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[melancholic music plays]
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[woman] Vanessa's always been, I think, the bravest of all of us.
She had a lot of courage.
The advice she used to give me was, "If you want something, go for it."
Right now, even with what's happening to Vanessa, I'm not going to give up.
[reporter 1] Private First Class Vanessa Guillén
was reported missing from Fort Hood on April 22nd.
[man] This had my attention from the very beginning.
There was something odd about it.
We want to bring Vanessa home as efficiently and as rapidly as possible.
[woman 1] She's a soldier at a federal base, which it's supposed to be
one of the safest places to be in, and apparently, it's not.
[woman 2] All these things that you'd never think can happen in America
was happening at this base.
They're gonna railroad this family.
[woman 3] I want Fort Hood to be shut down
and to investigate every single one of them!
[reporter 2] Her case is grabbing headlines across the nation.
People want to know, where is Vanessa Guillén?
[woman 4] The Hispanic culture is a sleeping giant.
And I feel like the Guillén family just, like, woke it up.
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
-[woman 5] What do we want? -[crowd] Justice!
-[woman 5] When do we want it? -[crowd] Now!
[music ends]
[woman in Spanish] My daughter was a miracle.
God left her with me, and she had a purpose.
When she was ten, she told me, "Mom, when I grow up, I'll join the Army."
I said, "No, mija, that's not for women."
She said, "Don't be so dramatic, Mom! One day, I'll have to leave."
"I know I'm gonna make it there."
I thought it was a child thing, and she would forget.
And then when she was turning 18, she told me in the bedroom,
"Mom, remember when I said I'd either join the Army
or become an astronaut?"
Two things, be an astronaut and go to the moon, or go to the Army.
I said, "You'd better go to the moon."
"Go to the moon, daughter."
When she turned 18, she came home and said, "I already enlisted."
[instructor in English] Go! Go! Go! Go!
[woman] Vanessa did her boot camp at Fort Jackson.
-[instructor] One, two, three. -[all] One!
[instructor] One, two, three…
[woman] They had a super strict schedule.
She was like, "It's hard."
And I was like, "I bet."
But she was very proud.
She would write letters.
"I love it here, the environment, everything."
"I'm the fastest female. I can tell you that."
"I shot 31 out of 40 shots with my M4."
I was like, "There you go."
[crowd applauds]
I went to her graduation.
PRECIOUS SISTER
She was literally glowing.
[woman laughs]
That's when she tells me, "I'll be stationed at Fort Hood.
I was happy to know that she was gonna be close to home,
and she wasn't gonna be stationed in some other state or far, far away.
[man] What do we have here?
[laughs] Ay ay!
Stop doing that.
[man] Me and Vanessa were good friends.
We worked together.
So every day at work, we'll, like, see each other.
She was a firearms repairer, basically, a weapons mechanic.
[gun cocking]
[people laugh]
[woman] She used to come home every weekend.
And then
everything changed.
[somber music plays]
April 22nd of 2020 was Vanessa's day off.
The Army took this initiative to not bring anyone to work
because that's when COVID started to spark.
But Vanessa received a message saying that she had to come in.
[door opens]
[door closes]
I wish to never go back to that day.
I remember Mayra coming home from work,
and she tells me,
"I think something is going on with Vanessa
because she's not answering her calls."
[engine stops]
Her fiancée, Juan, said the same thing.
[man in Spanish] I was working,
and at lunchtime, I sent her a text.
I thought she was still working.
But it seemed like a long time.
[messages popping]
The messages didn't say "delivered."
That's when I asked Mayra, "Have you talked to Vanessa?"
[Mayra in English] Juan said, "I'm worried."
I was like, "I don't know how to tell my parents this."
[in Spanish] Mayra said, "Mom, come." "What is it, baby?"
"Don't you notice anything strange?"
"Vanessa doesn't answer the text messages."
I texted her, and no answer. I said, "How come?"
I said, "Talk to the base and tell them to get her on the phone."
"Right now!"
[Mayra in English] I called the staff sergeant.
"What's going on? I've been trying to reach my sister all day,
and she doesn't answer the phone." And he's like, "Oh."
"No one has seen her since lunchtime. We don't know anything about her."
We were supposed to go hiking that day, like, whenever she got off of work.
[phone chimes]
She texted me that morning. The weather said it was gonna rain.
