JUSTICE
[horn blares]
[indistinct chatter]
-[man] You'll be here at the entrance? -[woman 1] Yes.
INVESTIGATIVE POLICE
[distant chanting]
[woman 2] None of us should have to be here right now.
And yet we're still looking for ways to repair a wounded nation,
where extreme violence is on the rise every day.
And today, the issue is very simple.
It's the full reparation for all of the damage done.
Reparation? I don't know if we can be repaired.
I don't know if what was broken so long ago can ever be repaired
due to the pain of losing one of our daughters and one of our sisters,
with the damage and the scars that we survivors must bear.
We have called for an open dialogue with the authorities.
We are demanding a dialogue with the Femicide Prosecutor's Office,
with Sayuri, with Brenda Bazán.
An open dialogue.
We are saying it loud and clear.
The State owes us an enormous debt.
A debt that cannot be paid off with unfulfilled promises,
with agreements that they have forgotten, with lost documents,
nor with purple handkerchiefs in their hands.
And not with the few convictions
that we ourselves have had to wrest from the State.
We want convictions.
And sentences.
We want due process.
We want a gender perspective.
We want them to do their jobs in the face of the violence
that exists right here in our country,
the violence that has taken so much from us with impunity.
We want and we need full reparation for all of the damages,
because it's very simple.
It's our right.
And from here going forward, these are our demands.
[Sayuri] I heard them yesterday.
I said, "It's good that, regardless of who you are siding with,
you don't stop raising your concerns about what needs to be done."
"It would be wrong if you did."
If we start saying, "That's not my job,
go to the next window,
that's not my job, it's someone else's…"
"Well, I did my job…"
If you end up doing that,
then maybe no one will ever be held responsible for a crime,
for their conduct.
So… that's just what I was telling you, right?
That's why I chose to be here.
I know that I decided to be responsible and accountable to the citizens.
I can't shirk my responsibility and try and pass it on to someone else,
because I know that there, in that place, and at that moment,
I represent an authority figure, an institution.
Also, I know that what they wanted was to express their anger,
to express their outrage,
to protest, to be seen, and to present their demands,
and to show us all what remains to be done.
[rapid electronic beeps]
[mysterious music plays]
[song in Spanish plays]
THE PROSECUTOR
-Good morning. -[man 1] Good morning. Have a good day.
Thank you.
-[man 2] Good morning. -Commander.
-Good morning. -Good morning.
Good morning.
-We're ready. -[engine starts]
[siren wails]
[Sayuri] I thought that my time at the Prosecutor's Office was over.
As a femicide prosecutor, I could no longer move forward.
I mean, I had already reached my limit
because I did not have the support of the gender crimes coordinator,
who was my immediate superior.
[tense music plays]
[Sayuri] She would sometimes prevent us from getting phone records we requested,
stop us from carrying out a search,
and I also remember that once she called me to her office
to yell at me, to attack me.
She said to me, "I don't understand, I don't understand what you want."
"Why don't you obey? Why don't you submit?"
"Don't you want to advance in this institution?"
[elevator beeps]
[Sayuri] I had already submitted my resignation. I was ready to leave.
[elevator dings]
[Sayuri] I can't get along with someone who treats me so badly.
[elevator beeps]
[elevator dings]
[Sayuri] Sometime later,
the Attorney General called me into her office,
and she told me that she had decided
to remove this person from the position of coordinator,
and she asked me if I would be willing to take on the position.
GENERAL INVESTIGATION UNIT FOR GENDER CRIMES AND SPECIAL VICTIMS
[Sayuri] And I said, "Yes. Yes, I'm ready."
[distant phone ringing]
HEAD OF THE GENDER-BASED SPECIALIZED UNIT FOR THE DA'S OFFICES
[Sayuri] As a coordinator, the position would allow me
to continue supervising the investigation of femicides
and also to deal with other crimes that are committed against women,
to address crimes involving human trafficking,
to deal with domestic violence,
to support the Prosecutor's Office for Sexual Crimes,
to support the Prosecutor's Office for Prioritized and Vulnerable Groups.
And once I was there, the workload increased.
INVESTIGATIVE POLICE HEADQUARTERS
Tania, how many arrest warrants have we executed? 78 or 79?
[phone ringing]
-[Tania] There are 78. -78?
[Tania] Yeah.
[commander] Well, we're doing poorly, very poorly, okay? Godínez?
From my shift yesterday, they called me about the lady who was here earlier.
-The one who said…? -Uh-huh.
They saw him working as a loader there in the Central de Abastos.
-As a loader? -She doesn't know, but they've seen him.
[commander] Don't fuck with me. Central de Abastos will be tough.
