police started finding many places with clandestine graves. it was just horrifying. just three months after the disappearance, the government announced they had solved the case. we were analysing the evidence. it wasjust not matching the official story. shouting protests erupted across mexico. a team of independent experts began their own investigation, and the government case starts to unravel.

these are people who are in guerrero, and they're - on the phone in guerrero, in iguala, in most cases. i he reads in english: "if i don't answer, "it is because i'll be lunching with the military." _ i mean, these are evidence that there's direct communications l and direct levels of contact

between leaders of the - guerreros unidos cartel - and members of the mexican military. from the very beginning, like the morning after the attacks against the students, the big question was, what did the army do? there's two army bases in iguala, a kilometre to two kilometres away from the various scenes of attack. they were out in the streets that night, at least by one in the morning. and at one in the morning, the attacks were still taking place. people were still being disappeared. at one in the morning, students were still being persecuted and shot at. shouting

the military was operating the camera surveillance system in iguala that night. shouting they were seeing in real time everything that was taking place. applause the president of mexico told the mexican army, talk to the investigators and give them everything they ask for.

i think it's incredibly important to remember mexican military hates ayotzinapa. for years, they'd been slandered as violent, as hoodlums, as criminals. from the very beginning, these schools, the rural teachers' colleges, have become an emblem of a part of mexico that the political and economic elite want to get rid of. the explanation of the brutality against them that night was, in part, a message to the school and to the world of leftist,

rural, grassroots struggle that this is what awaits them if they continue to organise. in 2022, omar, from the mexican prosecutor's office, came - to chicago and he was given. legal access to the intercepts and investigative . materials from dea. he finally received - what had been missing, which was the ability to sit i down and look at everything in the investigative l case file and look at all the intercepts.

in august 2022, the former attorney general, murillo karam, is arrested. a further 83 arrest warrants are requested by omar's office. 20 are for soldiers on duty in iguala on the night of the attacks. horn beeps siren wails at this point, we know that the army participated in the attacks against the students, and we know that the army participated in the cover—up. but at the same time, you have the president giving the military more power than they've ever had. in a series of moves over a period of months, he has militarised the federal police. at the same time, major infrastructure projects — a bullet train in the yucatan peninsula, a major new mexico city airport... ..he gave them to the army.

and so you have this schizophrenic situation of a president who has got this special prosecutor working on a case where the army was involved in mass forced disappearance and then cover—up. but he's anchoring his presidency on his relationship with the mexican army. in 2018, this administration

made explicit commitments to investigate and to bring the perpetrators to justice. not only have they not done that, when the special prosecutor's unit was getting really close to full documentation of the events that night, which included military participation, they dynamited the case. i think they blew it up from the inside because they didn't want to touch the army.

chanting

injune 2023, the mexican government reissues i6 of the arrest warrants for soldiers.

but omar is also now under investigation for his handling of the case. injuly 2023, the group of independent experts left mexico. in their final report, they accused the army of obstruction by failing to provide all documents and evidence relating to the case.

what ayotzinapa shows you is this absolute fusion between transnational drug trafficking and the entire apparatus of state security. municipal police.

state police. federal police. army. military intelligence. and not only that — after that night, the entire structure of the state, the highest levels of the administrative branch of the mexican state, collaborating together... ..creating this culture of impunity and making it impossible to find the students. when the ayotzinapa case happened, it made much more apparent the human rights crisis that was going on in mexico, due to the high level of violence, you know, of organised crime. in mexico right now, the number of people missing are above 110,000. and it keeps on rising all the time.

and the majority of the disappearances occurred after 2006, which is when the government declared a war on drugs... ..and a number of policies were implemented against drug trafficking and organised crime _ and that produced, unfortunately, an enormous increase in disappearances and homicides that haven't stopped up until now. families of missing people are actually searching themselves for their loved ones with shovels and picks... ..looking for them based on tips that they received from different people. it's extremely hard psychologically and physically, and it's dangerous, too.

faint echoing shouts

you're watching bbc news, let's take you straight to willingboro and they count for the by—election there. this is kettering, where the announcement will be made. there you can see that the candidates are just gathering on the stage ahead of the result being announced. if you

are just result being announced. if you arejustjoining us, the other by—election in kingswood was won by labour party overturning a conservative majority of over 11,000. but we will now get the result in the other by—election in willingboro — there are 11 candidates standing in the willingboro by—election. now the tories have held that seat since 2005. the mp peter bone had a majority at the last general election of 18,540. labour have been second in four of the five elections there except back in 2015, when ukip came separate the microsecond. labour last one in 1997 and 2001. i have to say this is one of the few constituencies in the whole of the united kingdom that has had an mp from all

three of the main traditional parties over its lifetime. that's conservative, labour, and liberal — and indeed, the winning margins have been from 47 up to that 18,500. you can see they are gathering around the candidates there at the willingboro by—election, it is being counted in kettering, the biggest leisure centre in that area. there are 11 candidates standing — as i said, at the moment, the conservatives hold that seat, which was held by the now former mp peter bone. there was a recall election, what's known as a recall election after he was suspended from the house of commons, and the public voted and it meant there would be a by—election

held, which is what happened. as i say, we are expecting the results — there was a delay because there was a limited recount of two trays of ballots in willingboro. they are saying that that is all now complete, though we didn't see a huddle of all the candidates which normally means that they are being given the provisional result. now the returning officer in willingboro is a woman called del wiley, and i spoke to her earlier in the week because i was up in willingboro, and she said she does get a little bit nervous that the world media will watch her doing the announcement, but it is her that controls everything in that count, talking to the candidates, making sure they are aware of what's going on. you can see the media gathered as well as the media gathered as well as the party workers that of course come with any candidate thatis course come with any candidate that is standing in a by—election. as i say, there are 11 candidates, more than

was standing in kingswood. the 11 include the conservatives, labour, lib dems, reform uk are also standing there, ben habib, one of the deputy leaders of reform uk, they've been campaigning hard in the constituency and have sent a lot of people up to the constituency. there you can see the labour candidate, jan kitchen, the tory candidate, helen harrison — she's actually the partner of peter bone who is the former conservative mp for willingboro, and she had a majority of 18,540. you can also see nick the flying brick with that giant hat, he's a candidate for the official monster raving loony party at if you followed british elections, you'll know that party for many decades has stood candidates in a number of

constituencies and they decided to stand nick the flying brick in this one in willingboro. there are also a number of independent candidates also standing in the willingboro by—election. we are expecting something very shortly, there was a short limited recall of two trays of ballots in willingboro but that has now been completed and we will expect the results shortly. it is 4am, you are watching bbc news, i'm nicky schiller bring you coverage of the two by—elections that have been taking place in the united kingdom. labour won labourwon in labour won in kingswood in gloucestershire. keir starmer said it was a fantastic result that shows people are ready to put their trust in labour. the newly elected mp, damien egan,

overturned a tory majority of overturned a tory majority of over 11,000. overturned a tory majority of over11,000. he overturned a tory majority of over 11,000. he got 2500 more votes than the conservative candidate, and here you can see that result with 11,176 for damien egan, 8675 for the conservatives and the reform candidate, rupert lowe, got 2578. we can show you what that means in terms of the share of the vote. labour took 44.9% of the vote. labour took 44.9% of the vote, and the conservatives 34.9%. let us go back to kettering. thank you, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome. i, being the returning officer at the election for a member of parliament for wellingborough on thursday the 15th of february 2024, do hereby give notice that the number of votes recorded for

each