-I told her that it's not raining. -[phone chimes]
She didn't reply to that.
A lot of hours went by.
I was like, "Uh, this isn't normal."
So me and Landy went to the Arms Room.
She left her car keys, driver's license, and her wallet.
It was, like, just something… Vanessa wouldn't leave that around.
"You guys don't have cameras, nothing?" And they were like, "No."
That's when I was like,
"I'm not gonna be able to get anything done over the phone."
I was like, "I'm leaving."
[car engine starts]
I call Juan, and I'm like, "I'm gonna go look for her."
And he was like, "Okay, pick me up."
[tense music plays]
Never in my life had I been scared of something or someone
as much as that night.
[blinker clicking]
It just felt like something really bad had happened.
-[siren wailing] -[messages popping]
When I get there, it's like three in the morning.
I called the staff sergeant, and no answer.
So I go get a hotel room.
[dog howling]
[Lupe] I didn't go to sleep the whole night.
I was just texting Mayra, "What's going on?"
I felt helpless.
[tense music continues]
[helicopter blades whirring]
[Mayra] The next morning, I go into the base, and things didn't feel right.
-[martial music plays] -I walk into the barracks,
and the first sergeant gets off some truck.
He said, "What's going on?" I was like, "You tell me what's going on."
"It's about to be 24 hours."
[truck engine revving]
They weren't really open with me about who last saw her,
and everything was really shady.
I try to keep my mom calm.
I could see she was very anxious.
[tense music plays]
[car honks]
[Gloria in Spanish] I said, "For God's sake, let's go."
"These animals won't look for my child. I have to look for my daughter myself."
[train rails rattling]
[train horn blaring]
The second I arrived at Killeen,
do you know what I said?
"Here smells like death."
"Smells like death. This town is death."
[bird chirping]
[Mayra in English] Eventually, my parents had to come to Killeen,
and they were scared because there was no sign of Vanessa,
and they couldn't go into the base because… their immigration status.
[Gloria in Spanish] I was born on a little ranch called Tierra Blanca,
Rio Grande, Zacatecas in Mexico.
We were all together, and it was a different time, a lot of joy,
going outside to play, helping my dad in nature.
He used to call me "my goat."
That's what he called me because I was very thin.
"My little goat, come here."
Little goat but strong.
My husband, since he was a child, they put him to work here
to earn his money on his own.
When I got married, that's when I came here.
So we made a life here, here in Houston.
I dedicated myself to our home.
My little Vanessa,
she was always a fighter and always for her dreams.
She was special.
She absolutely loved soccer.
It was her passion.
[woman speaks Spanish]
[in English] Vanessa and I met in high school, at the soccer field.
[women yell indistinctly]
We shared the same passion, and even though I was a beginner,
the same love for the sports was still there.
[somber music plays]
She was always very determined, especially testing herself physically.
Even if it was a tough practice,
you would see her in the weightlifting area.
I'd pass by, and I'd be like, "What are you doing in here?"
"It's time to go." She's like, "You wanna learn how to lift?"
"You'll like this." I'm like, "Yeah, maybe some other time." [chuckles]
She was very focused on school too.
She was not at the lunch table chatting with her friends.
She would be doing her work with her earphones.
But of course, you know, with us, whenever we would hang out after that,
she was very talkative and very girly.
Because, usually, you see the girly side or the athletic side. She was both.
[Juan in Spanish] The day that I met Vanessa was at a quinceañera party.
In 2014, I think.
Vanessa was very brave.
She wasn't afraid of anyone.
I liked to make her laugh. She always laughed.
She was very nice. She was lovely.
[Frida in English] When we were starting to talk about
where you want to go to college,
she was like, "I'm going to the Army,
getting a scholarship, and going from there."
At first, for any, like, I'd say Hispanic, not necessarily Mexican, family,
it's like, "You're going to the Army. You're a girl. That's not gonna happen."
But for her, it was more like, uh, something she genuinely wanted to do.
[Lupe] I was proud of her.
That's a big step to take, joining, you know, military service,
but my mom was the one being worried all the time.
She used to say that it's a pretty rough place.
And she was the first one to notice that something was wrong with Vanessa
the few months after she was stationed at Fort Hood.
[Mayra] She started not being able to sleep.
She started losing weight.