[officer 1] It's really crowded there, yeah.
-They just told us it was in that area. -[officer 2] The flowers area?
-In the flowers aisle. -In the flowers aisle?
-[Tania] Oh, well… -That's a smaller area, dude.
Give the summary to Tania, and send her a photo of the arrest warrant.
-You can start the file, Tania. -Yes.
The one who shot himself according to the traffic officer.
Apparently, this week, the judge will request the arrest warrant.
-[commander] Apparently? -This week, apparently.
Okay, one, two…
Look, Franco, if you carry out all those warrants,
there would be about eight.
[Godínez] We still have to go and complete the one right now.
You can take December off if you put all these in.
Now you really surprised us.
[commander] All right, have a good day and let's get to it.
[officer 3] Thank you.
[distant chatter]
[suspenseful music plays]
[reporter 1] Ariadna Díaz was found dead in the La Pera area,
on the road to Tepoztlán and Cuautla.
[reporter 2] Some cyclists found her on the road,
and the family is demanding justice.
They're asking for an investigation
and for the driver of this vehicle to be arrested.
[Sayuri] We received a report
of the discovery of a woman who was found dead in Morelos.
And her characteristics could be a match
for a missing person report which was filed in Mexico City.
[Gustavo] The family started posting that she's missing.
Coincidentally, the cyclist who was passing through the Morelos area
contacted the family through social media.
-[officer] Because of her tattoo? -Because of the tattoo. Right.
[suspenseful music continues]
Our team came to the decision that,
regardless of the fact that the discovery was made in the State of Morelos,
and that by then the media presumed that the femicide had occurred there,
we thought it was important
to open an investigation file in Mexico City for femicide
because, in the end, we were not sure where the death had occurred.
And I told them, "Open an investigation file."
"We have a lead here."
[Héctor] We had never opened a case like this before
of a body found in a different state, but we had to act quickly.
CASE FILE OPENED IN RESPONSE TO CRIMINAL REPORT.
[Héctor] We need to investigate, we need to carry out the necessary inquiries.
All right, man, thanks.
[Héctor] Commander Casillas went to Ariadna's wake.
Let's go, guys. They're waiting for us down there.
-[phone rings] -[Gustavo] All right, dude, I'm coming.
See you later, Elia.
[siren wails]
[Gustavo] I went with my partner Rodolfo.
We were just going to corroborate and get information.
It was just a few blocks away from the Prosecutor's Office,
here in the same Doctores neighborhood.
[siren wails]
DOCTORES NEIGHBORHOOD
[Sayuri] And the instructions to Commander Casillas
were to tell the family that we were working on the investigation.
[Gustavo] When we arrived, we noticed there were several media outlets.
There were a lot of people.
[reporter 1] The young woman was found dead
on the side of La Pera-Cuautla highway in Tepoztlán, Morelos.
[reporter 2] It wasn't until yesterday
that her relatives were able to identify the body.
They had reported her missing,
and they have just been able to identify her.
There are many versions of this story…
[Gustavo] We noticed when we got there
that there were quite a few friends of the victim present.
We identified ourselves and explained the reason for our presence there.
And we saw that there were three,
specifically, three of her friends sitting there,
and they told me, "How dare Rautel show his face here!"
This guy is Rautel, and he came with his girlfriend.
That's when the rumors began.
When he arrived at the wake, they immediately started saying,
"How dare he come? How can he have the nerve to show up here?"
Because they already had their theories.
They had an idea of what happened, right?
"This is the guy she was drinking with."
They started showing me the videos
where you can see her with him in a restaurant.
I asked if they wanted to tell me more. They said yes.
I took them outside there with my partner Rodolfo,
and we took their statements out on the street.
On Sunday, she sent me her real-time location.
She was in the Condesa neighborhood at the home of these so-called friends.
And that was the last information we had about Ari
until Monday when her body was found.
I knew from her location that they had gone to his house,
so I was less worried.
I thought, "It's okay. They're at home. She's with someone trustworthy."
[woman] Had you been to Rautel's house before?
-Yes. -Many times?
Yes, many times. Many, many times.
Rautel was literally one of my best friends.
I mean, that's why… it didn't raise any alarms for me.
I mean, until Nat, who lived with me, said to me the next day,
"Hey, do you know anything about Ariadna? Is she with you?"
And I said, "No, I mean, she's with Rautel."
And when I spoke to Rautel, he said, "No, she took an Uber and left."
And I was like, "Okay, perfect, she took an Uber."
And then they changed the story that one of his bodyguards had taken her home.
So that's when we got suspicious,
and we decided not to have any contact with Rautel anymore.
Then I stopped him out here,
and I said, "Good evening, my name is Gustavo Casillas."
