's a rumor,

some sources said the army has 25 held
in their headquarters in Iguala,

and they won't release them.

-Is there any official statement?
-No, there isn't.

Are there any prisoners
at the Public Ministry?

No, not anymore.

If it is confirmed that the army
has detained more students,

well, they're lying
and hiding information from us.

We're here
at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' School,

where the students' parents
are getting ready

to search the communities

in the towns north of Guerrero.

We're here waiting for news.

Let's see if the government authorities
have any leads.

Because what else can we do?

We feel awful.

-Is it angst that you're feeling?
-Yes, despair, anxiety.

We hope they come back home safe.

You have no idea what we're going through.

We're very sad because, honestly,

it felt horrible not to find my son here.

Since the shooting on Friday...

-Friday night?
-Yes.

We haven't heard from them.

The boys who went there say

they saw the other guys
being put in a police van.

Around 20 boys were put in the van.

We went to Iguala,
and they said the boys weren't there.

Apart from the six dead,
which is terribly sad, of course,

fifty-seven normalistas from Ayotzinapa
went missing tonight.

That's serious.

FUNERAL OF JULIO CÉSAR RAMÍREZ NAVA
NORMALISTA

The pain we feel is huge,

but the helplessness is even worse.

We're filled with fear and rage
because we are unable to do much

to avenge our fellow students,

to get justice for them.

Ayotzinapa lives!

The fight continues!
The fight continues!

BUS STATION

A MASSACRE IN MEXICO

I'm Anabel Hernández,
a Mexican investigative journalist.

I'm known in Mexico and around the world

for my investigations
into organized crime in Mexico.

My father was kidnapped and killed
in December 2000.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST

My family had no news
about my father for 48 hours.

Having no news about a missing relative,

knowing they're missing,

I think that's the worst living hell
someone can go through.

The first official investigations
into this case

were carried out
by the Guerrero government.

BIRTHPLACE OF THE NATIONAL FLAG

After a few days of investigation,

they concluded that it happened

because the students
had tried to interrupt

a political event
organized by the mayor's wife,

who wanted to become
the next mayor of Iguala.

She wanted to succeed her husband.

Supposedly,
her husband, the mayor, got angry,

so together with his small group
of police officers

with no training whatsoever,

they unilaterally decided
to attack the students

shooting at them for over four hours,

with no other authority intervening.

Automatically, the Guerrero government
reached the conclusion

that this was orchestrated
by the mayor and organized crime.

Yesterday, the mayor of Iguala

put in his request
for a 30 days' leave in the City Hall.

After that,
nobody has heard from him again.

Right after the City Hall session ended,

he disappeared.

The authorities of Guerrero
are looking for the mayor of Iguala,

José Luis Abarca Velázquez,
now considered a fugitive from justice.

From the very beginning,

when you look back at what happened,

you can see there were many smokescreens.

Can a mayor give orders

to several police forces
from different cities,

the ministerial police and the army?

There's always a smokescreen

that diverts the focus
from the main issue.

That is, from the facts,

we can conclude
that it was an orchestrated action.

We have to look at the chain of command
to see how such an operation was conducted

and the reasons behind it, right?

I think they lied a lot.

The next few days were full of confusion,

because the official version stated
some of the boys had been found.

But about five days later...

you could see...

that there were clearly two versions
of what had happened.

The students' version,
and the government's.

In other news, 14 boys

who were among those who went missing
in Ayotzinapa have been found.

School authorities have confirmed

that these young men returned home
safe and sound.

At first, there were 57.

That number quickly dropped
to 43 missing students that night,

because many saw their names
on the list and called in.

The Guerrero government
took advantage of that confusion

and said,

"Look, they're coming back.
They're coming home.

They're in hiding, they're afraid,
but they'll come back soon."

The very same people who knew
what happened that night

began lying the next morning.

MEXICO CITY

Immediately after this event

came October 2,
an important date in Mexico,

the anniversary of the 1968 massacre.

I participated in the protest.

I remember that several groups of students
from rural teachers' school in Mexico

showed up too.

They've always organized demonstrations,
but on October 2 that year,

these groups were huge.

They brought flags

and started demanding justice
for what happened in Ayotzinapa.

I think that it was one of the moments

that triggered social mobilization.

Year after year,
both the press and the government

have only defamed us.

They make social movements
out to be vandals and criminals.

But we know they are the real criminals,

the ones in power.

Who should really be in prison?

Ángel Aguirre Rivero,
identified as a murderer.

Also the mayor of Iguala,
another one of the system's lackeys,

who only follows orders

and is killing Mexico's future,
the students.

-Ayotzinapa lives!
-The fight continues!

We're not in...

we're not in fear anymore.

We're just fed up with the government,

because they aren't giving us any answers.

Fight, fight, fight!

They took them alive,
we want them back alive!

They took them alive...

Until October 2,

it wasn't clear what had happened.

Nobody knew, not even the lawyers,
who came up with this question.

"What if they had been
forcibly disappeared?"

SURVIVOR, THE 44TH STUDENT

"What if it is an enforced disappearance?"

We're normalistas

and we study the history
and politics of the country,

but when it comes
to enforced disappearance,

we have no experience.