She would tell me that the Army was BS
and that things weren't what they seemed.
[melancholic music plays]
[Gloria in Spanish] One day,
she said, "Mommy, I'm having a hard time at the base."
I said, "For what reason?"
"I feel in my heart that you are hiding something from me."
Because she'd told me there had been sexual harassment
towards young women, young men, no matter what gender.
She said, "It's true, Mom. People are being sexually assaulted."
"You told me in December that girls were being harassed
but not you."
She said, "Mommy, I lied to you. I have been harassed."
"By a superior,
by a sergeant."
Over at Fort Hood, it's a mafia that exists there.
It's a mafia. It's nothing more than a place of corruption and evil.
[tense music plays]
[reporter 1 in English] The Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas,
-is now under intense scrutiny. -[whistle blows]
[reporter 2] Calls to investigate the Army installation are growing louder.
[shot fires]
[woman] Fort Hood is a very vast base.
It's one of the largest posts that the United States has.
-It's like its own world. -[blades whirring]
Different bases have different reputations.
Fort Hood is not one that has a very good reputation.
[men chanting]
[man] Fort Hood has one of the highest sexual assault rates
of any base in the American military.
They've had two mass shootings.
[reporter 1] A soldier with mental problems
shot dead three colleagues and wounded 16.
[reporter 2] It's the second deadly attack by a Fort Hood soldier
in the last five years.
[man] There was a sexual assault advocate
who was serving as a pimp prostituting out his soldiers.
First Class Gregory McQueen
is accused of luring female soldiers with money problems
into having sex with other soldiers for cash.
[Don] A lot of bad there.
[reporter 1] Two Fort Hood soldiers are accused of trying to smuggle immigrants
through a Border Patrol checkpoint.
[Don] A lot of missing soldiers, a lot of dead soldiers.
[reporter 2] Twenty-eight soldiers stationed at the US Army base
have died this year.
Fort Hood just seems to cultivate the worst of the worst
when it comes to command culture,
to that good ol' boys type of club.
[woman 1] They call it "the Great Place," but at the end of the day,
this place is definitely a black hole.
[keyboard clattering]
[woman 2] A few weeks after the pandemic started,
my editor asked me to look into a press release
that we received from Fort Hood about Vanessa's disappearance.
I remember that I went on to Facebook,
and I started searching for family or friends.
And I immediately found Mayra Guillén.
And we got on the phone,
and she described this really powerful scene.
[helicopter blades whirring]
She was sitting alone in a hotel room in Killeen
and hearing helicopters flying overhead,
hoping that they were searching for her sister.
She wanted answers and asked me to contact Fort Hood
to see if I could find anything out that she didn't already know.
My interaction with the military police was
a joke, literally.
The first sergeant told me, "Do you want to go into her room
and see if anything's missing?"
And I thought about it, and I was just like,
"If it were to be part, God forbid, of an investigation,
he shouldn't be letting me in." But I guess my curiosity won,
and I was like, "Yeah, take me."
And I was like, "Where's her keys? Where's her CAC card?"
And then he had them in his pocket, and I was just like so confused.
I was like, "This should have been all turned in."
If this is the police I'm supposed to trust
to look for my sister, I was like, "Game over."
[somber music plays]
[Heather] The US Army's Criminal Investigation Division, CID,
was one of the main investigation units
to handle Specialist Vanessa Guillén's disappearance.
At the time, the people who were assigned to CID
only had about three years of experience, and they had no expert oversight.
They were also severely understaffed,
overwhelmed with so many other cases on top of that.
And so, it was all of those factors coming together at once
that really hindered the investigation.
[Mayra] That same day, they were like, "We have to go do a police report."
And we go to the station.
They start calling in anyone that might have last seen her
or anyone that she interacted with the day and the previous day.
They stand there and stare at each one of them. I tried to memorize their faces.
One guy,
he literally looked at me and laughed,
and then he left.
And I told Juan, I was like, "Did you see that?" And he's like, "Yeah."
I started questioning myself, I was like, "Who is he?"
I learned that this was Robinson.
The day Guillén disappeared, we were trying to figure out
who was the last person with her, and someone says, "Robinson."
He was an armorer, and she was an arms mechanic.
We got somebody that had Robinson's number, and we called him.
[Tay] He was like, "I sent her to the motor pool."
