VILLAHERMOSA-TEAPA FREEWAY, TABASCO
What we do is very delicate and dangerous.
We wanted to take advantage of this moment to make this public,
because that's how things should be done, in a public and transparent manner.
Last Sunday, there was an incident
in which myself and a few others
who are taking part in this trial,
experts that were assigned to assess one of the cases
that were shown here
and that Roberto has been recording…
What happened was that the vehicle we were in,
suddenly, completely out of the blue, stopped dead.
It had an electrical-mechanical failure.
We had to pull over and, immediately, out of nowhere, it caught fire.
Smoke started coming out of the engine.
"That's odd," I thought.
The power steering got stuck. I couldn't move the steering wheel.
That's not normal,
because even in hydraulic systems, you can always move it.
This one didn't move.
This made us think it was something else.
Of course, given our line of work, we started hypothesizing
about what it could have been.
What seemed more likely
was that someone, a third party, had altered something in the car.
We will inform the corresponding legal authorities,
and we will investigate every possibility
to determine what caused the incident.
But we'd appreciate if the media refrained from publishing conclusions.
We saw an article that stated the fire was caused by a short circuit.
In my opinion and the experts' opinion, that was not the case.
The van was locked, all the doors and the trunk,
making it impossible to get out.
Luckily, we were able to force the doors open.
I was in the front and pushed one door open.
Everyone got out
and a few seconds later, the car was in flames.
When you shine a light on shadows, the shadows disappear.
So making this public knowledge, what happened to us,
should keep it from happening again.
There was a point where we thought,
"They will abandon us. They will drop the case
and things will get harder and harder for us."
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES
I think ACP is an indirect victim of crime.
He's from a community
where kidnappings were commonplace, they happened all the time.
He probably felt he was at risk
of suffering the same fate.
Here we have a person whose brother, days before,
was a victim of an attempted kidnapping.
GLP, his sister, was in fact kidnapped.
And Mr. ACP…
We have to understand his emotional state.
If you have been through these types of situations,
and see someone approaching your car,
sure, you'll probably think they want to kidnap you
or even kill you.
That is understandable.
And when you comprehend that aspect,
you begin to understand that it's possible
that things may have happened the way we told them.
PUBLIC TRIAL HEARING FEBRUARY 26TH, 2018
-You may continue. -Thank you.
Please, address the court.
Are the people that tried to deprive you of your freedom here?
Victim, you may answer.
MR. ACP PROSECUTION WITNESS
No… yes.
There…
On the left, there is…
Juan Luis.
In the middle, Héctor.
And then…
And then, Gonzalo.
Are you aware that lying in court is a crime?
No, could you repeat that?
Are you aware that lying in court is a crime?
Yes, I am.
Is it true that the person
that allegedly pointed at you with a gun
stuck his hand through the window of your van?
Well, yes and no, because he didn't manage to--
Yes or no, please, sir.
Yes.
He reached through the passenger window, right?
Yes.
The only photos in the investigation file
showed that the passenger window was shattered.
That means it had been closed.
And he broke it when he shot from the interior.
And when you shot, the bullet hit his right hand.
I didn't want to hit him, just scare him.
My intention wasn't to hurt him.
It was an accident.
I think the bullet hit his hand, but I'm not sure, I didn't see.
Please, tell the court why you had that gun on you.
It's a .22 caliber pistol
that a friend gave me to work on.
Do you have a permit for that type of firearm?
Yes, Your Honor. I have a permit
for a .22 caliber.
Do you have a permit
to carry that particular .22 pistol that your friend gave you?
Yes, I think so… I guess.
You guess.
I don't know, the defense told me it wasn't for carrying,
that I had registered it.
Carrying a firearm,
no matter the caliber or if it is registered,
without a permit, which is something else,
is a crime.
There is nothing that can legally justify
that he had a gun and shot someone that wasn't armed.
Are you aware it is a crime to carry a gun without a permit?
-I have various-- -Sir, yes or no?
-Carrying it is an crime, yes. -Yes or no, sir.
Honorable court, may I make a request?
Go ahead.
Can the victim take five minutes?
He's getting unsettled.
Just so he calms down.
Does he qualify?
He is telling me his brain hurts.
That's why I want the five minutes,
so he can relax and properly answer the questions.
Prosecution?
Your Honor, this social worker points out
that the victim suffers from hypertension
and that apparently, a few days ago, he presented unstable angina.
Very well. Defense?
Your Honor, we have no evidence
that those statements are true.
He was responding just fine.