"I'm investigating the femicide of such and such a victim."
And he says to me, "I have nothing to say to the police."
"What I had to say I've already said in Morelos."
He kept shifting his hands all the time and licking his lips.
And he wouldn't look me in the eye.
And from that moment on, I had a bad feeling about it.
He would say to me, "No, don't come near me. I have nothing to do with that."
And he repeated it a lot, and he licked his lips again, right?
While I was stopping Rautel in the hallway I showed you,
my partner Rodolfo intercepted his girlfriend.
And Vanessa, the girlfriend, was nervous right from the start.
She had no counsel.
Well, while we were talking there, someone came in and took her away.
“Vanessa, don't say anything. You have to talk to a lawyer.”
[Gustavo] But Rodolfo had already gotten important information from her.
When I came in here, the coffin was there,
so I turned and took a look at him.
He got uncomfortable, he left and went outside to talk to the media.
[indistinct background chatter]
I want to do things the best way possible,
because, if somehow, she chose me to deal with this,
or… if this situation turned out this way,
I want to do things the best I can.
[reporter 1] Were you at a bar or apartment?
First in a bar, Fisher's Nápoles,
and from there, we went to my apartment.
Because my girlfriend posted a story asking where we were.
That's where our contact--
-Your girlfriend was inviting her. -[Rautel] Yes.
Well, then, you shouldn't deny it.
[reporter 1] What happened to her? Did she leave? Did she get into a vehicle?
-Who picked her up? -She went by herself.
And that's where I lost communication with her.
[reporter 1] You didn't see what happened
-after she left your apartment? -No.
[reporter 1] What about what the security cameras show?
We already requested everything. The process has just begun in Morelos.
And the truth is that we were the first, so to speak,
to be there to submit our statements and do things right.
The second ones.
[woman] Tell the truth.
That's what it's all about.
That's exactly what I'm here for. I'm going to do it right.
[reporter 2] When she left, was she angry?
-That's it. -That's all, thank you.
Thank you.
-[indistinct chatter] -[cameras clicking]
By that time, the Morelos State Attorney General's Office
had already determined that the woman had died from bronchoaspiration.
[reporter] Moments ago, the prosecutor for Morelos,
Uriel Carmona Gándara, stated in a press conference…
The cause of death of Ariadna N…
was due to severe alcohol intoxication
and subsequent bronchoaspiration.
The autopsy is not consistent with a femicide.
We did not find any signs of violence on her.
[Sayuri] At the wake, the family told the commander
that they had doubts about the autopsy.
Yes, we talked to the family.
They showed us the photographs taken by the cyclist
who had found her in Morelos.
In the photos that the person who found her posted,
you can clearly see how her arm has bruises.
And there are photos that show several blows to her face.
We saw the photos and said, "No way."
"So many contusions from a drinking bender?"
"No way. No, no, no."
Suppose it was as they say,
alcohol intoxication and bronchoaspiration,
did she walk all the way there or what?
-[Gustavo] No, fuck that. -No, he threw her there.
We decided to go all in on this guy.
When I called Brenda after talking to her family,
after they showed me the pictures,
I told the family, "Are you going to have the balls?"
"This is going to be fucking huge. Are you going to have the balls?"
"Hell, yeah, she's our daughter and my sister." I said, "Okay."
[reporter] Some individuals, especially friends of the deceased,
have confirmed that the body of Ariadna López Díaz
was taken for a second autopsy.
[police radio chatter]
[Sayuri] They interrupted the wake,
and the investigative and forensics teams transferred the body directly
to the Institute of Forensic Sciences.
They performed dissections in areas that had not been thoroughly examined
in the previous autopsy
by the Morelos Prosecutor's Office.
They also carried out organ analyses,
and they documented the injuries that Ariadna's body had presented.
And it didn't show any signs of bronchoaspiration.
It was very obvious that the autopsy in the State of Morelos
had not been performed thoroughly.
They had very deliberately determined
that this was not a case of femicide.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE MEXICO CITY
[man] Good afternoon, we appreciate your presence at this press conference
arranged by the Attorney General…
Upon the request and with the consent of Ariadna's family,
the Prosecutor's Office in Mexico City requested a new autopsy.
This second autopsy established that the young woman's body
displayed multiple contusions caused by blows.
So it was determined
that the actual cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries
that were classified as fatal.
At the same time, our duty has been…
[reporter 1] It does call into question the work that was done
by the entire investigative system of the State of Morelos.
[Uriel] This work was carried out by our female forensic experts,
who worked with a gender-based perspective.
I personally reviewed that autopsy.
I've reviewed hundreds of autopsies in my career.