-May this awful government die!
-Die!

-May this awful government die!
-Die!

-May this awful government die!
-Die!

NATIONWIDE OUTRAGE OVER AYOTZINAPA

I didn't see any uniformed police officers
in the streets.

Everything was fenced off.

POLITICIANS WERE TARGETS OF ANGER

The lack of police officers in the streets
showed the state's weakness.

To me, that weakness cried out,
"They're guilty.

They're up to something. They're ashamed.

They're trying to cover it up."

The way the government is behaving

seems to suggest there's something fishy.

Why did it take a week for Peña Nieto
to speak about Ayotzinapa?

What was he trying to hide?

Mexican society and the families

of the students
who are unfortunately missing

rightfully demand
an explanation and justice.

The government offers

its cooperation and collaboration

to Guerrero's Attorney General's Office
and security forces

to reach due clarification.

During the first eight hours

after the events on September 26,

the Guerrero Public Ministry
found forensic evidence

that incriminated the army.

Any person with a little common sense
would realize

it was key to question everyone.

They should've questioned
the federal police,

they should've inspected
the 27th Infantry Battalion,

and examined the weapons
and all of the elements

that the public security forces
used that night.

YOUR WELL-BEING IS OUR DUTY

When the Public Ministry

went to inspect
the 27th Infantry Battalion,

they didn't let them in.

They said they couldn't conduct
an investigation

because it's a federal office,
a national security office,

and nobody can enter.

When the Guerrero Public Ministry

insisted on examining the army's weapons,

examining the federal police weapons,

and inspecting their offices,

the federal government

took the investigation away
from the Guerrero government

and carried it out themselves.

MEXICO'S ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE
TO TAKE OVER CASE

OCTOBER 4, 2014

The Mexican government,
the federal government,

Enrique Peña Nieto's administration
stayed in line

with what the Guerrero government said.

Then the government announced
the discovery of a pit

containing 28 bodies.

They implied that those were the bodies
of the students,

that those were the boys' bodies.

That made it even more confusing.
It seemed that the case was closed.

Several pits have been found today

in the vicinity of Iguala,

specifically in locations
known as Pueblo Viejo

and Loma de los Coyotes.

PITS WITH HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN IGUALA

They claimed they were our classmates.

We students and our families
assumed it was them.

TWENTY-EIGHT BODIES FOUND IN IGUALA PITS

We met up to work out how to move them
to their communities,

how much it would cost,
or if we'd take them the school first

to honor them,
to have a wake at the school

and then take them to their communities.

We were talking about stuff which...

Our lack of experience and knowledge

of what enforced disappearance implies...

Well, it was absurd.

So the lawyers had to intervene.

"Wait, don't cry.
We have to identify them first."

OCTOBER 3, 2014

OCTOBER 4, 2014

How did you get involved
in the Ayotzinapa case?

We got involved one week
after the students' disappearance,

when they found the first pits
in Cerro Pueblo Viejo, Iguala.

They suspected
that the remains found there

belonged to the students.

At that moment, we said
we wanted to see the pits first

and then talk to the families.

Before talking to the authorities,

we wanted the families' authorization
in order to work,

because we were their experts.

What's the first version
of the forensic department

-from the Attorney General's...?
-The first thing was to check...

They said that they heard

from the people who had been detained

that at least some of the students

could be among the 28 bodies found
in five clandestine pits

in Cerro Pueblo Viejo.

That's how we got involved.

-What was the first result?
-Negative.

Thank you all for coming
to this press conference.

I can confirm that some of the bodies,

according to the forensic analysis
being carried out,

do not belong
to the young men from Ayotzinapa.

The information
the governor gave out this morning,

-he said they're not the students' bodies.
-I don't know what he said.

This morning, the governor said,
that according to the evidence,

-a preview of the evidence...
-I can tell you. I've just asked.

The examination isn't over yet.

-When they're done...
-The governor said

that they may not be
the students' bodies...

I don't know where he got it from.
When I tell you something,

it'll be because I'm sure of it,
and I'd have talked

with their families first.

So you deny it?

I can neither confirm nor deny anything.

FOUR MORE PITS FOUND IN IGUALA
AROUND 15 BODIES INSIDE

Have any more bodies been extracted
from the four pits?

I'll give you all this information
once it's confirmed.

I don't want to lie to you,
and we shouldn't speculate.

So far, it is uncertain
whether the bodies found in the pits...

The investigation is still underway.

Once it's over,
I'll give you the information.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

On October 18, 2014,

the Attorney General's Office's
Criminal Investigation Agency

arrested Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado,

the leader of the criminal gang
Guerreros Unidos.

After his detention
and in light of his statement,

we've established a line of investigation,
which I'll share with you.

This man singled out
María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa,

Iguala's former mayor's wife,
as the main operator

of criminal activities
within the mayor's office,

in obvious complicity with her husband,
José Luis Abarca

and police chief Felipe Flores Velázquez.

According to their testimony, the Falcons,

informers from the criminal group
Guerreros Unidos,

and Iguala police officers

reported to the Iguala surveillance center
the arrival of Ayotzinapa students

and other people.

