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- On September 26, 2014, a group of more than 100 students

from the teachers school in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero Mexico,

were followed by local police

later in the nearby city of Agarwal,

they were viciously attacked.

(sorrowful music)

(orchestral music)

(suspenseful music)

In the aftermath of the attack,

it was confirmed 6 students were killed, 25 wounded

and 43 students were forcibly disappeared

and would never be seen again.

(suspenseful music)

Only two of the disappeared students have been proven dead

by international forensic teams.

In February, 2015, British parliamentarian, Jeremy Corbyn,

and the campaign group Justice Mexico Now

with the support of other activist groups held

an open conference in the houses of parliament London

to discuss human rights in Mexico and in particular,

the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa.

The debate would also raise issues surrounding Mexico's

political and economic system as a whole.

Marissa Polin is an artist and activist living in London,

and just one of the founding members of Justice Mexico Now,

a UK base activist group.

She's one of many Mexicans fighting for justice

and democracy in Mexico.

- Jeremy is the parliamentarian who has started the motion

to support the students and already 44 parliamentarians

have signed it. Yes.

So he's our guy. Yes.

- Great.

- And he has been to Mexico. He knows about Mexico,

and he's a guy who convinced

- He was a guy that came out, this is his motion.

- Yes. It is his motion.

It's the four, six nine or something like that. Yeah.

- But they're already 44 who have signed,

so it's quite good.

- Great.

- Yeah.

The Mexican government is not too happy about it,

because he's a parliamentarian.

Of course they have to talk with him.

- [Narrator] In a few weeks time, Justice Mexico Now,

will demonstrate in front of Downing Street to protest

at the reception, offered to the president of Mexico.

In the lead up to the president of Mexico's visit,

Jeremy Corbyn speaks in support of campaign groups,

Justice Mexico Now, and Liberation in the House of Commons.

- This meeting tonight is jointly organised

by Liberation and Justice Mexico Now.

Liberation is an old stamping, long standing

human rights organisation founded in 1955.

- How many of your parents or family friends

have said, don't do what I'm doing, don't.

- My family never tell me not to,

but they don't talk about it.

- [Female Respondent] They don't talk about it.

Nobody talks about it. - They don't tell me not to,

they'll prescribe what I can and can't say,

but they certainly, don't to talk about it themselves.

- [Female respondent] They complain about

the situation in Mexico, but don't want to talk about it.

It's good cause they are there.

- Well lets talk to Dr. Polin about it.

- In Mexico, you talk about human rights,

Some people don't even know what that is

or they say yeah, it's type of thing on paper,

but that doesn't exist.

So what I think is that people from below

has to organise come to us, can demand

and fight for their rights.

(protestor shouting)

(crowd chanting)

The first news I heard was about 53.

And that was just one day after.

- We always demanded him to keep studying hard

because of the hardships that being a peasant entails.

(sorrowful music)

- On that night, the students were gathering money

and also some buses to go to Mexico city.

And on the 2nd of October, it's a very important date

in the social movements.

Because in 1968, there was

a massive killing of students in Mexico city.

And these students were gathering funds to go

to that demonstration in Mexico city.

And that's when they were attacked.

- [Narrator] The students commandeered several buses

to travel to Mexico city to commemorate

the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre.

(students screaming)

(suspenseful music)

(foreign language spoken)

- Evidence suggests during the journey,

they were followed by local police

who later intercepted them.

They were then attacked and shot at

43 of these students have never been seen again.

According to the Mexican government,

they were handed over to a local drug cartel,

murdered and then burned in a garbage dump.

Reports link federal police forces to the case,

stating that military personnel in the area

deliberately omitted helping the students

others suggest the direct involvement of the Mexican army

in the kidnapping of the students.

The following footage was filmed that night

at the scene of the attack

by one of the remaining students on their mobile phone.

(foreign language spoken)

(gun shot fired)

(foreign language spoken)

(gun shot fired)

(foreign language spoken)

(gun shot fired)

(foreign language spoken)

- We were mourning, we're still up to now

because there is no proof they're dead.

We still say that they are disappeared.

- Omar Garcia, survivor and speaker of Ayotzinapa students,

and Eleucadio Ortega, the father of missing student,

Mauricio Ortega Valerio have been travelling around

the world building international support

to raise awareness of this student's plight.

(crowd chanting)

- That's how it all started. Yeah.

I think, we were also shocked, right.

Before that, when you heard of people vanishing

or disappearing or dying, it sort of felt like

this is going to sound terrible,

but it sort of felt like a lot of these people were somewhat

connected to maybe drug families or cartels or something.