And we have nothing to hide.
I say it with a clear conscience. We have been thorough.
[reporter 2] But to make it clear, prosecutor,
what you concluded is that it wasn't a homicide.
[Uriel] That's correct.
[somber music plays]
[woman] Well, Ari and I were, I can say, almost like family.
I first met Ariadna back in 2017, I think.
It was at the restaurant Hooters.
I had just started working there, and she was the hostess.
So she reached out to me there,
and she helped me get to know the place.
She was very friendly to me,
and she was the first person I had contact with there.
Well, I already knew.
I was one of the first to know that her death was caused
by multiple bruises she received.
ARIADNA'S FRIEND PROTECTED WITNESS
I saw the pictures of my friend.
She had scratches on her face, and I'd like…
I'd like to know what happened.
[voice breaking] And I want to believe that she's fine,
that she's at peace, because…
she left it to us, the right people, to get her justice.
[somber music continues]
[birds singing]
[Sayuri] Through my experience and through all that I've witnessed
with other people who are defenders of human rights,
in the end, what makes you a mother is the bond, the love.
[laughter]
[indistinct chatter]
Now that Sayuri has passed all the sociological
and psychological evaluations,
and has obtained her certificate of suitability,
today, we'll make the physical placement of the baby girl
so that she can be in her new home with her mother.
[cheering]
If you can sign right here, please…
[Sayuri] I made the decision to adopt a girl
in a country where women are at risk of being victims of femicide,
to varying degrees.
I have a special delivery.
I'm handing her over to her mother.
[Sayuri] Because I thought, "Lucy is already here."
It was no longer my decision. She already exists.
Let's see.
[Sayuri] So the next decision that I made was to be a mom and to take care of her.
And anyway, with or without me,
it's something she's going to learn how to deal with,
so it's better if we do it together.
My letter of commitment.
[soft music plays]
"To treat the child with dignity."
"To guarantee her a healthy and violence-free environment."
"Provide her with healthy, nutritious food appropriate for her age."
I decided, and I think she also decided
that I would be her mom.
And now the two of us are together.
And that's good for us. It makes us strong, and it makes us happy.
I see that you're eating.
[Brenda] Oh, the donuts!
[Sayuri] And the joy that we feel is not only mine,
but is shared with everyone here that I work with.
Oh, her inflatable patrol car, courtesy of the commander.
We work in a stressful environment. When we say 24/7, we mean it.
[siren wails]
[tense music plays]
[Gustavo] Her friends at the funeral were the key.
When we start our investigation, we state the problem and form a hypothesis.
Well, he was the last person who was with her, he and his partner,
the last ones who were at his home,
so logically, that's where we have to start investigating.
We went to the restaurant, and they gave us the video.
[inaudible conversation]
[Gustavo] We saw that when they left, they were a little drunk.
[tense music continues]
[Gustavo] We saw the route they took to his place.
We talked to the manager, and we told her in legal terms
that we needed the CCTV footage.
We brought a warrant and everything,
and told her that if she refused, we would not leave.
They gave us access without hesitation.
1. SITE PROTECTION
[Rodolfo] And we observed that the SUV arrives
at the entrance of the parking lot.
It parks, and all the people who were in there get out.
[female witness] Vanessa, Rautel,
the other lady they were with, and Rautel's brother got out.
You can see them all getting out.
[Rodolfo] Afterwards, minutes later, we see these people leaving.
Of course, we were able to confirm that the only people remaining inside
were the victim, Rautel, and Miss Vanessa.
[female witness] I texted Vanessa,
and she told me, "She took a cab and left. I think it was an Uber."
I said, "Do you know who ordered it for her?"
Because she didn't use Uber.
So she says to me, "No, I really didn't notice."
"But all I know is that she left."
[Rodolfo] We kept checking to see if she had left
and how she had gotten to Morelos, because we still didn't know.
We had been at it about ten or twelve hours, and we saw nothing.
It's one of those times when you start getting tired and you think,
"Did I miss her? Did she leave? What happened?" Right?
And then at approximately 11:00 a.m.,
we see that Rautel comes out carrying the victim over his shoulder.
[tense music plays]
[car door closes]
[Rodolfo] We saw him put her in the vehicle they came in.
[Gustavo] Yeah.
[engine starts]
[Rodolfo] We expected them to take her out during the early morning. Remember?
-[Gustavo] Of course. -[Rodolfo] Not in broad daylight.
[Gustavo] Later, using phone records,
we verified the route he took and where he dumped her.
[Rodolfo] Which matched exactly with the CCTV cameras
when we saw him leave.
Then the cell phone records confirmed
that he was the one who we saw leaving the scene.