The suspects assumed

that this group was trying
to sabotage the event

that was being held at the moment

by the mayor's wife,
María de Ángeles Pineda Villa.

The order to confront these people
came from code A5,

which is used to identify
the mayor of Iguala.

Today I have decided

to ask the honorable state congress
for my leave.

Our priority must lie

in continuing the search
for the missing young men

and guaranteeing that those responsible
for these serious human rights violations

are punished.

WE WANT JUSTICE

Ever since the 43 students went missing,

other pits continue to be found
in the area around Iguala.

Another day, another pit
with more bodies in it...

This violence is systematic.
It's just like cancer.

What's behind this cancer is corruption.

We split up.

Some of us kept working on the remains
from Cerro Pueblo Viejo,

and the rest of us started working

in some of the hills around Iguala.

One day we went to Cerro La Parota.

The second day, we were going there
by helicopter, but we got diverted.

They told us that the Attorney General,
Murillo Karam, was nearby,

in the Cocula landfill site.

LANDFILL SITE

We arrived there, we got out...

The place was heavily guarded
by the police, the army, and the navy.

And there were some experts
from the Attorney General's Office.

So we laid out a grid in the area

and started to document
and clean part of the area

in order to collect
anything we found there.

I want to share with you
what happened a few hours ago

at a meeting I had with the parents

of the Ayotzinapa students
who are missing.

I listened to the demands
of some of the parents,

who shared their pain with me.

It's been more than 30 days,
and we've had no results.

You say you're making a big effort.

Honestly, look,

those are the faces of the missing boys.

Our tolerance
and patience have reached their limit.

This is our last resort
as Mexican citizens.

We demand that you, our president,

take immediate action
and find the 43 missing boys.

Otherwise, we'll have to turn
to international organizations

if you can't give us an answer.

It was a tough meeting for him,
because it was very demanding.

A lot of demands were made.
The parents were very angry.

That speech he gave to the parents,

instead of giving them hope,
it made them angrier.

Being face to face with the president
and the attorney general...

Well, we aren't afraid anymore.
We're overcoming our fears.

I had the opportunity to talk to them,

to tell them personally
and on behalf of this administration

that the government is with them,
supports them,

and is also outraged and appalled
by these events,

which not only affected them as families,
but Mexican society as a whole.

Until the Argentine forensic team
reveals any results,

everything
the Attorney General's Office says

is false as far as we're concerned.

We worked at the Cocula landfill.

We saw bone remains that were fragmented
and thermally altered.

That is, affected by the fire.

In the outer grid we laid out,

we found remains of at least 19 people.

Two days later,

officers from SEIDO
and the Attorney General's Office

came to see us to the landfill site
and said, "There's another site.

Please come with us."

We asked, "What happened?"
They said, "Come with us."

They took us to the San Juan River.

OCTOBER 29, 2014

SAN JUAN RIVER BRIDGE

When we got to the San Juan River,

there were a lot of bone remains
laid out on a blanket.

Among them, there was a fragment
that caught our attention

because it was much bigger than the rest,

which were really tiny,
and it was barely burnt.

It was like nothing we had found so far.

There was also a bag, and they said,
"We retrieved this bag from the river.

That fragment came from that bag."

But we saw that the other fragments

supposedly found in that bag

were very much
like the ones at the landfill,

very fragmented and charred.

We thought there was no chance
of getting DNA samples.

We will now hear
from the Attorney General,

Jesús Murillo Karam.

A few hours ago, I informed
the families of the missing boys

of the progress of the investigation,
that I will now share with you.

I know of the excruciating pain
it causes the families

to hear the information
we've gathered so far.

We all share that pain.

The testimonies and confessions
we've gathered,

along with the rest of the investigation,

unfortunately indicate

that a large number of people
were murdered in the Cocula area.

The last three suspects state

that on the road
that leads to Loma de los Coyotes,

a number of people
they can't exactly specify

were handed over to them
by the municipal police,

but one of the suspects said

there were more than 40.

This is part of his statement.

Wake up the guy who has the video.

-How many students were there?
-They said there were 44.

-I didn't do a head count.
-Who said that?

-They did.
-Who?

Pato and Cohete said there were 44 or 43.

They asked them about their occupation,
and they said they were students.

"We're students."

So they asked them
what they were doing in Iguala.

They said they were looking
for Abarca's wife.

Did they belong to any organization?

They asked them,
"Do you belong to any organization?"

They said no.

The documents... The suspects, sorry, said

they took the lives of the survivors
in that place.

Later, they threw their bodies
to the lower part of the landfill site,

where they burned them.

They worked in shifts to ensure
the fire burned for hours,

throwing on diesel, gasoline,
tires, firewood, and plastic,

and other elements found there.

According to their statements,

the fire burned from midnight

to around 2:00 p.m. the next day,
according to one of the suspects.

Another claimed it burned
until 3:00 p.m. on September 27.

They made that version official.
So we started saying...

-We said...
-No.

"There's still no evidence
to support that.

We're just getting started.
The information hasn't been analyzed yet.

Neither of us has yet analyzed
the samples that were collected.

So far, there's no evidence,
apart from the testimonies,

linking the students
to the Cocula landfill site."