And I think where we're really woke us up

and it shook us, was with the 43.

When you realise, wait a second, it's not like that.

I should have known that myself,

one of my family members was murdered.

But it shook us to realise they're killing students.

They're killing people in rural areas who are studying

to become teachers to stay in rural areas.

- And I have to say also at that moment, I still had hope.

They've been disappeared for three, four days,

maybe they're keeping them somewhere, somehow.

But it was so sad.

(foreign language spoken)

- And the way they've done it

is just by trying to fool everyone.

On the 6th of October, they tried to hand us over

with the bodies they found in the mass graves.

- At the beginning, the first weeks,

they tried to say, yeah, well we found some mass graves

and probably the students are there.

So that's it.

And people said, no. You cannot say, that's it.

You have to prove that the bodies found

are the bodies of the students.

And they couldn't do that because they had so much attention

on them that they had to perform DNA tests,

and they realised that none of the bodies found

in those mass graves where of the students.

So suddenly they had not only the problem

of the disappearance of the students,

but also these mass graves

that they started to find in Guerrero.

- According to medical records, the teeth remains

that was found in that dumpster

doesn't match any of our cross myths.

(foreign language spoken)

And those medical records also prove

that none of our classmates had chicken bones

or dog bones or cow bones in them.

- The way in which it was

so in your face, it was almost like the powers

at be were saying, you're powerless.

And this is how we are gonna show you are powerless.

And that was, I think that was really what shook us,

and woke us up to really start caring, not caring,

but talking about the issue

and hoping to do something about it.

- I think the youngest was 17 years old.

One of them had just become a father at 21 or 22.

(foreign language spoken)

(boys laugh)

- The day after, you realise how bad was the situation,

because the day after the disappearance,

one of them appeared

without his face and eyes on the street.

They just drop it there, as a signal.

So if they dare to kill someone,

take off his face and haul out his eyes.

- The Mexican government tried to say that

it was only local police.

And they gave the students to the organised crime.

So we don't have anything to do with that.

It was not the Mexican state.

It was just the local gang of police

that didn't know what they were doing,

or that were corrupted,

but we don't have anything to do with that.

(gentle music)

That's what they have done in many other cases,

they say, no, it's not our responsibility.

It was only one policeman or two military officials,

and the thing is that under international laws,

even if it's only one police member

that disappeared one person, the state is responsible

because that police member is a member of the state,

it's a representative of the state.

So they try to wash off their hands, but they can't.

- [Female interpretor] And so they insisted

on getting to us the bodies

that they had discovered

in these clandestine graves.

(foreign language spoken)

- [Interpreter] And so, as parents,

we were terribly worried about our kids.

- So you have mass graves in a number of States in Mexico,

but people didn't know about that.

And after I do see that people realise that

and realise that, oh! So there are mass graves.

And they started to put attention on problems that were

already there, but they were not paying attention to them.

And what we have to understand is that,

the Mexican government and the organised crime

are not two different things. It's the same thing.

- I couldn't understand that Mexicans like me,

were killing Mexicans like me

in the most violent and vicious, just atrocities.

Things that I never thought they would exist,

they weren't doing that.

It was our brothers.

- [Female interpreter] When we got there,

the group of Argentine investigators,

started taking blood samples from us.

(foreign language spoken)

The group of Argentine research and investigators

ran some tests and they confirmed

that those bodies were not our children.

(protestors chanting 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

- But it's not the first time,

there was a boss disappeared with everybody,

and then later they appear all this hundred eight.

I don't know exactly how many people, it's just like,

we cannot keep track of the amount

of disappeared and killed people.

The disappeared form the official site number

is like 20 something thousand people disappeared

in Mexico the last years.

(protesters chanting)

(sorrowful music)

I mean, even if they would stop now killing anyone else,

if the army will leave the cities and the police

will become really good, there's still

all these families without one member.

- Jeremy Corbyn a much more intelligent literate man than I,

yesterday said trade should be encouraged,

but never at the expense of human rights.

(dramatic music)

(sorrowful music)

(protesters chanting, 14)

- I think since the war on drugs started,

that was with Calderon.

- [Interviewer] Which was?

- It's already nine years.

- [ Interviewer] 150,000 people disappeared,

- More

- [Interviewer] Disappeared.

- No killed.

- [Interviewer] Killed.

- Killed, assassinated, hanged.

- [Interviewer] Since the war on drugs began.

- 88 journalists killed.

15 only the last three years in the state of Vera Cruz

with governor Javier Duarte.