[Sayuri] They go to Morelos and that's where they dump the body,
leaving it exposed and abandoned, and that's where it was found.
[tense music continues]
ARIADNA WAS A VICTIM OF FEMICIDE
CDMX ATTORNEY'S OFFICE CALLED FOR NOT REVICTIMIZING THE FAMILY
She left on her own.
[reporter] You didn't see what happened after she left your apartment?
No.
After seeing all this in the news, he fled, just like his girlfriend.
Then the search was carried out in the apartment.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL RECORD SEARCH WARRANT
[Héctor] Since we had already determined the cause of death,
which was multiple traumatic injuries,
next we would look for blood, since there were clear indications of violence.
FORENSIC SERVICES CONDUCT ANALYSIS
We applied a little luminol, and there was like a small rug.
Here, I have the photo.
And I remember that the spot where the luminol showed the brightest
was in one of the rooms, on the door knob, specifically.
We found some sheets that had some bloodstains on them,
and that obviously confirmed to us
that they were linked to Ariadna's femicide.
We concluded the search of the apartment, and gathered all the evidence we had,
leaving us with no doubt that the events had occurred here in this building.
The cameras confirmed that once she went into the building with them,
she never came out again until he carried her out.
[distant indistinct chatter]
FEMICIDE BY STABBING - BEATING - GUNSHOT
[Sayuri] They gave her a brutal beating, and that's what ended her life,
which also shows that in Morelos they had jumped to the conclusion
that this case was not a femicide.
They had not even conducted any on-site inquiries,
when they did not have all of the information regarding the case,
yet they were already drawing these conclusions.
[woman] Rautel is from Morelos, and so is his family,
so he knew where he could dump Ariadna's body
so that the investigation would remain in Morelos.
We realized it was because he had bribed the authorities there in Morelos.
He is a powerful and wealthy man with bodyguards,
who was escorted by two SUVs.
Even in the place where I used to work,
you would see Rautel
with Johnnie Walker Blue Scotch on the table,
with eight bottles of Don Julio 70,
with the table full of Black Pearls, I mean…
I brought him bills as high as 60,000 pesos.
He was so confident in his connections and his money
that he wasn't worried about carrying Ariadna's body
in broad daylight, knowing that there were cameras recording him.
Because he knew he could buy those cameras,
he could buy people off, and nothing would happen to him.
[melancholic music plays]
[female witness] We went to Morelos because we had to give our statements
as to who Ari had been with and everything.
We got there, and the officer told me,
"If you don't leave your cell phone here, you're going to have problems,
because if I want to, I can arrest you right now."
I said, "But I'm not doing anything."
He said, "I'm warning you, and I'm telling you now,
Rautel is already here, just so you know."
I walked out and told the others, "Let's go."
"Why?" "Let's go."
And while I'm telling them to leave,
one of the officers runs over and locks us in,
locks the padlock on the door,
and the other one grabs the gun.
[tense music plays]
[Sayuri] For me, working inside the state
has meant getting to know the inner workings
of institutionalized violence.
One of my colleagues once said to me,
"Sayuri, the system is designed to ensure we never get justice."
That's why there is impunity despite everything.
And so, what that means
is that we have to build everything from the ground up.
-[baby whimpers] -This is Mommy's office.
It's Mommy's office.
And… through all of this,
there are so many women,
mothers of the victims,
who have been able to see beyond all of the things that we still need to do.
Well, I think that they are the ones who always give us a break,
and they tell us that we can still do a little more.
Welcome, everyone, to this space
where we can support you here with joy and sorrow.
Thank you very much for being here today.
Always, always, always take advantage of this space
to tell us something that might be very urgent,
anything that is worrying you about your cases, okay?
Otherwise, what is the point of our meeting here?
I mean, we need to know.
We want to know how your cases are progressing.
My daughter had two jobs,
but since she couldn't get custody,
there's no pension for my grandchildren.
The judges revictimize us on this issue of reparation of damages.
They even tell us that what we're looking for is like, uh…
Like a reward or something, you know? Some kind of monetary gain.
What happens after a sentence?
Especially when we already have sentences, several sentences, right? Then what?
At the end of last year, I believe,
they came and closed the Prosecutor's Office.
That wasn't about the investigations.
It was about reparation of damages. And it's not a complaint.
That day, I mean, we were very surprised,
and we were wondering, "What happened?"
We realized that, of course,
since sentences have already been handed down,
we're already making progress.
During those processes, adequate attention is needed,
so we are already proposing other things, right?
While we're on the subject, I want to say that I do know how to claim my rights.
But I also want to express my gratitude
for the work and the support that has been provided here, okay?