I said, "Did she say anything when she was leaving?" He said, "No."
And then he hung up.
So I gave CID Robinson's phone number,
and they were just like, "Yeah, we're going to look into it."
[birds chirping]
My sister wakes me up, and she's like, "Frida, have you seen Vanessa's missing?"
I was like, "What? What do you mean?" And she's like, "Go on Mayra's Twitter."
I was shocked. Like, she's in the Army. She's supposed to be safe there.
Hello, everyone.
This video was made to spread awareness on Vanessa's disappearance…
We started posting on social media.
At first, I started posting on my accounts.
And then I started making a Facebook page.
I named it "Find Vanessa Guillén."
The people in my hometown, who knew Vanessa,
started sharing the Facebook page as well.
Help us find Vanessa. We need her home.
Vanessa Guillén, we need you back home with us.
Please, help her family find her. Please, every share counts.
It has been seven days since Vanessa was last seen here on Fort Hood.
[Mayra] It felt like it's been forever.
It actually feels like so much longer than a week.
[Heather] I would reach out to Fort Hood every few days asking for updates,
and they would always send me back to the press releases.
So it was really, really hard to get information.
They also really failed to inform the family about search efforts.
[Lupe] Because of the frustration of not having answers,
we decided, if no one wants to talk to us, we are going to talk to them.
[crowd chants] We want answers!
[Lupe] We started protesting the first week of May
in front of Fort Hood.
[crowd chants] Where is Vanessa?
[Lupe] We called out people, like, from social media.
"Come over here. Bring posters, bring pictures
and demand for her to be found."
[crowd chants] We want Vanessa! We want Vanessa!
[Frida] Each Friday, we'd have more people.
We would make, like, banners.
And I'd stand out there with my phone recording,
"We're outside of Killeen."
"Our friend's been missing for a week, two weeks now."
"She was supposed to be in this base."
-[in Spanish] What do we want? -[crowd] Vanessa!
-[Lupe] When do we want her? -[crowd] Now!
[Lupe in English] Looking at that quote saying "the Great Place,"
it made me so frustrated.
I want justice, and I want answers.
You have all the technology. You have all the materials.
But you can't find my sister?
[Frida] Seeing Lupe during those protests was very heartbreaking,
but that was something that I think was also important
for the media and for people to see, like, this is actually happening,
a 16-year-old's out here crying for her sister,
and it seems like we're not getting any help yet.
[Lupe] Where's my sister?
They know where she is, and I want them to speak up.
[crowd chants] We need answers!
[tense music plays]
[Gloria in Spanish] It's been four weeks. Let's keep going until I have my daughter.
[in English] There was a new push to find the missing Fort Hood soldier…
Vanessa Guillén was last seen at Fort…
[reporter] Communication with officials on Fort Hood has been limited.
[Mayra] We made sure Fort Hood saw what we were doing
and that we weren't gonna back down.
[crowd in Spanish] We want Vanessa!
[man in English] We want answers!
[birds chirping]
[Mayra] I really didn't know what
I was entitled to ask as far as legal questions
and what information they could give me and they couldn't.
I needed someone that was gonna be honest
and knew the system.
So I started searching for military lawyers.
[phone line rings]
Eventually, someone messaged me, "I know someone."
[woman] Mayra called me, and she said,
"I understand you are the right person to do this.
"You have a lot of background in this." I said, "Yes."
"I have military clients at bases all over,
not just the country, the world."
"I have experience dealing with the military."
"I know the language that they speak."
"I would be more than honored to help you guys."
[Mayra] As I was talking with her, I felt this connection instantly.
She was like, "It'll be, like, pro bono, and we'll see where things take us."
She was able to get things moving.
Of course our most important thing was to find Vanessa.
I saw that the military did not give a damn.
They're gonna railroad this family.
That's when I said, "We need to do our own investigation."
[talks indistinctly]
I started reaching out to all the people I knew that could get me information.
This was gonna be a full-on effort.
[Mayra] Because we weren't getting answers from Fort Hood,
we reached out to EquuSearch, an organization that dedicate themselves
to help find missing people.
And they were able to help us.
[reporter] Texas EquuSearch has searched several areas around Fort Hood,
looking for anything that might lead to Vanessa.