These numbers, how do you manage this?

- The pseudo president that doesn't want

to engage with his people.

The pseudo president that tries

to make the already disappeared disappear.

- It's not his fault. It's years of problems,

but he's doing nothing to help.

And since he is in power, there have been far more killings.

(suspenseful music)

And he never talks about that.

It took him weeks to talk a little bit

about the 43 disappeared students.

It was like an absent power.

I cannot imagine a real leader of a European country,

not acknowledging, not 43 students, one student disappeared.

I cannot imagine, disappeared by the police.

I cannot imagine not acknowledging.

- It's gotten worse.

And every time that I hear about another person dying

in Mexico and the impunity that follows,

it just reminds me of my cousin

and the fact that he's no longer here.

And the person or the people who murdered him

have never been caught.

- [Narrator] John Ackerman, an expert in corruption,

electoral transparency, accountability,

and citizen participation, arrives in London.

Invited by Justice Mexico Now

to speak with Amnesty International UK and Jeremy Corbyn.

- [Jeremy] Case of 43 students is just

the tip of the iceberg.

An indication of a broader crisis in the rule of law.

- I feel like I never believed that he was dead.

(suspenseful music)

- We can't let the 43 students be forgotten on the one hand,

on the other hand, it's not just them, the 43,

it's hundreds of thousands more that have disappeared

that have been killed.

(indistinct)

(suspenseful music)

- He's tried to make us all forget

about the 43 and the 20,000 other disappeared,

and the hundreds of thousands dead

and all of these people that are buried underneath our feet

in Mexico that we don't even know about yet.

- The moment that for me changed everything

also because I was not in Mexico, I read it on the news

and I didn't know how to confirm this.

It was reading on the human heads that were thrown

on the dancing floor of a nightclub in Mexico.

And I couldn't understand that.

That was when I started painting about it.

I painted for about five, six years

about the organised crime.

In 2010, when the independence

on the revolution celebrations where I have a Mexican flag

and in the middle of where the Eagles should be,

I have like a gangster, like a strong man with a gun

and with drinks and the gold.

And I thought this is going to be the symbol.

This is part of the nation now.

The organised crime. And the drug cartels

are part of the nation.

You don't know anymore who's good and who's bad.

What was it? What was the post you did?

Was it 1400 beheaded in Mexico? In how many years?

1700? The post for today, 1700 or 1400?

- [Respondent] 1700. In Mexico in the last seven years.

- It's happening all the time. It's not an isolated case.

- First, I don't have proof of most of things I say now,

but it's just like, no one has proof.

No one has proof of anything.

No one can be punished of anything. 43 people disappeared.

How can you disappear 43 persons?

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] The president's arrival in London is eminent

and the groups organise a conference to discuss

the current state of Mexico on the eve of his visit.

John Ackerman and Jeremy Corbyn are also in attendance.

- I went to Mexico for a few days

on the way back and I was astonished.

And many of you I'm sure would share this view

of the see change in public opinion,

the see change in attitudes.

The way that students were not prepared to be ignored.

We're not prepared to be pushed aside

because they were standing up for the 43

who have disappeared and all the others

that disappeared since then.

And so if nothing else, the visit of the president

to Britain tomorrow and Wednesday has provoked this meeting,

has provoked a huge meeting

we were having parliament last week,

has provoked another seminar itself later this week

Has provoked a demonstration tomorrow,

and has provoked some understanding in the British media

that when you do trade with people,

you're doing trade with people that you believe

to be of good faith and good nature.

- Where are his advisors?

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

I completely agree that his advisors are just inept.

But what's most likely is his advisors aren't people

who are professional politicians.

They're people who, were the son of such and such,

they shook somebody's hand and eventually ended up

in the position of being the presidential advisor.

- They don't understand a thing.

Having no idea about how politics work.

(suspenseful music)

- The visit of the president is part of this Mexico UK year.

And I'm pretty sure that both the governments of Mexico

and the UK would rather that we were talking

about privatisation of the oil industry.

We're talking about construction contracts.

We're talking about trade deals, and we're talking

about privatisation of public services in Mexico.

I want the visit to concentrate on human rights.

I think trade should be linked

to anti-poverty strategies and to human rights.

Trade isn't a box to be put over here

and human rights to be put in a box over here.

The two things ought to be linked, and they could be linked.

- [Narrator] Mexican activist groups

and concerned citizens come together

to protest outside Downing street against

the UK state visit of Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto.

- We're trying now to deliver the letter to Calderon.