Here, I'm not just a case number.
Here, I'm not just case 291. I'm Yeritza.
And the fact that you know each of our individual cases
makes us feel more dignified
within the limits of what can be expected in a process such as this.
Well, it somehow brings me comfort just to know that other families
won't have to go through all of those procedures that we did.
And yet the threat is always there
because, in the end, public officials will come and go.
And ultimately, we have no idea
whether they will be able to deliver justice for us or not.
But what we do know is that we're already here.
Baby.
Who's that? It's Lucy.
-[elevator dings] -How are you?
We had some very challenging months.
-The police called me yesterday. -[Sayuri] Oh, they did?
[phone rings]
[Ernestina] Early this morning, detectives from the Investigative Police division
executed an arrest warrant for Vanessa N.
[siren wails]
[Gustavo] She was arrested in Ecatepec, transferred to Mexico City,
and then she was taken to Santa Martha Prison.
[distant sirens wailing]
[Gustavo] And then, a few days later, at four in the morning,
I was asleep at home when a commander from Monterrey called me.
He says, "Commander Casillas, guess what? We have a person here named Rautel."
I said, "No way, I have a warrant for his arrest."
He says, "Yes, he came to turn himself in."
I talked to my director. They immediately got me a flight to Monterrey.
I flew to Monterrey.
When he saw me, he was really surprised, and he said, "What are you doing here?"
And I said, "I gave you a chance to tell me the truth back in Mexico City,
and you didn't want to, and look, here are the results."
"You know we already apprehended your girlfriend in the city,
and that's why you ran."
So he was surprised to see me,
and for me, it was exciting because here, he was making fun of me.
Here's where he said to me, "No, I'm not gonna tell you anything."
And he told me to get lost, right?
And when I saw him there, I said, "I'm here for you now. Now it's my turn."
[distant sirens wailing]
Our commander returned with Rautel later on a flight from Monterrey.
And he shared some of their conversations with us.
Our people also refused bribery propositions.
"I'll give you six million," he said. I said, "No way."
I asked, "How much did you give over there?" "Five."
I said, "Fuck, all for nothing, asshole." [chuckles]
He said, "Get me off the plane and find someone who looks like me."
I mean…
So what was revealed to us during the course of the investigation?
That… the perpetrator
had a relationship with authorities in Morelos.
Obviously, all of this was communicated at the time to the head of government,
Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum.
[Sheinbaum] If the General Prosecutor's Office of Justice in Mexico City
had not intervened, this femicide would have gone unpunished.
And the question is, how is it possible
that there is a prosecutor who covers this up?
Deliberately, in my opinion.
I can tell you, with great respect for the head of government,
for the Mexico City prosecutor,
that it is impossible for us to cover up for anyone.
We worked with what we had.
And that was reflected in the autopsy report
that we consider to be very well done.
[tense music plays]
-[cameras clicking] -[indistinct chatter]
[Ernestina] There were so many illegal, outrageous things
that happened around that case.
They violated the human rights of the families,
and of Ariadna herself, didn't they?
And we felt that the actions of the Morelos prosecutor
could not go unpunished either.
We made all of our arguments available to the judges.
And the judges agreed with us.
They gave us an arrest warrant.
MEN'S PREEMPTIVE DETENTION CENTER
[siren wails]
[Uriel] Can you show it to me, and I'll go with you?
This is an arrest warrant for Uriel Carmona Gándara.
[Uriel] Come in, partner. You know me, right?
[officer] I do. We're colleagues.
[Uriel] This could happen to anyone, right?
-I'm turning myself in voluntarily. -You're live.
The arresting authorities have committed to not breaking into my home.
-[sirens wailing] -[indistinct chatter]
And we also thought it was a very powerful message for the country,
that there will be penalties.
URIEL CARMONA IS ARRESTED
[reporter 1] What's going on? Where is the constitutional immunity?
Where are the guarantees? The constitution is being violated.
-What's your opinion? -[reporter 2] Honestly, yes, Pepe.
[reporter 3] It questions all other autonomous prosecutors in the country
who might be in the same situation.
I was harshly criticized by some prosecutors. Yes.
It is a risk. Yes, it's a risk.
You even risk your political career.
[bell rings loudly]
[presiding officer] The session is called to order.
The next item on the agenda
is the discussion and, if applicable,
approval of the proposal for the ratification
of citizen Ernestina Godoy Ramos
as head of the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City.
If they are really not afraid of voting, let them vote.
Let them use their finger to show Ernestina Godoy
if they'll ratify her or not.
[voting machine chimes]
[woman] Is there any member who has not yet cast their vote?
[voting machine chiming]
ATTENDANCE LIST
[woman] The open voting system is now officially closed.