[Mayra] The Army was hesitant about letting them join the search,
but since they were on the public spotlight,
they had no other option.
Just hoping the right person sees the flyer
and says, "I need to make a phone call."
[engine revving]
[Natalie] When I talked to Tim, he's like,
"They don't like me. They don't wanna tell me information."
I'm like, "They don't like anyone that's gonna figure this out."
[melancholic music plays]
[Lupe] I was like, "We're going to find her no matter what."
No matter how long it takes,
I just want my sister.
[Gloria in Spanish] I looked for my daughter everywhere,
like a weeping woman in a sea of tears.
In the ditches…
-[train horn blaring] -…the railroads.
With my rosary praying, "I'm gonna find her."
"I swear. I'm gonna find her."
She wasn't swallowed up by the earth.
I'm going to find her.
[Mayra in English] No higher-up from the base had reached out
until word started getting out.
I was just like, "Wow, two months later, you wanna say something?"
On 22 April, Vanessa Guillén, PFC in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment,
was at her place of duty, and around noon is the last time
anyone has seen her.
Somebody, some person out there, has the piece of information we need
to bring Vanessa home.
We need to bring Vanessa back to her Army family.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[reporter 1] An extensive search is now underway by military members,
as well as military police.
[reporter 2] The Army's Criminal Investigation Command
is leading the investigation.
[Gloria in Spanish] The detectives of Fort Hood had me going crazy.
I had no patience.
I cried every night and had no sleep.
Not sleeping, and crying. I'm gonna find my daughter.
[Mayra in English] My mom thought it was very important
to point out the sexual harassment,
but basically, they ignored it.
I asked myself one night that I couldn't sleep, like,
"Should I post this or not?"
I mean, it is the military, and I was just like,
"I mean, what if they-- I get in trouble?"
I decide to post it.
[tense music plays]
Lupe mentioned to me one day, "Have you seen on Twitter the hashtag?"
Then she starts showing me all these stories.
People using my sister as a resemblance of themselves
on Facebook and Instagram, everywhere.
[survivor 1] This officer arrived at my home, and I was violently raped.
[survivor 2] This leader of mine took me under his wing.
He groomed me so that he could abuse me.
[survivor 3] It's so much more than a physical assault.
If I couldn't stop that from happening, how do I ever protect myself again?
[Lucy] I remember that hashtag coming out and watching everybody explode.
I changed my profile picture on social media.
I made it a picture of Vanessa, and I wrote #IAmVanessaGuillén.
I remember saying, "My God, she is us. This is us."
I was assaulted in '92. Vanessa was 2020.
As we're talking right now, someone is getting assaulted.
Someone is getting harassed in the military.
-[man] What do we want? -[crowd] Justice!
-[man] When do we want it? -[crowd] Now!
[man] We need everybody to tell the Guillén family they are not alone!
[Lupe] Seeing people coming from all over the places
made us have that piece of hope. It kept growing and growing.
-In Houston. -[man] I say no justice!
-[Lupe] Austin, San Antonio. -[man] We say no justice!
[Lupe] California.
There are so many murals in Mexico where my parents, you know, were born.
[Heather] In places like Egypt, there were posters
saying, "I am Vanessa Guillén,"
and at military installations across the globe,
who were all rallying behind the family.
[reporter 1] We're about to bring you a press conference live from Fort Hood
about the disappearance of Vanessa Guillén. Let's take a listen.
[reporter 2] This case has stirred up a lot of questions about sexual assault
and the way that Fort Hood is handling those kinds of cases.
What do you have to say to the public about that?
Each allegation of sexual assault
or sexual harassment is fully investigated,
regardless of the source or what it's related to,
whether it's tied to Specialist Guillén's disappearance or not.
We take those allegations, and all allegations, seriously.
We're gonna pursue them to our fullest extent.
It's not acceptable.
[CJ] There was more than one individual making Vanessa feel uncomfortable at work.
They both said inappropriate things to her,
and both of those individuals were in charge of us.
She didn't feel comfortable coming forward.
She didn't really think any action was going to be taken.
Good afternoon. There has been no information,
and we've interviewed hundreds of people
to include all acquaintances and coworkers of Miss Guillén.
So there's no allegation whatsoever that she's been sexually assaulted
or harassed, and any hint of information that was sexual harassment
was completely looked at without any credible information.