- [Producer] What letter is that?

- It's a letter we wrote from Mexican groups

around the United kingdom.

They arranged that we were going to be received.

I mean, not Calderon personally,

but someone would receive the letter,

but now they don't know anything about it.

- [Producer] What's contained in the letter?

- The letter is making him aware of all the things

that had been happening in Mexico.

All the lack of civil rights.

- [Producer] You don't think he's already aware?

- Hm?

- [Producer] You don't think he's already aware?

- Apparently not, otherwise they wouldn't welcome him

and make all kinds of commercial treaty with him.

It's our duty to make him aware. To be sure he's aware.

And make sure all the commercial contacts they also know.

Only together we can achieve something.

So in the visit too, I think the support

that Amnesty International UK has been giving us.

Or John Ackerman, in the same sense,

also, Jeremy Corbyn is incredible.

It's makes us feel stronger. And it feeds itself.

When we do like the demonstration we did in Downing street,

in Mexico they know about it.

That makes him feel that there is more sense

to what's happening there.

And for us to know it makes sense.

It's just very important because for so many people

in Mexico there is just no voice.

No voice of what's been happening.

How can people here imagine all these families

where one or more members of the families

have been disappeared or killed?

How would you feel if it's been five years, or three years

or two years, and you don't know anything

about one of your relatives?

(suspenseful music)

- A British accented, Mexican guy doing a video

where he's decapitating a Mexican.

You don't have a British accented hostage

being decapitated in Mexico you get that?

(mariachi music)

- [Producer] Jeremy Corbin, do you think

that he's interventions are really...

- Yeah. He doesn't come as a person

who changes ideas from one day to another.

He supports fairness and justice.

As long as he sees injustice, either in Mexico

or another country, i think he will keep on doing it.

And he knows he has firsthand information

about what's happening in Mexico.

And that's, if more people in England who have a voice

would know exactly what's happening and then we'll spread.

And then only that way, someone like Pena Nieto

wouldn't come here with saying like everything is okay

and I'm selling you the oil and that's it.

- I have a very strong theory

on why The Guardian didn't cover it.

And it was nothing to do with them, with the conspiracy.

- They complained before.

- Yeah. It was just the fact that they don't think

it's interesting to their readership. Yeah.

And it's true. If you look at what the British public

are talking about or what the articles that they share

on social media, et cetera, it's all Middle East,

and maybe a little bit of Africa during Ebola,

but not as much as Middle East.

Mexico doesn't really register of that.

- [ Female Respondent] It's not tragic enough.

- South America much less.

- No, it's not about whether there's tragic enough.

If you put the right spin on it is tragic enough.

It's just about whether it's of interest.

Right now, British interests are in the Middle East.

Breely, that's what British troops are being sent.

The British troops suddenly being sent Mexico,

then you'd see a lot of coverage about themselves.

- [Female Respondent] Oh then we will be very worried.

- But yeah that's what I'm saying.

Everything about the state visit was more

for the Mexican public than it was for the British public.

- [Respondent] Yeah.

- British public could not have cared less

about Mexico's presidents coming.

- [Producer] If you could get an audience with Pena Nieto,

what would you say to him right now.

- Well, someone told him already,

and I think it was the poet, Cecelia.

He told him you have no heart.

And that's what I feel about him.

That he has no heart.

To allow things that are happening, even if maybe as we,

many of us think that he has his hands already tied

because of all the links he did before getting into power.

And now it shows no heart.

And I think he even answered said,

"how can you say I have no heart?".

But I still think he has no heart.

(suspenseful music)

- Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries

in the entire world for journalists,

for human rights activists, for social movements in general.

And there's a combination between exclusion

from the mainstream media.

The mainstream media is controlled by two corporations,

two television corporations.

And the other hand, anybody who speaks up

is immediately threatened and repressed.

I myself, have received numerous

death threats through social media.

And I'm the lucky one, right?

We have dozens of journalists who have been assassinated,

over the last decade in Mexico, and who are on the run,

who have been repressed and have been forced

to leave their places of reporting.

Mexico is a dangerous place for the freedom of expression

and journalists are at the front line.

And that's one of the central social actors who need support

in order to change the Mexican system

and actually advance towards democracy.

- [Narrator] Five months after John Ackerman

was filmed speaking to us in the House of Commons

just 11 months after the 43 Ayotzinapa students

were forcibly disappeared,

a Proceso Magazine photo journalist, and four women,

including an activist were viciously

attacked in Mexico City.

(gentle music)

- This came very close to home

and for many people in different ways.