They stated that when they went down

to where they dumped
and burned the bodies,

the order came
from someone known as El Terco

to break the bones,

the charred bones,

and put them in black garbage bags.

According to their statements,

those bags were emptied
into the San Juan River,

except for two,
which one of the suspects claimed

were full when he threw them in.

Mexican navy divers

and both Mexican
and Argentine forensic experts

found remains of the bags
and their contents.

One of them was still closed.

It contained bones that,
due to their characteristics,

we can now confirm are human remains.

We released several statements

saying that we weren't present
when that bag was found

and we weren't
at the San Juan River either

when they supposedly took
that fragment out of the bag.

We kept asking for more time.

We said, "Neither of us really knows
what happened here."

They released an official version

without a solid basis.

That damaged our relationship
with the Attorney General's Office.

Obviously.

We kept working on what we'd collected
at the Cocula landfill site,

but we no longer participated
in their search operations

in Iguala or places like that.

As far as they were concerned,

we'd questioned

something we weren't supposed to.

KILLED, BURNED AND THROWN INTO THE RIVER
PARENTS REJECT THEORY ON LACK OF EVIDENCE

The students said they're outraged

by the version issued
by the Attorney General's Office

that claimed that their fellow students
had been killed and burned.

There is a clear and shameless intention

to keep protecting the murderers

who kidnapped
and killed our 43 normalistas.

We want them back alive!

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We'll continue fighting!

Go!

ALIVE

Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto
announced that next Monday

he'll send a security reform package
to Congress

amid one of the worst crises
his government has faced.

Sixty days after the Ayotzinapa massacre,
the case has not yet been solved.

...keep fighting!

MEXICO EMBASSY IN LONDON, ENGLAND

They took them alive!
We want them back alive!

WHAT'S THE FUTURE OF A COUNTRY
WHEN THE STATE KILLS ITS STUDENTS?

How can you assert

that the federal government
is not responsible for these crimes?

The 43 missing students
are only the tip of the iceberg.

LOS PINOS PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE
MEXICAN GOVERNMENT

The Mexican government
and the families of the 43 students

signed an agreement to create
an independent investigative body

right when the Mexican government
was very weak.

The government was scared and worried.

SINCE 2013, THE PRESIDENT KNEW

THAT PART OF THE BODY
WAS UNDER NARCOPOLITICS

At that time, social protests exploded
all over the country.

The government retracted
and signed the agreement.

Today they'll sign
a technical cooperation agreement

with the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights.

This is key for the parents.

It's one of the demands listed
in the ten-point agreement

they signed with the government.

WE'RE MISSING 43 STUDENTS
WE'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING

In November 2014,
I got a call from James Cavallaro,

who was then the president
of the Human Rights Commission.

He told me about the creation
of this independent expert group.

He asked me to be part of it.

To me, it was one of the worst cases
of human rights violations in a democracy,

and I felt an obligation
to be part of the group.

In a criminal investigation,

every minute and every day that goes by
without investigating

is a day lost.

We thought we were already too late.

So we demanded that the OAS

authorize us to travel to Mexico

in order to start working right away.

In early December, the genetics lab
where we'd sent the samples

sent us the results
of that particular sample.

Unfortunately,
the result was a clear and strong match

to the DNA of the family
of one of the boys,

Alexander Mora Venancio.

If they think that, after the DNA matched
that of one of our boys'

we'd sit here and cry,

we want to tell them they're wrong.

As from today,

this fight will continue

until we find

the other 42 students,
who are still missing.

We want to tell Mexico

and the world, that as from today,

we no longer recognize Peña Nieto
as our president

because he's a murderer.

AYOTZINAPA LIVES

During the investigation,

four hundred and eighty-seven
expert reports on different areas

were presented,

which support and scientifically validate
each part of the narrative.

The site's topography,
and prevailing winds

made optimal oxygenation for the fire,

which helped maintain combustion
over an extended period of time.

The burnt area is large,

and the analysis
by fire and explosions experts shows

without a doubt
the damage caused by the heat.

The dental remains found at the fire site

indicate that it reached a temperature
of around 1600 degrees Celsius.

Thirty-nine confessions. Confessions.

From the police officers
to the actual perpetrators.

Four hundred and eighty-seven
forensic examinations,

three hundred and eighty-six statements,

and 153 ministerial inspections.

These and other elements found
during the investigation

allowed us to carry out
a logical, causal analysis,

which concluded
that the students were detained,

murdered, burned,

and thrown into the San Juan River,
in that order.

That's the historical truth
of what occurred.

MURILLO: THE 43 WERE BURNED
"THE HISTORICAL TRUTH"

The attorney general of Mexico
has resigned.

The news came after a day
of violence in the country.

With at least five people arrested
and several injured,

the protest marked five months

since the disappearance
of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.

I hope to God
that the eyes of other countries

are on Mexico.

Don't lose sight of this.
See what kind of government we have.

If you can help us. As a father...

please lend us a hand.

MARCH 1, 2015

MARCH 2, 2015

We arrived on March 2, 2015.

We went
to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs

and then to the school,
where we met the families.

I went there as a lawyer.

I remember talking to Carlos Beristain,

who had been working with victims
for a long time.