[Natalie] This press conference boiled my blood.
They were basically saying that she lied.
How dare you come on national TV and say she was not sexually harassed?
That's some gall.
They knew a lot more at the time than they were letting us know.
This morning, we went in with a lot of questions.
We got some answers, but we still have a lot of questions.
They have now, uh, used the words "foul play."
And they're following all the leads that they can.
[Natalie] They won't tell us who they're investigating or why.
We want to know what happened, and who is a cover-up for who,
and why they're covering up.
[Mayra] That day was very intense.
I know my mom didn't want to go that day.
She was very emotionally not well.
[camera shutter clicks]
Uh…
[in Spanish] First of all, I want to thank God
for getting me out of bed to come here.
Because it took them too long to look for my daughter.
I begged them from the beginning to look for my daughter.
They never did it.
Why until now are they making this show of searching for my daughter? Why now?
I demand justice and respect for me and my daughter,
a soldier that enlists in the military to serve her country and all of us.
Because God forbid she is found dead, I will shut down this base!
[in Spanish] We will continue on.
[Mayra in English] A couple days later, it was my birthday.
My aunt said, "Have you checked your phone?" And I'm like, "No."
She said, "There's something on the news."
[reporter] There were human remains found here this morning around 11:30.
Bell County Sheriff's Department alerted the FBI, alerted Army CID who came out…
[Mayra] I get a call from Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch.
He was just… very straightforward,
and he described certain things that I can't say.
I just can't say them. They won't come out, and, um…
my aunt hears, like, my cry, and she comes, and she's like,
"You can't let your mom see you." And…
I had to fix myself in, like, two minutes.
So… I had to hold everything in.
[inhales deeply]
Before the officer came, I told my mom.
[Gloria in Spanish] She said, "Mommy, let's talk."
And I said, "They found something, right?" She said, "Yes, they did."
I asked, "What did they find?" She replied, "Mom, you be strong, please."
"Yes, I'll be strong." "Mom, I don't know how to tell you this."
"Tell me, daughter. I'm strong. Tell me." She said, "It was our girl."
I said, "What do you mean, our girl? Did they find her?"
"Yes, Mommy."
"But not the way you wanted."
"Keep going."
She said, "She was murdered."
"No, forget it."
I went crazy at that moment.
I went crazy because of the pain.
I said, "No, it's not our girl." She said, "Mommy, it's our girl."
"Am I going to see her, to hug her, to caress her beautiful, virginal face?"
"Yes, Mommy, but you have to wait."
"Take the tranquilizer. Go to sleep."
"You have to be well for the child, for her burial and all that."
[somber music plays]
"But why did they do that to my daughter? Why?"
"We don't know, Mom."
"Tell me it's a nightmare, daughter."
"No, Mommy."
"It's our little Vanessa."
[bells tolling]
[in Spanish] Long live Vanessa Guillen!
-[crowd in Spanish] Long live! -[applauding]
[somber music ends]
[tense music plays]
[Mayra in English] The area where Vanessa was found,
something was burnt.
They found, like, pieces of plastic.
[wind chime tinkling]
That day we talked to someone on behalf of the Army.
Basically, they threw everything at us,
like, the whole investigation
without sympathy or anything.
Then it came out on the news.
[reporter] When Specialist Vanessa Guillén vanished, several agencies,
including the FBI, descended on Fort Hood to investigate.
And now a new criminal complaint alleges she was murdered.
Specialist Aaron Robinson struck Guillén in the head with a hammer multiple times,
killing her on base before placing her in a box.
[woman] He tells us initially that he went to the unit to do this training,
and then he went back home.
But because we were able to ping his cell phone,
his alibi begins to break down.
A subsequent ping of his cell phone led us to the Leon River.
[reporter 1] Another suspect, 22-year-old Cecily Aguilar,
was charged in connection to Guillén's disappearance.
[reporter 2] In a five-page affidavit, Aguilar confesses to helping him
get rid of Guillén's body.
He took her out to a bridge near the Leon River,
where the couple cut her up, set her on fire,
and buried her in three separate places.
[insects chirping]
[Heather] The day that Vanessa's remains were discovered,
Robinson was actually being held for breaking COVID protocols,
and Army CID leaders failed to let the soldier,
who is in charge of looking over Robinson,
know that he was also suspected of killing Guillén.