So Mexico city was called a safe Haven for journalists

where they would be safe.

It's not only a city where more than 20 million people live,

but it is the centre of economic

and political power in Mexico.

And normally drug dealers and other criminal organisations,

including politicians make like a pact

that the city is safe,

particularly certain areas of the city.

- And we obviously need to get alarmed especially

when it's a freedom of expression being threatened.

Allegedly and most definitely it was ordered

by a state governor in Veracruz, Duarte.

From what we can see from the analysis

that the media has made and the various threats

that this journalist and the activist had suffered.

But taking that out of context,

the fact that they were journalists,

Mexico city isn't a safe place either.

(dramatic music)

So we should be shocked but we shouldn't be shocked

at the fact that, that happens all the time.

But we need to be shocked if you know what I mean.

It might sound contradictory, but we need to be shocked

at every single death that happens

and we shouldn't be desensitised about what happens.

- Because it came very close to home.

It happened in a city where it hasn't experienced

the killing of people in daylight.

This happened on a Friday between 2:00PM and 3:00 PM.

Not in the outskirts, not in the periphery,

in the centre of the city.

(suspenseful music)

I think in addition,

learning that women were raped,

that they were tortured.

And then given the teeth of the grass, the shot in the head.

Imagining what kind of people can actually do that.

Seeing that being part of it, inflicting all that pain,

probably listening to them screaming,

or begging for mercy for an hour.

What kind of people can do that?

(suspenseful music)

- We are not going to let you tell us that this was

a robbery or that this was a party

and well, something went bad

and they raped and killed everyone.

That doesn't happen.

We know that these people were threatened in Mexico,

in the state of Veracruz.

And we know that these killings are for political reasons.

- You know, not like, at point you, cause I know you,

but I will point what you're playing the percent

is that in the lowest part of the chain of corruption,

you are in there protecting, trying to save all these,

and I'm gonna say like this, all these mother fuckers,

who are destroying and killing people right now.

Are destroying and killing, communities, entire communities,

in East North by crime organised.

The crime organised is being organised

by the same government.

- I formed this collective, we call it, The Platform

called 'Plataforma Trienta y Nueve'. Platform 39.

(gentle music)

39, because that's the article in our constitution,

which was one of the most progressive constitutions

in the early 20th Century in the world.

And this article says that, unlike, for instance, in the UK,

that the sovereignty resides on the queen, right?

Or in the royal family, the same in France, same in Spain.

In Mexico, the sovereignty resides in the people.

And the people have the right to modify

or change the way they're being governed.

It's a fabulous article.

So we took that article and we decided enough is enough.

We need to change. It's a right. We are the suffering.

- If you look at the Mexican constitution

and many of you here I'm sure read it in far more detail

than I have, you see a document that is very good.

You see a protection of the secretary of state.

You see a protection of the rights of assembly.

You see a legal system that is, to all intents and purposes,

entirely separate from the political system.

And you'll see a political system that doesn't allow

immediate re-election to the same place

in order to protect deputies against being corrupted

and enticed into high office.

The reality of that of course is very different.

- So I think there is one problem,

which is that we probably as a democracy

arrived at the first step.

Only the first step, which is having elections.

Having a political party system, where people

have options to choose from.

The reality is that theory says that,

that's one of seven steps of a real democracy,

and we don't move from there.

In fact, we're going backwards.

- And this is what's happening.

And I say to them, and this is not it.

The country has this terrible human rights record.

And I want you to know that, because probably the image

that you get as a bridge with Mexico

is a beautiful country with amazing beaches,

amazing people, amazing food.

But actually this is what is happening.

- Reports have just come out from the government

saying that compared to 20 years ago,

we have 2 million poor people.

So basically half of the population is in poverty.

2 million, more than 20 or 30 years ago.

So we haven't addressed anything like that,

but we produce millionaires.

Not only Carlos Slim is very often

the number one billionaire in the world.

But we produce through privatisation

through the luck of government regulation.

We produce a lot of very wealthy people.

- I mean, the majority of people have very few rights.

The people in poverty is just millions

and millions of people who are most of them

from indigenous, who Spanish is their second language.

And if you see what kind of schools they have,

how many hours the children have to walk.

- One is the nature of our democracy.

But also I think we have for the last 30 years

with a promise of becoming a first world country,

particularly joining them in North America

in a free trade agreement.

And that was Salinas period.

We were supposed to get rid of poverty

and under development Mexico, and the rest of it.

A lot of policies were implemented.

We had reforms of every aspect of Mexican life.