I said, "Listen, Carlos,
let me work on the file.

I'm more comfortable working with files.
You go talk to the families."

I remember Carlos said to me,
"Pancho, if we're to get a result,

we all have to connect with the victims."

SON, I WON'T STOP UNTIL I FIND YOU

JUSTICE FOR AYOTZINAPA
YOUR PAIN IS MY PAIN

I remember their faces.
I remember Emiliano, Mario...

The parents who were there.

There are things you notice.

The feet of the farmers who work the land,

the commitment of the parents

who left everything aside
to search for their children.

It's tough. It's very tough.

It's tough because on the first day,
those people told us

that we were their last hope
and they trusted us.

They asked us to please not sell out.

We went to the landfill,
and the place caught our attention,

but obviously we're not experts.

When we began having doubts
something like that could've happened,

we started comparing

the different statements
disclosed during the investigation

about what had happened.

To analyze the samples
from the Cocula landfill,

we brought in around 26 experts
both from the team and outside the team,

from eight different countries.

It was a multidisciplinary team.

We carried out
an in-depth analysis to establish

whether the Attorney General's Office's
official hypothesis

held up or not.

In that context, we said,

"We have to hire

a fire expert to tell us
if this is possible or not.

We're not experts."

So we contacted Dr. José Torero,

a Peruvian forensic scientist

who took part
in the Twin Towers investigation

to shed light on the damage
fire could have caused.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2015

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

GIEI FIRST REPORT

What does José Torero's analysis tell us?

The first thing he explained in his report
are the conditions necessary...

to incinerate one body.

And he showed us
that the best way to burn a body

is using a cremation chamber.

Based on this, he calculated
the amount of fuel needed

in the least favorable scenario
for combustion,

that is in the open air.

THEY TOOK HIM ALIVE!

Mr. Torero indicated that a body needs...

Just one body needs 700 kilos of wood,

three hundred and ten kilos of tires,

and the fire would need to burn
for 12 hours.

In the case of 43 bodies,
the amount of fuel needed

is 30,100 kilos of wood,

some 13,330 kilos of tires,

and the fire would need
to burn for 60 hours.

Based on scientific arguments,
we dismissed the theory

that 43 bodies
could have been burned there.

SIXTY HOURS OF IGNITION

First, because of the type of radiation
that a fire of such magnitude generates.

The bones were charred to the extent
that they couldn't be identified by DNA.

That would've meant
that the whole site would have burned.

The Attorney General's Office itself wrote
in its report that it was raining.

It was pouring rain.

It was raining heavily
in Iguala and the surrounding area.

How could a fire...

reach that kind of heat

necessary to burn 43 human bodies

for 15 hours if it was raining?

Who starts such a fire if it's raining?

I think that when this historical truth
completely fell apart

and we proved it's impossible
that 43 bodies were burned there,

that's when the Argentine
forensic anthropology team

issued its report that showed

that, in the place where the center
of the fire would have been

to generate such combustion,

there was a tree, remains of a trunk

that was older than the event,

which showed no traces of being burned.

Therefore, if the 43 bodies
had been burned there,

that trunk would've disappeared,
it wouldn't have been there.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One year after the disappearance
of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa,

the victims' parents led
a mass protest in Mexico City.

"They took them alive,
we want them back alive."

One year on, this is still the battle cry

repeated by the parents
of the 43 Ayotzinapa missing students.

The report issued

by the Interdisciplinary Group
of Independent Experts

of the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights,

the recent meeting
between the parents and the president,

and Enrique Peña Nieto's proposal
to create a district attorney's office

specializing in missing people

made the parents suspect

that the authorities aren't trying
to find their children alive.

We're here in front
of the Attorney General's Office

so that the whole world knows
that we still demand

that our children be found alive.

LOOK FOR THEM IN MILITARY STATIONS
43 ALIVE

As articles were published

mentioning that the report said

that it was unlikely that the 43 bodies
were burned in Cocula,

new statements were made
that sought to contradict that report,

and they added new details
to make that version possible.

Also in Mexico,

there's news on the case
of the 43 missing students.

According to the fire experts'
third forensic examination,

at least 17 bodies were burned
in the Cocula landfill.

The collection of bone remains
is enough evidence

and matches that of the forensic teams,

both the Attorney General's Office's
evidence

and the Argentine Forensic
Anthropology Team's evidence,

which allows us to conclude

that at least 17 adult human beings
were burned there.

Meanwhile, the parents of the missing boys
condemned the authorities

for disclosing these results
without their consent,

and claimed they'll wait
until they meet the experts

before making a decision,
to be announced in the next few days.

A fundamental agreement was broken there.

They had agreed that any public statement

had to be previously approved
by both parties.

However, when the government
decided to disclose

some preliminary results
with no scientific basis...

GIEI BREAKS AGREEMENT WITH PGR
ON COCULA ISSUE

That was one of the hardest moments
during our job there.

We even considered leaving the country
before the end of our mandate.

But we decided to stay

because we were committed to the families

and we wanted to see if we could push
the investigation any further.

One of the main smokescreens
the government used

was detaining people
in the streets of Iguala.