Madam President, the result of the vote is as follows.
41 votes in favor, 25 votes against, zero abstentions.
[cheering]
[reporter 1] After two hours of debate and an intense confrontation
between Morena and the opposition,
Godoy is rejected for four more years in the Prosecutor's Office.
[reporter 2] It turns out that Congress must choose a new prosecutor
for a four-year term with the option of one more term,
something Ernestina Godoy didn't achieve.
[phones ringing]
[Sayuri] On the day that prosecutor Ernestina Godoy left,
she told me, "Sayuri, be careful of everyone."
"Everyone."
Because I was being left alone. That's what she said to me.
And she was right.
[car horn toots]
[Sayuri] They appointed the wife of the Morelos prosecutor as magistrate.
The Congress of Morelos appointed the ten new magistrates
of the Superior Court of Justice of the State of Morelos.
[man] Okay, I get it.
[Sayuri] Among them is the wife of the Morelos prosecutor.
-Isn't that a conflict of interest? -[Sayuri] The privilege.
Yes, but… they don't care.
[reporter] At 9:48, Uriel Carmona, prosecutor for Morelos,
was released through the main gate
of the Altiplano Prison in the State of Mexico.
This happened yesterday.
His lawyers reported that the high court ordered his immediate release.
[reporter 2] In the President's office, they weren't happy with this release.
[lawyer] In a trial, there's always a winner and there's always a loser.
[Ernestina] No, it's not a defeat.
This is not over. It's not over, okay?
I don't think we can say,
"He's free, and these crimes are going to go unpunished."
I don't know. I don't think so.
I mean, there can be dire or negative consequences
for what you're doing because you're doing it in a framework
where there is corruption and people who are malicious.
Of course, I was expecting a different outcome. You know?
But… but in the end, each of these battles is important.
[melancholic music plays]
[Sarah] I believe that, as they say, fear has to change sides.
And if we don't speak up for the people who are no longer here,
then they will never be heard.
[demonstrators chanting]
[Nat] Rautel and Vanessa are in jail,
but Uriel and the members of the Prosecutor's Office
who lied for him are still at large.
URIEL CARMONA CORRUPT - ACCOMPLICE OF THE CRIMINAL
MURDERER - LIAR - ACCOMPLICE
[Sarah] They're colluding.
It's not the first time they've done something like this.
I mean, just because this came to light,
I got emails and messages from girls who told me,
"The same thing happened to my mom, the same thing happened to my friend."
"But out of fear, I never spoke up. I didn't do anything."
Because it is scary. I moved because Rautel knows everything about me.
HERE FOR ARIADNA BECAUSE VANESSA FLORES KILLED HER
ARI, SISTER HERE IS YOUR PACK!!
[Valeria] For us, it's very important that the case remains alive,
that it's not forgotten like many other femicides have been forgotten.
Usually, when a relative or a friend dies, you mourn for them,
you go through all of that, you cry, and you accept it.
But for us, Ariadna was taken from us.
I was personally devastated for a whole day.
And the next day, I had to go out and scream.
I had to go out and fight.
We won't be able to mourn until we get justice.
[melancholic music continues]
[birds singing]
[Sarah] These were her favorite flowers.
-[Valeria] And she was always posting. -[Sarah] That she wanted her…
[Valeria] She was like, "Who will bring me sunflowers?"
I remember that she posted a meme
that someone should get a tattoo of her face,
like those who have Belinda's face tattooed or something.
-[Valeria] Yeah! -And now we're branded like cattle.
-I have her name on my knee. -[Nat] On your knee, right?
[Sarah] And Nat has her name that I tattooed on her.
She was crying, but I don't know if she was crying for Ari.
-Or because I was the one doing it. -[Nat] I don't know.
-I was crying horribly. -[Valeria] She had mixed emotions.
[Sarah] Ari always wanted all her friends to get along.
I think she even wanted to throw a huge party for 500 people.
I remember when I took her on my motorcycle.
She was so happy.
She said to me, "Take a picture of me, take a picture of me."
[Valeria] I remember she wanted to get false eyelashes, right?
I'll never forget when she came back from getting them done
with these huge eyelashes.
She was like, "Oh no, girl! I look like a Baby Jesus doll!"
[melancholic music continues]
[Sarah] And I believe the best way to honor her is to keep that going,
I mean, to have a little bit of her in us.
-[Nat] Exactly. -You're right, girl.
[Nat] To have a little bit of her in us.
[somber music plays]
[music intensifies]
[indistinct chatter]
[woman] These processes we go through,
I mean, we all know that they can take years and years.
When I come to the Prosecutor's Office or go to the prison,
I don't even look at the subway stops anymore.