And the results so far has been disastrous.

- Human rights crisis across the whole region

and the desperation of those people just to try to get

to the USA in order to survive and live illegally

in the USA in order to try and send money home

is an indication of just how serious the economic crisis is,

the poverty crisis is and the human rights crisis

that goes with it.

It cannot be just a national issue.

It is an international issue for a lot of reasons.

- The Mexican government is not a good government

that is fighting the organ, the bad guys,

the organised crime that is the bad guys,

but they are the organised crime.

And the Mexican government is so corrupt.

So the elite, that if they say,

well no it's the organised crime.

They are actually saying it was us.

And when people try to organise and try to think,

try to reveal the truth of what's happening.

They are touching really powerful people.

So these people that are searching for bodies and trying

to find the disappeared are actually not only trying

to find the disappeared, but trying to find the truth

of what's happening and that's something

that the Mexican government doesn't want people to know.

(gentle music)

- So the concentration of wealth is happening in the world,

but in Mexico is very acute.

So we are producing again, I think

there are 20 to 30 families that basically control

everything that happens in Mexico.

And they have all the lobbying power

and they decide basically which laws are approved or not.

And the political class wants to be part of that,

let's say 1% and also very much tied to economic interests.

- And in his year, he's trying to give the appearance

that Mexico is a very nice country they are trying

to protect human rights,

meanwhile all the community start dying.

And all the representation of the government

is spending tonnes of money, tonnes of pounds here,

weeks just a week before, two weeks before

in all this events 2000 pounds in flowers to demonstrate.

(narrator laughs)

(indistinct)

20,000 pounds in flowers just to prove

to the companies of UK, that Mexico is a place to invest.

They are selling our country and they're using

tonnes of money to give that face.

- Lupita, we saw you on the channel,

I don't remember which channel it was,

and I was like in a way it was good,

but all of that mattered to them was that they saw you.

They didn't care, they didn't ask me like,

"Oh, what is that you're doing in which collective are you?"

They didn't care, no.

So in a way it's good that we're reaching,

it still obviously needs a bit of waking up of people.

(protesters chanting 17, 18, 19)

- I think it is important what Mexican people

outside Mexico can do.

I think it's very important.

- The situation, Pena Nieto and all the situation

have really united us Mexicans here.

(dramatic music)

In London, the groups in Manchester, in Sheffield,

we are all so near to each other.

We keep informed.

We become friends and sometimes with difficult moments.

- Talk in a coherent fashion, right?

There's no point in going out to an embassy and shouting

at somebody in Spanish when we live in the UK, right?

The message needs to be clear in a place like this.

It needs to be an English and it needs to be obvious.

Just shouting out Ayotzinapa means nothing.

- I thought just being so far away.

Being safe here is a very big weapon.

We can say whatever we think

and nothing is going to happen to us.

I think that was the biggest weapon

that we have access to social media.

We can keep shouting.

- When I came here, soon after Pena Nieto as we know,

kicked out from the University Panamerican,

and that was when the group Ciento Treinta en Ingles

was born in Mexico city.

And very much right away started popping up

all these different cells in Mexican universities

and also was the one in London.

And we did a lot of things, a lot of demonstration,

but it didn't have that essence that later became

after the disappearance of the 43, it was just automatic.

We saw it, we knew this was impossible.

This was something that was to be, not to be together.

That's when I discovered all the other groups.

- This flag, de luto started to appear

in Mexican streets in Mexico city.

Particularly in the protests after Ayotzinapa.

And I think it's a really important sign that,

the entire country is mourning.

We're mourning the hundreds of people,

hundreds and thousands of people that have been killed.

We're mourning communities that are devastated.

We are mourning or we are missing

many tens of thousand that are disappeared.

(suspenseful music)

- We will not be allowed to hijack the president's agenda.

(suspenseful music)

The red carpet that has been rolled out

for Enrique Pena Nieto in this country is only red

because it is tainted and stained

with the blood of Mexican people.

- (protestors shouts) Yes.

(suspenseful music)

- Gives hope to people who are over there,

and think that Mexico is on its own

and the Mexicans having to fight for themselves.

What they're seeing from us,

even though we're also Mexicans,

what they're seeing from us

is that people in another country care.

People in another country care enough to get angry

and to go out and protest and shout and sing songs,

demonstrate, and everything else.

(protestors chanting 22, 23, 24)

- Am proud of everyone that's here today.

Proud of the demonstration we've heard.

We are never gonna forgive, forget or give up.

We'll take the issue to Geneva.