Suddenly, they presented them

as the self-confessed murderers
of the students.

They used torture,

such as raping men and women,

electric shocks in the roof of the mouth,
the anus, men's testicles,

women's vaginas
and other parts of the body.

They tortured these people

to force them to sign confessions
to a crime they hadn't committed.

The government used
these confessions obtained under torture

to say that this historical truth
was right

because these people
were confessing to it.

There was no forensic evidence,

but there were people who said,
"I'm the murderer.

I'm the murderer."

But each person who said that

gave different, contradicting information.

They were people
who obviously hadn't witnessed a thing.

They were making it all up
because they were being tortured.

We interviewed almost all 120 suspects.

Our report states how the injuries

increased over time
during their detention.

There are medical reports provided
by different Mexican authorities

that state that these people
were tortured illegally,

which casts doubt on their testimonies.

"THEY HURT THEMSELVES," NAVY SAYS

Why didn't they arrest
the two federal police officers

who were at the Palace of Justice

and communicated
with the Iguala municipal police?

They saw our boys being taken,

being beaten up,

being hit on the head
and other parts of the body

in the most cowardly fashion!

Good afternoon.

Did you summon the army officers

and the federal police officers
whose stations are in the area

and who may have participated in this
by action or omission to appear in court?

How is this line of investigation
progressing?

Our army, like any other army
in the world, only acts on orders.

That's a good thing.

Let me ask you,
if the army had intervened,

who would it have supported?

The constituted authority, obviously.

It would've been a bigger problem.
I'm glad they didn't do it.

I found out that some members
of the military had been interviewed

by the Attorney General's Office.

The Attorney General's Office
hid these statements

from the parents of the missing students.

In those documents,
in those statements, I found out

that the colonel in charge
of the 27th Infantry Battalion that night

admitted sending soldiers in plain clothes

onto the streets that night.

The investigation carried out
by the group of independent experts

says that The Attorney General's Office
is in possession

of statements
by military intelligence soldiers

who admitted being present in the vicinity
of Iguala's Palace of Justice,

where the police intercepted
two out of the five buses

in which the students
were trying to leave the city.

There's another important detail.

It is known that the Center
for Investigation and National Security

knew what was going on at all times.

That's the intelligence agency
that reports to the Secretary of Interior.

I interviewed General Gallardo.

He told me that there was constant,
minute-by-minute monitoring

from the moment
when the students hijacked the buses.

Since they left Ayotzinapa for Iguala?

Right when they hijacked the buses,

they already knew what was going on.

At all times.

This was a state operation
led by the Mexican army,

the federal police, the state police,

the municipal police, and the CISEN,

the Center for Investigation
and National Security.

It was all the state forces
against 100 students,

to stop five buses.

At two of the crime scenes,

forensic evidence of cartridges

belonging to the Mexican army was found.

That means there's conclusive evidence,
ballistic evidence,

forensic evidence
that proves that the Mexican army

not only monitored them and followed them,

but also shot the students.

On September 27,

the Iguala Public Ministry
started receiving

anonymous calls
saying that some of the students

were at the 27th Infantry Battalion.

27TH INFANTRY BATTALION
PALACE OF JUSTICE BRIDGE

The phone signal

of one of the missing men of Ayotzinapa

originated in the military base
in the area.

-One more thing...
-What were the phones doing there?

-Another thing that...
-Nobody could explain that.

So, at least the lads' phones
were in a military base.

Where, incidentally,
there's a cremation chamber.

-There's that.
-Yes.

Someone is covering up
a military intervention,

and it's not that it was
the army's intention to intervene.

The army doesn't do anything
without receiving an order.

Besides, there's one important detail.

In Guerrero,

the army has a strong,
constant presence...

It exerts strict, constant control
over the territory

since at least the '70s, late '60s.

So it's not easy to make
43 students disappear

without the army knowing about it.

On our first visit,
we asked to interview the 27th Battalion,

because there are two people
from the 27th Battalion

who had a privileged view
of the detention that took place

in a section called the Palace of Justice.

All of the men from one of the buses
that were there are missing.

Someone watched and filmed it,

so we asked to interview that person
and have direct access to the video.

The answer we got was,

"That's not going to happen."

Their argument was
that we'd violated due process.

We, as a group, never understood

why we could interview the suspects,
the federal police,

and the municipal police,
but not the 27th Infantry Battalion.

If due process had been violated,

it would've been the same for everyone,
not just the army.

We even asked
president Enrique Peña Nieto directly.

He said, "We are evaluating it.

We're trying to find a way.
We'll get back to you."

Well, the answer wasn't positive.

All these circumstances
are not transparent.

They don't follow law or science,
it's like...

It's a political maneuver in this case.

They're laying the groundwork
to close the case.

But there was another fundamental element

in this story that appeared
in every document.

In every testimony.

That there were two buses.

The two buses
in which the students left at 5:59 p.m.

on September 26, 2014,

took most of the gunshots,
according to the ballistics examination,

and these are the two buses
from which the 43 students disappeared.

The C4 report didn't state
how many students there were

or the students' names.

It only details the buses' license plates.

It's as if the real surveillance
was on the buses

and not the students.