[reporter 1] Robinson was allowed to keep his cell phone
and read about Guillén's body being found, calling his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar,
saying, "Baby, they found pieces."
[Heather] That soldier somehow let Robinson escape from his watch.
[reporter 2] Officers located the suspect walking about six miles from Fort Hood.
When police confronted the suspect, he pulled out a weapon and shot himself.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Don] They knew without a doubt that Robinson was the murderer,
and they do not arrest him?
It's a massive failure.
Uh, CID agent should have been fired.
The commander should have been fired. Uh, people should have been punished.
None of that happened.
[Lupe] How can this happen on a military base?
How can this happen while she was on duty?
Fort Hood, "the Great Place," hasn't done anything at all!
And this is the proof they have lied to us!
[melancholic music plays]
[reporter] If the Army was hoping to mend fences
with the Guillén family with this meeting,
I do not believe that happened. And matter of fact, the family stated
that they're just as angry as ever
at how the Army has handled Vanessa Guillén's murder
and the subsequent investigation into her murder.
Lupe Guillén, Vanessa's sister, has told me the family
still does not have several answers. Specifically, why Vanessa was murdered
and why it took the Army so long to zero in on a fellow soldier.
The Army and all the services use the Privacy Act
to keep information away from victims and victims' families.
So the Army will say things like,
"We took appropriate action." And that's all you get to know.
[helicopter blades whirring]
The military criminal justice system
is different than the civilian criminal justice system,
fundamentally, in that the civilian system is controlled by prosecutors and judges.
In the military, it's controlled by a commander,
and that commander's not a lawyer.
[alarm blaring]
They count on survivors and their families staying quiet
or the media not being interested,
and they miscalculated on this case dramatically
because the Guillén family were not gonna stay quiet.
Natalie taught me a lot about how the military has its own jurisdiction,
and there can't be really anything done by civilians
unless it's a higher authority, which in this case is Congress.
So bringing in a bill would be the path to justice.
Since there's no consequences with sexual harassment
and sexual misconduct in the military,
it's a free-for-all.
The only way to fix it is through legislation.
You could put all the policies out there you want.
They have the policy! Is anyone following it? No.
[Lupe] The military has done nothing to face this problem.
Justice is not only about getting answers to my sister's murder.
It's also about trying to help victims.
I think it was our duty to fulfill,
especially for Vanessa, as a victim of sexual harassment.
My family talked about it. I was like, "Do you think this is a good idea?"
"We'd be going back and forth to DC, having to meet with politicians."
"Are you sure you wanna be all the way across the country?"
[Mayra] I was actually born here in Houston.
Been here, basically, all my life.
This whole time that we've lived together,
no one has separated.
Being the oldest, it's a lot of responsibility.
My mom usually needs help
because she's not at her very best right now with her health.
I mean, I feel like, to my siblings,
I'm the big sister, like, and also kind of like a mom to them.
[Lupe] My mom is the first mom. Mayra's the second mom.
Vanessa,
she was like the third mother.
[in Spanish] If I misbehaved at school or got a bad grade,
she scolded me like she was my mom,
and she'd tell me to do my homework and stare at me like, "Are you done yet?"
[upbeat music plays]
[in English] My life before Vanessa's death
was like any normal kid.
Just living day by day, going to school,
playing sports, you know, talking to friends.
I was in tenth grade.
When I think about going back to when my life was normal,
it will never be normal.
[rosary clattering]
Every time that I think… try to find a normal life per se or go back to work
and do what I was doing in the past,
I think about Vanessa.
It kind of became a responsibility
for myself, for my family, to advocate for this.
[Lupe] We had no other choice but to go and fight for a legislation
under my sister's name to help other people.
[train bell ringing]
In order to make legislation into a law,
Congress and senators have to vote on it, and the president has to sign it.
It's a lot of work.
[reporter] Relatives of Vanessa Guillén met today with President Trump,
where he told them the Department of Justice
is investigating her murder.
[Lupe] Natalie set up the meeting with Donald Trump.
[upbeat music ends]
[in Spanish] I'd like your help getting justice for my daughter.
[interpreter in English] She wants your help to bring justice
for what happened to her daughter.
How can this happen on a military base, where you think everything's safe,
but yet, the soldiers are not safe?