(protestors cheering)

We'll take the issue the human rights court.

We'll take the issue wherever it can be taken to.

To show that people hear the voice of those that want peace,

want justice, let's look for support

and forever remember the bravery of the 43.

Thank you very much.

(suspenseful music)

- Was there any change or any difference to Mexicans?

What we did, you think there was

any consequence of what we did?

There were enough articles,

so only the alternative media covered those actually.

- [ Female Respondent] Yeah.

- But we are not the only ones.

This is just an example because in Austria,

there are groups, in Madrid there are groups,

in New Zealand there are groups of Mexicans,

and non Mexicans who are united trying

to make a better Mexico.

And even I think for those who are not in touch

with what Mexico is it's just realising

about injustice in other countries.

- Their reality is completely different.

I think now people atleast care.

Now the buyer lens is extremely high.

Like last six months, I have received calls

from Mexican people asking for information

of how to seek political asylum

or humanitarian protection in the UK.

That never happened before.

It's just really sad, but a few Mexican people

call me saying, I'm here, and I don't want to go back

to Mexico because they're gonna kill me.

You wouldn't think that, British people and European people

don't think of Mexico that way.

(suspenseful music)

But they are killing people.

- Immigration is increasing because people from Mexico

are living whether middle class,

whether low class to the U S.

Whether middle class to Europe,

whether high class to Europe.

- Look at the real facts on the ground

of what is happening in Mexico.

2000 police forces in 32 different States,

many of whom never speak to each other,

and don't talk to each other.

Many of whom are deeply corrupt,

very violent and very unpleasant.

(protestors chanting 20, 21, 22, 23)

- Mr. Pena Nieto despite the fact that we made a request

through parliament has refused to come out and face us.

And will continue to do so for the duration of his stay.

(dramatic music)

(gentle music)

(orchestral playing)

(saxophone playing)

- The circumstances are such that at least at the very least

they should be international condemnation

at the level of the United Nations.

As it was with the regime of Saddam Hussein,

as it was with the Taliban,

there are enough circumstances to basically,

and even if you go to South Africa

and how apartheid finished, it was of course Mandela

and key people that were in the forefront

of a movement that said, this is not okay.

Apartheid, this is a system that belongs to another era

and we need to get rid of it.

But it was not until the international community decided

to locate, to make an economic sanction

and break relationships with the state of South Africa

that apartheid collapsed.

The European Union should

stop having commercial relationships.

The US won't do it because not only

we have a North American trade agreement,

which is hurting the poor in all the region,

but mostly benefiting corporations and most are US-based.

But also it's a very complex relationship

because they supply all the weapons, both to the police,

to the military and to the drug dealers.

They consume most of the drugs.

- The heavily financed war on drugs in Colombia, in Mexico,

and all the other countries has been such a disaster

for the human rights of the people within the region.

And has actually benefited those that sell

the arms and the surveillance equipment

that the police and other forces have used

and has resulted tragically in so many deaths.

- I would expect even with decent people

like Obama would say, I think he's trying his best.

Again they have also systemic issues

that limit the capacity to act.

- Establishment of government's powerful interests.

There's lots of talk about North America as a region.

It sounds all nice. What this has led to ,

one would hope that this could lead to,

the expansion of human rights concerns to Mexico,

but the fact behind this legal system to the Mexico system,

but not to the country.

What we're having simultaneously

with the process of entrenched authoritarianism in Mexico,

we've had a release of pressure from United States

towards Mexico in exchange for basically NAS security

and the governments concerns,

everything from oil to anti-terrorism that kind of stuff.

So as long as the Mexican government behaves itself

on the strategic lines set up by Washington,

nothing is demanded from Mexico.

(upbeat music)

- But then unfortunately the people

that are paying attention to these media channels

are the ones that are the usual suspects.

The ones that are usually concerned about what's happening.

- [Male Respondent] Yeah. You're preaching to the converted.

- What she is talking about is what we wanted.

We wanted that to occur. We wanted people that don't care

about what happens in, well don't care about

what really affects Mexico to pay attention

to what's affecting Mexico.

I think people in my circle, I can only speak

about people in my circle when I was there.

They know about situations.

I'm not talking about Mexicans

who live a comfortable and crusty life,

I'm talking about working class Mexicans who live in states,

what you call states here, Councillor States.

(foreign language spoken)

Work very hard and they know about the situation in Mexico,

but they are tired of it.

And they only want to talk about things to a certain extent.

- No, we keep talking about it constantly outside Mexico.