The questions got uncomfortable
and started affecting their case
and, all of a sudden, he needs time
to be able to think about his answers.
We don't see a justification for their request.
And as you can see yourselves, nothing was wrong with him
when the psychologist interceded.
Mr. ACP, what do you have to say?
My health was suffering in November. I…
I mean about right now.
Well…
Let's continue.
Do you feel you are able to continue?
Yes, I'd like to get it over with.
Did you ever show to any authority
the registration permit for the pistol you used to shoot Mr. Héctor?
Yes or no, please.
Mr. ACP, yes or no, please.
I showed it to the DA.
So you showed the permit to the DA. Correct?
Mr. ACP, I'm asking you a question. Please, answer.
No.
No?
No. Actually, I just told her about it.
I can't say things that aren't true.
You did not hand over the gun to the authorities. Correct?
Mr. ACP, please, yes or no?
No.
Nothing further.
-When is the hearing? -On September 7th, at 8:15.
In a month.
That's what's been happening.
As long as the civil servants don't change their way of thinking,
or are more socially aware…
The prosecution just says, "One more month, no problem."
And we've told them,
"It's not a problem for you because you're free."
"After three years in prison, one day, one hour, one month is a lot."
As they say, time feels different
depending on which side of the bathroom door you're on.
Please, enter your inmate identification number.
Please wait while your call is being redirected.
Our parents are the ones who have supported us the most.
Our mothers.
Aside from them, there's nobody.
It's been so long since I saw the kids. You haven't visited in a month.
We took them in December.
Right, that's what I mean. December…
January, February, March.
It's been some time.
Come on!
-It will be December soon. -Your time is over.
Damn!
The first nine months, everyone shows up.
They are all there for you.
After nine months,
after the first year, they disappear.
The days go by and they start forgetting you.
I had a lot of friends,
where are they?
I have none left.
-Muñoz Muñoz, Héctor. -Here!
If I hadn't received any visitors here…
I don't think
I would have lasted this long.
Honestly.
No, we can't visit him often,
because I have my two daughters.
I have school expenses.
And my parents live far away.
My parents, in order to visit him,
have to spend almost a thousand pesos just on the bus tickets.
Just the tickets.
And if both of them come, it's more.
And my mom has to take care of my three nephews.
I tell my mom not to come,
but her love is always…
She always wants to be with me, she wants to visit me.
And I know how much it hurts her to see me here.
1,233 DAYS IN PRISON THE VERDICT
I think one of the problems we face is the amount of time
that's gone by since all this started in February,
then it was deferred to March,
and now it's September.
It's a six-month public trial.
There have been huge gaps between hearings.
The judges lose any sense of immediacy
and they don't feel the same emotion
they felt when the witnesses testified.
What is your feeling…?
We are very calm and confident about our performance.
If they follow the law,
they can't find them guilty.
I think I'm emotionally and mentally prepared
to see him released today.
But for the other outcome, I'm not prepared, no.
"If they set us free, what will I do?"
I'll run to my family and hug them,
I'll jump for joy, I don't know.
But I want to hear it first.
I got up a bit earlier than usual.
I had a shower, I fixed my hair.
We got ready for the public trial.
But when we sat down and the judges started coming in,
I saw their faces…
The three of them looked at us
and I saw in their expression…
that they were pissed off.
It had been a discontinuous process.
The hearings had been interrupted.
But the most alarming thing
was that at the time of the verdict,
one of the judges of the court had been replaced by a new one.
It wasn't the same court anymore.
One court heard the evidence,
and another court will decide.
I remember clearly the attitude of the judges.
They didn't look comfortable with their decision.
They were not convinced of what they were saying.
Okay. Having deliberated
within the time frame established by our legislation,
I will now give the floor to my fellow judge
to read out the ruling
this trial court has decided on.
I felt something was wrong.
I thought…
"We're not leaving."
This court has unanimously decided
to rule against Juan Luis López García,
Héctor Muñoz Muñoz and Gonzalo García Hernández,
based on the accusation made by the prosecutor's office
in the criminal case 33, from 2015,
of attempted aggravated kidnapping
of ACP.
I felt cold.
I had goosebumps.
When we got the news,
I forgot about the cold, about everything.
Because…
I had this idea…
that I'd get out
and find a job quickly, for my kids.
Regarding the criminal responsibility
of the accused, Héctor Muñoz Muñoz, Gonzalo García Hernández
and Juan Luis López García,
we believe it was proved beyond doubt
through the logical and legal correlation of the evidence provided.