My head already knows when to get off.
And there are those times when we feel that justice will never be served,
and that our lives will be just that,
going around and around,
and fighting and defending ourselves all the time.
[somber music plays]
Sayuri often told me that the best therapy is justice.
And I was always like, "Yes, Sayuri, but what's the point?"
And when I heard those words, they stayed with me,
"Mr. Alberto, you will remain in custody."
It was beautiful.
And I felt like something that had been broken in me,
and I didn't even know what it was,
it came back together.
[somber music continues]
[Victoria] I thought waking up 80 times a night was normal,
and everyone slept like that.
And ever since I found out that he's in prison,
I've slept through the night this whole week.
And for me, that's something surprising
and that I didn't even know it could be possible.
Being able to sleep all the way through the night
without waking up is a wonderful thing.
And yes, Sayuri is right, the best therapy is justice.
It can take time to arrive, but it does,
and by persevering, and by continuing and continuing and continuing,
it did heal something.
[applause]
I thought it was also important
to see you here today
because…
I also wanted to share with you all some decisions we've made.
I received an invitation from the Women's Secretariat
to become a part of their team,
to participate in the implementation of gender-specialized prosecuting offices
in all states.
And I wanted to share with you that I accepted the invitation.
I am concerned, I am moved by the cases that we handle.
And I am not here for the position, but for the cause.
And my cause, yes, is women and girls.
I'd like to know if you're leaving because of the pressure,
because we can help you cope with that pressure.
I mean, since we have faced our aggressors for years,
since we have defended our lives, and the lives of other women,
then we can also face this.
We all know perfectly well that this is also the trade-off
to what we have fought for.
Because we're not stupid. We recognize it.
But we would really like to know what led you to make your…
-[woman] Your decision. -Yes, to make your decision.
If that's the case, we can handle it too.
We do it in the streets. We do it in the protests.
We do it in the prisons, so we can do it here too.
Yes, Say, you have to understand that you are not alone,
that you have us to support you.
[Yeritza] Because for us, this is also…
Even this news is frightening to us.
What's going to happen to us, to our cases?
All the hard work we've put in,
not only to create this space,
but also working to integrate our processes,
to keep pushing forward for these spaces.
Well, where do we stand?
[emotional music plays]
[Sayuri] I know you're scared, Yeri.
So am I.
And I may be wrong.
As I could have been wrong five years ago, right?
I also feel… that it is time for me to move on.
Here so they can see you.
We have to fight for this prosecutor's office.
And sometimes inertia is very strong.
And there is a tendency to go back to the way things were.
We can't let go of it. I agree with that.
But we have to do it collectively.
All of us.
And I'm also worried about my daughter.
She's a year and a half old,
and by the time I get home, she's already asleep.
And sometimes I only see her in the morning.
And I want to watch her grow up.
[dogs barking]
[Sayuri] Well, I know that the world that we desire doesn't exist yet.
And that…
And that it's still going to take some time to build.
One of my decisions, for example, now,
is to finish up in the Prosecutor's Office and to move on to something else,
to move forward even through the fear.
The worst that can happen
is that you don't do well and you fall down.
But we have to keep trying,
because otherwise, nothing will ever get done.
[woman] Well, comrades,
we are here in support of Sayuri Herrera Román.
Our prosecutor! Come out, prosecutor!
Our prosecutor, our feminist comrade!
We are here to tell Sayuri Herrera Román
that she does represent us, that we love her,
and that we are standing with her.
[applause]
[Sayuri] As long as there is respect
and consideration shown towards all of the women that I have worked with,
for me, that is the compass guiding me
along this path where everything we are doing
is still necessary and right.
SAYURI DOES REPRESENT US
[Sayuri] And for me, that is the compass
that shows that we can still do our jobs within the system
and within the state.
[applause, cheering]
Well, good evening to all of you,
to each and every one of you,
without exception,
and to those who are with us up in heaven, good evening.
We have built so much based on love.
And our hopes are not limited…
to just one institution.
Life is what is happening outside, right? So let's go out.
[inaudible]
[Sayuri] I thought about the future.
I really connected with a song that Silvio Rodríguez recently released.
And in it, he says, "Life is in the past, but there's so much more to come."
[soft music plays]
SAYURI IS JUSTICE
[Sayuri] I'd like to feel that my daughter is safe in this world,
and that she can be happy
without anything bad ever happening to her.
To me, that's justice.
[distant dogs barking]
["Más porvenir" by Silvio Rodríguez plays]
[Lucy shouts excitedly]
[Silvio Rodríguez sings in Spanish]
[song ends]
[somber music plays]
[music ends] plays]