It seems that the priority that night
were the buses, not the students,

as if the students
were an unfortunate accident.

I asked the students,
"What's the story with these buses?

How did you get them?"

So they told me,

"We had started hijacking buses

on September 19 or 20."

I asked myself...

They had already hijacked six.

Why were those six buses not important,
but these two were?

Why?

When I talked to my source,
this person said

that those two buses
the students had hijacked

were carrying
two million dollars' worth of heroin.

Today it was disclosed

that the night
the 43 Ayotzinapa students disappeared

and in the days that followed,

there was a heavy exchange
of text messages

between alleged criminals in Chicago

and others in Iguala.

A great part of Mexican society
has no doubt

in saying, "It was the state."

But the smokescreens they used,

the poor investigation they conducted,
how they kept covering up for each other,

the way they tried to keep
the higher authorities out of this

mean we're completely in the dark

as to where and what sector
of the government

gave the order to kill them.

There are several elements
to take into account.

First, why did they act like that?

Whoever it was, they did it

because there wouldn't be
any consequences.

POLITICAL ANALYST

Guerrero is a state
where impunity has become the norm.

Second,

you're talking about a state
where drug trafficking operates

and has economic,
political and military importance.

Third, there's been
a lot of stigmatization

against rural normalistas for many years.

Calling someone an "Ayotzinapo"
is derogatory.

It's a synonym
for violent, barbaric people.

It's a way of characterizing them
and discriminating against them.

It's in this context
that the students were attacked.

When you look back on it, you think,
"OK, there's this bus.

Why not just stop the bus,
get the kids off, and that's it?"

Instead of that, they started a bloodbath.
A real bloodbath.

Gunshots against the second bus,

a shoot-out that lasted 20 minutes,

other attacks.

There was no other way
to get the merchandise back but that one.

The drug lord called the army
that night and said,

"I know the students
are here with my buses.

Get my merchandise back at any cost.

Do what you have to do,
but this is what I'm paying you for,

to look after my goods,
so go and get my goods back."

What my informant
from the criminal world told me

is that the military,

when they were trying
to recover the drugs, started to panic

at the thought of the students
realizing what was going on.

The students didn't know
there were drugs hidden in those buses.

They had no idea that those two buses

were coffins on wheels.

First, we found the higher authorities
in the government

knew what was going on.

Second, the official story
was falling apart.

Third, who gave the order
to murder the 43?

A local bunch of dealers
committing mass murder for no reason?

The state government?

Why would the state government want
to be involved in such a conflict?

The federal government?

A combination of all of them?

Maybe something
that could shed some light on the matter

is the alleged presence
of a drug cargo inside the bus,

which may explain their interest

in getting the cargo back, but...

You carry 30 guns, take the bus back

-and drop them off right there.
-Yes.

-It doesn't justify 43 murders.
-Forty-three murders?

Of course it doesn't.

The only thing we get out of this

is that all these smokescreens

help to create an alternative story

that frees them from the responsibility
of forcibly disappearing people.

When someone proves
it's an enforced disappearance,

which is a continuous crime...

There's no statute of limitations

because it keeps being committed
every day.

-Until they're found.
-Exactly. Dead or alive.

But they haven't been found.

This could take the president

to the International Criminal Court
for crimes against humanity.

This is the only thing that would explain

the need to create so many smokescreens.

Because the crime
of enforced disappearance is so serious

that anything else is better.

During his visit to Denmark,

Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto
said that the mandate

for the Interdisciplinary Group
of Independent Experts' work has ended

and won't be extended.

We went to the university

where we presented our report.

And...

GIEI SECOND REPORT

On our way, we were listening

to "Latinoamérica"
and "El aguante" by Calle 13.

When we got there,
the courtyard was full of people.

-They took them alive!
-We want them back alive!

For the GIEI, history doesn't stop.

Over a year after we started
our work in Mexico,

we emphasize that today
we have a chance to know the truth

and honor the victims
of the events that took place that night.

We took turns to read
the different parts of the report.

It was our last report,
where we gave an account

of what was left to do,

of the conclusions we reached
in this second phase of the investigation.

Each one of us made our presentation.

...this poses a dilemma for the country

and it must find a way out.

The GIEI states that there hasn't been
one single piece of evidence

or a shred of evidence
to make it change its conclusion

disclosed on September 6,

that the bodies of the 43 students
weren't burned at the Cocula landfill.

MASSACRED

The hardest part was when...

the audience started shouting,
"Don't leave."

Don't leave! Don't leave!

Don't leave! Don't leave!

Don't leave! Don't leave!

I remember I looked at Carlos...

and Claudia as a way to avoid...

crying in public.

My strategy didn't work,
because Carlos was...

moved, too.

So it ended. The presentation ended.

We gave the information and...

They took them alive!

We hugged.

-Ayotzinapa lives!
-The fight continues!

-Ayotzinapa lives!
-The fight continues!

That day was so moving, man.

It speaks volumes

that the members of the Mexican government

weren't present during the disclosure
of the GIEI report.

It's clear that the experts aren't leaving
because their job is done.

They're not leaving because the parents

didn't think their work is relevant.

Rather, they're leaving because
of the government's lack of political will

to let them stay in this country.