I remember we were mad,
because, for starters,
they had decided the crime was a proven fact.
We were like, "Wait a minute."
For us, there wasn't any proof of an attempted kidnapping.
We started realizing this wasn't going well
as soon as the judge started explaining the verdict.
Against the accused, we have the testimony of ACP, the victim,
and of the eyewitness, ACC.
With their spontaneous, chronological and detailed statements,
they demonstrated before this court
the behavior of each of the accused men.
We deem irrelevant
the statement of Dr. Edward Charles Alexander Worrall González
about the reconstruction of the events of September 9th, 2017.
In the public trial,
they decided to completely ignore the reconstruction of events
performed by the experts
because they hadn't carried it out with the exact same van,
on the same day, at the same time.
That had no influence at all,
because we were assessing
the trajectory of the bullet that came out of the firearm,
the injury it caused,
and if it is consistent with the statements provided.
All this taking into account
that they are responsible for proving the accused are guilty,
not us their innocence.
Andrés will tell you what will happen, but this is not over.
The sentence has no basis.
I'm very sorry.
NEW CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN TABASCO
I can't take this any longer.
They said we'd be released.
To hell with that. I can't believe it.
I can't believe what they are doing.
No. I think if we had lied, we'd be free by now.
It's a joke.
And what took them so long?
We don't know.
As I said, probably because they were looking
for a way to justify finding them guilty,
and twist everything we showed them.
It's completely unbelievable that they consider
this crime proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
STATE POLICE
Then there is the sentencing hearing.
What is it for?
In this hearing, you are told how many years you'll serve.
That first day, we were pissed off.
We came back here, disheartened.
We were thinking we would have to serve many years.
SENTENCING SEPTEMBER 17TH, 2018
I saw them looking ashamed, embarrassed.
And in the end, when we found out
what the sentence was, how many years they were getting,
there were a series of looks that, to me, seemed to say,
"Okay, now at least this makes it a bit better."
For being found guilty
of the crime of attempted aggravated kidnapping,
you shall be sentenced according to article 9, first section, paragraph A,
and article 10, first section, paragraphs A, B and C
regarding kidnapping.
Each of you will serve three years and six months in prison,
and 200 days as a fine,
from the date this sentence
is declared in force.
However, the days you've been deprived of your freedom pre-trial
will be deducted.
"Did I hear correctly?" "Three years, six months?"
I looked at the lawyers and they were like, "You're free!"
We had already been in prison for three years and six months.
The sentence was short, as to say, "That's enough now."
Three years, six months, and see you later.
I was happy, yes, but I was also thinking,
"But now I'll have a criminal record."
Please.
Thank you, guys.
Bye, thank you.
-Sorry, I'm sweaty. -Thank you.
-Excuse me. -See you!
It wasn't all pure joy,
because we were expecting them to walk out immediately.
But we were comforted thinking it would only be months now.
Or days, let's say.
Mr. Juan Luis López García,
Héctor Muñoz Muñoz and Gonzalo García Hernández,
do you have anything to say? Any questions?
No.
-Sir? -No, nothing.
Sir?
Don't look down in shame!
-Love you! -They should be ashamed.
-See you soon. -Hold your head high.
-Say bye. -I love you.
PRISON GUARD
I think they saw that the evidence was obviously in our favor,
so their way of making it right was
to sentence them, and when the time to appeal is over,
they can go.
And that's what we did.
Why fight,
if the petition for appeal will be a long process,
when they are a couple of months from being released?
When it comes to my freedom,
I want to be with my family, my son, now.
So much time…
they took away from me, kept me away from him.
I missed his childhood.
Let's not appeal, let's just go.
When they were sentenced to three and a half years in prison,
everyone was relieved and cheerful.
"We won! They'll be out soon."
But we saw the authorities had malicious intentions.
What worried me a lot
was that I had personally approached the State General Attorney of Tabasco,
Fernando Valenzuela,
to talk about the incident with Andrés' van,
and he hadn't investigated.
He didn't investigate the incident.
Nothing was done.
The van disappeared.
So I had a bad feeling about it.
I think Andrés felt the same way.
So both of us ended up leaving Tabasco.
And the guys were left alone.
Alberto Magaña continued working on the case.
Anyone would have left, even if they meant well.
"Fuck it, these bastards…"
"I won't stay around waiting to be killed."
It's complicated, because…
you try to detach yourself from emotions,
because they affect you.
But in the end…
That day, that moment, was very tough.
