Mexico

SCRIPT

1. SOUNDBITE: Student footage, Iguala, Mexico, September 2014 (SPANISH): Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! Why are you shooting? Why are you shooting?
2. TEXT ON SCREEN: WARNING: This video contains distressing images of violence, including shooting. Viewer discretion is advised.
3. SOUNDBITE: Student footage, Iguala, Mexico, September 2014 (SPANISH) / OFF audio of Metodia Carrillo Lino, August 2023: Nine years. Waiting for our children. 
4. SOUNDBITE: Student footage, Iguala, Mexico, September 2014 (SPANISH): Let’s go dude.
5. SOUNDBITE: Student footage, Iguala, Mexico, September 2014 (SPANISH) / OFF audio of Metodia Carrillo Lino, August 2023: No answers at all... 
6. SOUNDBITE: Student footage, Iguala, Mexico, September 2014 (SPANISH): They are shooting at us, dude! You already killed someone, call an ambulance! Call an ambulance! 
7. SOUNDBITE: Metodia Carrillo Lino, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): As mothers, we will never give up looking for our kids. Because I love my son very much. I will never forget him. As long as I am healthy, I will always look for my son. Always. Every single day. 
8. PHOTOS: Sequence of photos of the Ayotzinapa students. Ambient sound, August 2023 (SPANISH): Because they took them alive! And want them alive! 
9. TEXT ON SCREEN: On September 26, 2014, Mexican police, working with members of a criminal cartel, attacked and forcibly disappeared 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College. The students have not been seen since. 
10. TEXT ON SCREEN: For years later.
11. SOUNDBITE: Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico, press conference, Mexico City, Mexico, September 2018 (SPANISH): Now I can say, with full confidence, that I will fulfill all the promises I made during the campaign. And one of my commitments was to solve the unfortunate case of the disappearance of the young men from Ayotzinapa.
12. SOUNDBITE: Epifanio Álvarez (Father of Jorge Álvarez Nava), press conference, Mexico City, Mexico, September 2018 (SPANISH): We are very hopeful that it will happen. Otherwise, as far as I am concerned, I prefer to die.
13. TEXT ON SCREEN: President López Obrador did not keep his promise. Nearly five years into President López Obrador’s term, what happened to the 43 students remains unclear. Their whereabouts are still unknown. 
14. SOUNDBITE: Metodia Carrillo Lino, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): The president never gave us answers. We want the truth! We don’t want any more lies!” 
15. SOUNDBITE: María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): The information is there. The Army has it. But they said nothing. That’s why we’re very concerned. Because President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is the commander of the Armed Forces, has not backed us up. Because if he had backed us up, they would already have investigated the army.
16. TEXT ON SCREEN: The army was closely monitoring the students on the night they were taken. But it has refused to give investigators access to key information, like photos, videos, and phone records from the night of the disappearance. 
17. SOUNDBITE: Clemente Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): There is still a lot to investigate, so that we finally get truth and justice, and find out where our children are.
18. TEXT ON SCREEN: In July 2023, a group of international experts investigating what happened to the students stopped their work and left Mexico. They said they could not continue investigating because the army was hiding key evidence that could contain clues about what happened to the students. 
19. SOUNDBITE: Carlos Beristain (Member of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts), press conference, Mexico City, Mexico, July 2023 (SPANISH): They continue to lie about the information held by the Armed Forces about what happened and about documents they hadregarding the possible whereabouts of the students.
20. SOUNDBITE: Ángela Buitrago (Member of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts), press conference, Mexico City, Mexico, July 2023 (SPANISH): The refusal to provide information and the obstinacy of the denials, even in witness statements before prosecutors, by senior army and navy officials… only serve to deny the obvious.
21. SOUNDBITE: Carlos Beristain (Member of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts), press conference, Mexico City, Mexico, July 2023 (SPANISH): The risk we have faced is that lies become an institutionalized response” 
22. TEXT ON SCREEN: The kidnapping and enforced disappearance of the 43 students shocked Mexico and the world. But it was not an isolated incident. 
23. TEXT ON SCREEN: Over 110,000 people are officially considered missing in Mexico. The true number is likely higher. Thousands continue to disappear every year. More than 36,000 have been reported missing since President López Obrador took office. 
24. SOUNDBITE: Clemente Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): There are murders, there are disappearances, and the army knows it, and the government knows it. To put an end to the impunity, he [López Obrador] needs to somehow find the whereabouts of the 43 and of the thousands of others who are missing.
25. SOUNDBITE: María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH):People should know what is actually going on here in Mexico, that the army is key to finding our disappeared children and to this day they have not been investigated.
26. TEXT ON SCREEN: President López Obrador should immediately call on the army to stop hiding information and ensure there is a serious investigation that leads to truth and justice.
27. SOUNDBITE: Clemente Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): I would demand that he faces up to the commitments he made during his campaign, that he hasn’t kept. He should demand that the Army cooperate, because it has not contributed anything. He is protecting the military tooth and nail.” 
28. SOUNDBITE: Cristina Bautista (Mother of Benjamín Ascencio Bautista) , Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): We continue to fight, we continue to demand that the Mexican government finds our children alive, because that's how they took them, alive.
29. AMBIENT SOUND: We want them alive!
30. SOUNDBITE: Clemente Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): The army had links with Guerreros Unidos, that is, with organized crime, they all [worked] hand in hand. So, the Mexican State should be held accountable for this.
31. SOUNDBITE: María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): They took them alive. We want them alive.
32. TEXT ON SCREEN: President López Obrador, which side are you on? Will you help the military cover up what happened to the students from Ayotzinapa? Or will you support the families seeking truth and justice? 
33. SOUNDBITE: Group of students from Atyozinapa Rural College, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2023 (SPANISH): [Count up from 1 to 43. When they arrive to 43, they shout:] “Justice!”.
34. END CREDITS: Producer/Editor – Andrés Brenner; Videographer – César Fuentes; Additional footage –Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco.

Toluca, Mexico

“Elizabeth”
Asylum Seeker
We left our country because of the insecurity and harassment we faced and it’s the same here. We had to leave Venezuela because of the harassment we received from the Venezuelan Military Intelligence Service, as they constantly harassed and threatened me, my son, and my family.

Narrator
Elizabeth is one of tens of thousands of asylum seekers the US sent to Mexico while their cases are pending in US immigration courts. In Mexico, asylum seekers often face extortion and abuse by government officials.

“Elizabeth”
Asylum Seeker
When we arrived to Mexico the feds stopped us at the Mexico City airport. They asked us if we were going to the border. They demanded a bribe from us so as not to be deported.

Narrator
They are also targeted by criminal groups.

“Elizabeth”
Asylum Seeker
In Matamoros, we were very afraid of the cartels. That's why we had to move away from there. I had to walk with my son wherever he went for fear of being kidnapped or extorted by them.

Narrator
They are often not able to work or access essential services, including health care and education.

“Elizabeth”
Asylum Seeker
Currently, our life has stopped, since we are not allowed to work here. We do not have access to free health services and my son can’t study.

Narrator
US President Joe Biden has begun allowing some asylum seekers with pending cases, like Elizabeth, back into the United States—A positive step.

“Elizabeth”
Asylum Seeker
It is like a ray of hope in this long journey that we’ve been waiting for here in Mexico.

Narrator
But under the administration of former President Donald Trump, many others had their cases unfairly dismissed or were denied a chance to apply for asylum. They remain stuck in Mexico where they continue to face abuse. President Biden should ensure that they too get a fair hearing. Meanwhile, the Mexican government should protect asylum seekers in Mexico and ensure they are able to work and access health care and education.