The parents of the students

who have been missing
for a year and a half

continue to distrust the authorities.

They believe the government
expelled the experts

to stop them
from finding the truth in this case.

They don't want them to investigate issues
such as the alleged military participation

in the attack against the students
or why some of the students' cell phones

were still active hours after the crime,
according to the boys' parents.

Ayotzinapa, Guerrero! The fight continues!

They took them alive!
We want them back alive!

They took them alive!
We want them back alive!

Murderers! Murderers!

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE'S FILE
ARMY INVOLVEMENT IN THE AYOTZINAPA CASE

Sometimes we parents cry together.

Sometimes we shout out our anger together.

We feel powerless to find our boys.

There's nothing we can do but wait.

We're desperate and heartbroken
when we see the mothers crying at night.

They can't eat, they can't sleep.

We have no doubt
that the government is involved in this.

The Ayotzinapa events
were very unfortunate.

The disappearance of 43 young men
on September 26, 2014.

The investigation continues.

The parents didn't agree

with the progress of the investigation

carried out
by the Attorney General's Office,

which presented
clear and conclusive evidence

that, unfortunately,
the 43 boys were burned

by a criminal organization
operating in Guerrero.

Personally, and keeping in mind
the parents' grief,

I'm sure that what the investigation found
is precisely what happened.

Honestly, I don't think the president

knew that those buses were carrying drugs
and that they had to get rid of the boys,

or that the Attorney General's Office
knew exactly what was going on.

But this is what I know.

In the end, days after the event,

the Mexican government
did know what had happened.

But instead of seeking justice
and incarcerating those military officers

and federal police officers,

instead of promptly trying to find
the students dead or alive,

it covered it up.

We have both of the GIEI reports.

We have all the information
from the survivors,

and the government keeps blatantly lying.

Just like that.

They attend
the Inter-American Commission meetings

and talk about the Cocula landfill,
and they don't care.

Because they're so arrogant...

Those experts, those attorney generals,

those federal government experts
with their suits,

their laptops and their files,
they're making the students disappear.

They took them alive!
We want them back alive!

PEÑA, RESIGN!

AS LONG AS POVERTY EXISTS,
RURAL SCHOOL ARE NECESSARY

It's been four years.

The official version doesn't hold up.

Clearly, the case will be reopened.

In order to allow society
to start a healing process,

the institutions need to acknowledge
their responsibility.

Though we already know it.

We know it,

but they don't acknowledge it,
and we need that.

It's the next step. We're on the brink
of a change in this country's pyramid.

The truth is that every time

the Mexican government
has tried to hide a terrible event,

time not only proved them to be liars,
but also showed their insincerity.

WHEN THE PEOPLE RISE
FOR FOOD, FREEDOM, AND LAND

THE POWERFUL WILL TREMBLE

THEIR LIE IS HISTORICAL:
NO BODIES, NO DEAD

Like many others

who investigated and participated in this,

I've been feeling completely...

broken by the fact that I haven't found

all the information about that night,
that none of us have found

where the 43 students are.

WE'RE MISSING 43
THEIR FAMILIES ARE WAITING

YOU'RE NOT ALONE, WE DEMAND AN ANSWER

I experienced this very personally,
and I still do.

I don't claim to be objective
on this issue

because it's been an obsession in my life.

Enforced disappearance is...

strong symbolic violence.

So you try to fill that hole in many ways,

and I think one way to do it,
something we can do

is document what's going on.

So I started documenting
all the possible details

that someday would help me
understand the story.

I also documented it for the children

of the 43 missing students
and the three who were murdered.

THEY TOOK THEM ALIVE
WE WANT THEM BACK ALIVE

I admire these families' resistance,

the dignity
with which they faced all this.

It's admirable and painful.
Their lives were turned upside down.

They became true activists

supporting human rights
and trying to find their children.

I think the great merit of this story
is their resistance.

The conditions are there
for Ayotzinapa to truly become

a turning point in how we think
about the missing person cases

in contemporary Mexico.

These past ten years, the lesson taught
by the ones in power has been,

"It's okay, the missing men
were up to something suspicious.

They don't deserve to be searched for
or for us to care about them."

Ayotzinapa broke with that.

AYOTZINAPA IS STILL FIGHTING

IT'S NOT A BATTLEFIELD

TRUTH, REPARATION, JUSTICE

The aftermath
of the killings and kidnappings

has much resonated
throughout Mexican society

and showed that people had had enough
of impunity, abuse,

and state violence to a great extent.

Today they keep saying
in a thousand places,

"They took them alive,
we want them back alive."

A society with open wounds
will never heal, never.

In a society like ours,
that tends to hide things,

to cover up the truth,

things end up coming to light.

So time will allow us

to tell the dark parts
of the Ayotzinapa story.

The part we can tell today is very clear.

It's a state crime.

You've been repressed and exploited.

I stood up for you, and I got screwed.

Repressed and exploited...

Say hi to the camera, man!

There's the camera.

The Mexican president signs a decree
to open a truth commission

for the Ayotzinapa case.

We'll be paying close attention.

We won't wash our hands of this.
This is a state matter.

Subtitle translation by: Anabella Tonon