My four-year-old daughter was desperately screaming,
because she thought I was on fire.
That was…
And why did you stay for so long?
Because someone has to act to change this fucking country.
We were one day away,
and we thought, "That's it, they won't appeal, we're free."
We were so close to leaving.
But on the very final day to appeal,
the prosecution appealed.
And one minute before time was up,
and the time may already have been up,
they appealed.
By then, Alberto Magaña and Andrés couldn't appeal.
We were shocked. "Why?"
"Why the prosecution?"
It wasn't even the victim that had accused them.
It was the prosecution presenting the appeal.
APPEAL COURT
They took us to court
and the prosecution showed up immediately,
and our lawyer, Juan Alberto Magaña.
Andrés didn't come,
because too much had happened here.
They'd tried to kill him.
So that day, his colleague, Magaña, was there.
So, without any real possibility of defending them,
Alberto Magaña went to the appeal hearing.
He had to go to court
and say that the sentence was correct in the first place.
What happened there is atrocious.
The defense considers that the sentence was appropriate.
The sentencing court correctly applied
article 63.
The prosecution didn't give any evidence to support the sentence they wanted.
This hearing is now over. Okay?
And all parties,
following what article 63 establishes,
are now notified.
We all went home and carried on with our lives.
I thought, "This is on track."
"We did our part, we gave it our best effort."
"These guys will be released
in a couple of months."
They brought us here again.
Three days later, we received a notification.
"They're here to notify you that you'll be out in days."
God, the excitement.
We were leaving!
Juan Luis López García!
Gonzalo García Hernández!
Héctor Muñoz Muñoz!
Come on, Leo!
-Go, Leo! -Come on!
Gonzalo García Hernández!
Nice, Villa!
-Gonzalo! -Juan Luis López García!
We came down, excited.
We were told, "You had a sentence of three years, six months."
"Your sentence now is 50 years."
"What?"
It…
was just unbelievable.
"What do you mean 50 years?"
I pretty much froze.
I was completely shocked.
"What will I do here for 50 years?"
We were being told, "You are going to serve 50 years."
At this point, I took it as…
I didn't take it like…
I told him "I just can't believe it."
To me, it was devastating, because…
seeing him…
I can't even say anything,
because although I try to put myself in my brother's shoes,
I'm not the one there.
It was very tough for him.
Very sad.
So we signed the notice
and went back inside.
Each one to their cell. We read, we talked for a while.
Fifty years.
The one standing up grabbed my head and hit me.
"Don't even fucking move!"
I told him, "I can't breathe. I can't."
But they wanted me to say something that wasn't true.
You have the right to be detained before your executioner
for 48 hours.
That's what the Constitution says.
That being detained for 48 hours is our "right" is the most ridiculous trap
you can ever think of.
I think there were a few of them,
because one held my hands, like this, subdued.
One had his…
his knee on my chest.
Within that time frame, they get illegal evidence
about another case.
During those 48 hours, they torture you.
There was a row of bikes, and more above.
They left me there, on my knees, kind of hanging.
Since I was taken there until about five in the morning,
I was kept there.
On my knees.
I didn't sleep, didn't drink any water.
When we put the public trial as the main focus,
we thought that just by carrying out that methodology, a public trial,
where the prosecutor's office had to provide their evidence
in a hearing that everyone could see,
same as the defense,
and where the judges had to decide sentences right in front of us
would change it all.
But it's devastating to see that the authoritarianism of the system
is not reduced by having a public trial.
It's not that the public trial reform is a bad reform,
it's just an incomplete reform.
Now we need those ideas
at the peak of the pyramid of justice
to descend to the base.
We need the police interviews to be video recorded.
Police operations should be recorded too.
And we need to video record arrests.
That will put an end to torture as a method of criminal investigation.
It would change the incentive structure of the law enforcement officers
and DAs, right?
People would rather have innocent people in jail
as long as there are some real criminals in there as well.
The logic should be the other way around.
It should scare us as a society.
We should never accept having innocent people in jail
in order to catch guilty people, no matter how many.
It's not worth it. Why?
Because if they understood the dimension of this problem,
they'd be afraid to leave their homes.
You may be going to the shop to get cigarettes,
have an accident,
and a police officer can charge you with drug dealing, kidnapping,
you name it.
Don't forget that in the beginning,
the Mexican criminal system
was used as a system for political control.
A system for political control is not designed to find the truth.
And we never really changed the roots of that original system.
We modified rules, added the public trial,
but there was never a political agreement
to get politicians' hands away from the system,
and to use the system to find the truth.