Like things that happen in Mexico,

that here we keep sharing and talking

and we just don't let them die,

like the 43 students kind of thing.

In Mexico is kind of people little by little

forget about it because the media doesn't talk about that.

They talk about how amazing is their president.

And how beautiful it is the first lady.

And how amazing they looked when they were in England.

How beautiful she looked when she was in Spain,

but they really don't talk about,

all these people that's been killed and things like that.

- It definitely did have an impact,

and that shouldn't be forgotten.

But what we have to remember is that at first,

the people who are responding to us

are the ones that were already on our side.

- How cruel people can be.

How someone can think of doing this.

How some people, because there had to be quite

a few people killing them or disappearing them

or vanishing them or whatever they did with them.

How so many people have no heart?

(boys laughing)

What happened with the country?

- It is perfectly reasonable and right.

And indeed it's the right thing to do

to insist that any trade deals that are done have with it

an absolute commitment to the improvement of human rights,

to the independence of judiciary,

to a police force that is accountable not unaccountable

and an end to the disappearances and the killings.

- A young father of 21 just went.

(sorrowful music)

It's personal.

This is personal.

How many families, how can you grow that?

How can this child who never sees his father again?

I mean the child, the baby,

whose going to be with him when he's 20?

What kind of country are they creating?

How much evil can they be?

It's just impossible. It's just not credible.

(suspenseful music)

- You just keep doing different events going here and there

every time something happened in Mexico

don't just be quiet do something.

(drumming sounds)

(piano playing)

- Informing the UK and the UK government and the UK press

that they aren't complying with that ,

is to show that the government is lying and not keeping up

with these commitments because at the moment, as its clear,

Mexico wins the media war in the UK

in the terms of presenting itself as the victim

of organised crime not as a participant in that.

And so until that evidence and that information

is in the public domain to show that really

the human rights discourse is just skin deep

then things won't change.

- The assassination of Ruben Espinosa and the various

other journalists that have been killed in recent years,

specifically since 2011, the Regina Martinez

and many others I can't even name

because I can't even remember their names anymore.

You ask me, one of the names of the 43 disappeared students

and embarrassingly I wouldn't know one name

because it's just a list of names after names after names

of disappeared people and killings.

- I think that whoever is behind these killings is afraid.

Is afraid of losing their power.

They find these activists, these victims,

because they end up being victims a threat.

(dramatic music)

But really what they are is they're not a threat,

they're hope, they are new energy for change.

And that is what needs to prevail.

- In fact, the only thing we can do,

is inspire other people.

That's the only thing we can do.

- I think still there are more good people than bad.

(dramatic music)

- I think the groups in Britain have achieved a great deal.

They've done two things.

They've kept the flame of hope alive of what happened

to the 43 by constantly arriving at any big public event

like here today at the Hackney Half Marathon,

just to show people that none of us are gonna forget.

And when the families of the 43

or some of the families visited Britain,

they got a very good reception from everybody.

But it's also done, of course, is taking the lid off

the very difficult human rights situation

that tens of thousands, more that fazed in Mexico.

The 43 are a symbol of what's happened,

but all the other disappearances are so serious.

And it's that, which has meant that in parliament many MPS,

are much better informed of the situation in Mexico.

We've had meetings with the foreign office,

we've had meetings with the European Union.

We've put a lot of pressure on

and we're gonna continue doing that.

(foreign language spoken)

(protesters chanting 37, 38, 39)

I think it's very important,

I think all the Mexican people

outside Mexico should keep talking.

(protesters chanting 40, 41, 42,43 justice)

- [Narrator] Under suspicious circumstances,

only two bones from one of the 43 students

have ever been found and later identified

by international forensics.

(sorrowful music)

In February 2016, another journalist

in Vera Cruz was murdered.

Her body was found hanging from a tree,

partially clothed with a plastic bag over her head.

During the making of this documentary in the UK,

Jeremy Corbyn was appointed leader of the Labour Party.

- [Representative] It's not the official delivery,

but Jeremy Corby asked us to make this symbolic delivery

in this day because Jeremy Corbyn,

the leader of the labour party cannot come today.

So we read the letter and the embassy will receive

the official letter, but this is just a copy.

Thank you very much for receiving it.

- Thank you too.

- [Representative] Do you have anything to say

on this anniversary of 43?

(foreign language spoken)

But do you have anything to say to Mexicans

and people that love Mexico here?

(foreign language spoken)

- [Representative] No comment.

(indistinct)

(foreign language spoken)

- [Representative] No comment.

(foreign language spoken)

(protesters chanting)

(fast upbeat music)