After a while, they came back.
Again, they put the bag on my head.
I kept telling them I didn't know those men
they wanted me to accuse.
I said, "How can I accuse someone I don't know?"
1,914 DAYS IN PRISON SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2020
It had been two years since the sentence.
In that time, Tabasco elected a new government.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the presidential election.
The world faced the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic we are going through
has made everything more complicated.
The courts were closed,
and when they finally opened again,
it was their usual vacation period, and they took their vacations.
There's no continuity.
There's no coherence, I think,
from the people who make these decisions.
There are three people there,
and, with them, many more innocents,
that are waiting for the court to decide
that they can finally go home.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
And the prosecution office of Tabasco has shown us who they are from the start.
They act like they'll let you go, then arrest you.
"You'll be absolved soon," then you're not.
I pretend I won't appeal, and I appeal.
They play dirty.
I've told you this.
Releasing someone accused of kidnapping has a huge political cost in Mexico.
Even if they're innocent.
All we have left is a constitutional appeal.
Yes. It's a difficult situation.
I wonder how long that will take, though.
All I can say for sure is that it would take less than 50 years.
That's for sure.
Let's go.
Thank you.
Thanks.
I promise you I will do everything I can
to speed this up.
Mexico has a very clear and logical rule:
the State has to demonstrate that you committed a crime.
As a defense lawyer,
you only have to prove there's a reasonable doubt.
You don't even have to prove their innocence.
However, it is clear and evident
that courts operate under the presumption of guilt.
Because only when you assume someone is guilty
do you look for explanations to help the prosecutors
get their desired sentences.
To me, it's extremely frustrating to see
that district attorneys, police officers and judges don't understand their roles.
When I got out, I was ashamed, because people would say,
"That's the kidnapper."
That's why I left.
I decided to start a new life
where I know nobody is after me, nobody knows me.
At home, I couldn't even sleep.
When I saw the police, I hid from them.
I was scared they would arrest me again.
I don't know why I was stigmatized.
I was declared innocent.
We need a system that is more sophisticated
than this,
where anyone can accuse you of a crime, and you're sentenced.
It's basic.
We have the right to freedom.
Don't we?
In Mexico, that right is not guaranteed.
This has affected me so much.
Being away from my son, from my mom.
And I'm scared that…
when I finally have the chance to get out of here,
she will be gone.
Everyone knows what really happened.
And nobody wants to accept that they are innocent.
Why?
That's what we don't understand. Why?
This place affects you.
That's the truth.
You will never be the same, because this is traumatic.
It's 50 years. A lifetime.
When you get out…
there is no future anymore.
Yes, it's been really hard.
Some days, I don't even want to get out of bed.
But I have to go on, for my two kids.
I always talk to Héctor like everything is normal.
I want him to think we're fine.
But we aren't.
At least, I am not.
He thinks I am, because he says, "For you it's easy, you're free."
And I don't tell him, "I'm free, but it's the same."
"It's like I am…
trapped in something, just like you."
In prison, many things go through your mind.
You have so many thoughts, you end up thinking
you should do the easiest thing,
which is hang yourself.
I've thought about it. I wanted to do it that day.
You feel powerless.
You want it all to be a dream.
You want to wake up and say,
"I'm home."
Close to the people you love.
But it's not like that.
They ruined our lives.
ON CONCLUSION OF THIS PROGRAM,
HÉCTOR, GONZALO AND JUAN LUIS HAD SPENT OVER 3,000 DAYS IN PRISON
AND THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL APPEAL WAS STILL PENDING.
NONE OF THE PUBLIC SERVANTS INVOLVED IN THE CASE
WERE INVESTIGATED FOR TORTURE.
MOST OF THEM ARE STILL WORKING, WITH MORE POWER AND RESPONSIBILITIES.
THANKS TO THE FAMILIES OF DARWIN, GONZALO, HÉCTOR AND JUAN LUIS.
EVA, MAYRA, MARINA, JUANA, MIGUELINA AND YAZMÍN.
TO MIGUEL SANSORES AND THE TABASCO INNOCENCE PROJECT.
TO THE LAWYERS ANDRÉS ANDRADE AND ALBERTO MAGAÑA.
TO IKER IBARRECHE, WHO TOOK OVER THE DEFENSE FROM 2020.
TO THE AUTHORITIES, GUARDS AND INMATES WHO COOPERATED WITH FILMING.
Subtitle translation by: Julieta Gazzaniga