We need a congressional investigation because it's impossible
that no one saw or heard anything.
And now, as you know, the DOJ and the FBI are there,
and they're doing a very strong investigation,
as is the Army, so they're doing a very strong investigation.
[in Spanish] You'd be making history with Vanessa.
[in English] You'd be making history with Vanessa,
because we need a change, and the change now,
and we need something positive so the soldiers feel safe to be recruited,
feel safe while serving their nation,
feel honored to serve their nation but to feel respected and safe.
That's how the bill will help them.
We will get to the bottom of a lot of this and maybe all of it. Okay?
-Thank you very much. -[staffer] All right, let's go. Thank you.
-[man] No justice! -[crowd] No peace!
-[woman] What do we want? -[crowd] Justice!
-[woman] When do we want it? -[crowd] Now!
[Lucy] The Guillén family went to meet with the president
to talk about the I Am Vanessa Guillén bill.
[crowd cheers]
Lupe wore these high heels. Y'all probably noticed her heels.
They're gorgeous.
Vanessa bought these for her. So she wanted to wear them for her today.
[woman shouts] Lupe!
It was the first time that I actually saw Lupe get on the stage and speak.
She did not hold back.
[crowd shouts indistinctly]
[tearfully] It's very emotional for me to be here
because, yeah, I was coming barefoot
because, I mean, Vanessa gave me those shoes, and I decided to wear them
because this is for her, not for anyone else.
This is for Vanessa.
-[crowd cheers] -[sniffles]
Because now, my sister is… [sobs]
…with God. She's in a better place.
But then the other survivors, they're here with their families,
but my sister's not.
[woman] Come on, Lupe!
[crowd shouts indistinctly]
[Lupe] President Trump.
He said he's going to support the #IAmVanessaGuillén bill.
And for everyone that said,
"The president will never meet with you," or, "You'll never enter the White House,"
well, we just met him. We have his support.
[crowd cheers]
And let me tell you something. He came up to me
and asked me, "How old are you?" I said, "I'm 16."
[inhales]
He said, "We need people like you. I'm impressed that you're very mature,
and you speak your words, and you're not afraid to talk to no one."
You shouldn't be afraid to talk to no one as well!
[crowd cheers]
Because if we have the president's support,
I want the nation's support,
because this is not a Republican-Democratic issue.
This is not a race issue.
This is a human issue, so it should be everyone's issue.
It's important legislation.
Usually, the ones sexually harassing are someone from the leadership,
someone from the chain of command.
Yet, those same commanders are the ones that take the investigation
into their own hands.
[crowd chanting]
That's what the legislation is, to take it out the chain of command,
have professional, you know, lawyers counseling for the victims.
[reporter] Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin
are leading the bill's efforts.
We were very excited to let the world know that this was actually the bill
that Vanessa Guillén's family sponsored and was behind.
I found that it was best to ask Jackie Speier
to be the sponsor, or the cosponsor, of the bill
because I knew she can get this done.
[Jackie] So I became involved in this in 2010.
The issue was being talked about,
but it was like a throwback to the '50s and '60s.
[tense music plays]
It was talked about in terms of
the reason why it's happening is because women in the military
were wearing provocative clothes or drinking too much.
So in 2011, I introduced the first piece of legislation
to deal with sexual assault in the military.
Sexual assault scandals are the new norm for the military.
This is the result of a legal system beholden to the chain of command
that some are hell-bent on protecting.
You're indicting the whole chain of command here.
That's why I'm emotional about this.
If you take the responsibility from that commanding officer,
then you are eroding his ability to lead.
The resistance came, initially, from the military.
You know, they always mouth the right words,
and yet, it was clearly an epidemic.
We need to have commanders more involved in the solution to this problem,
not less involved.
Commanders need to be part of the good order and discipline
for their units.
[woman] They believed the commanders have to have
exclusive authority over everything.
Historically, commanders were in charge of whether you could get a divorce.
Commanders were in charge of whether a doctor could amputate a leg.
These original laws, 200 years ago,
were designed totally for decisions to be made on the battlefield.
That is not the case anymore.
We've changed how we deal with these things, and we should continue
that change by professionalizing the legal system as well.
If one in five women say they are serving in the military,
and they are receiving unwanted sexual contact,
that's a huge problem.
[Welsh] In the civil sector, they have the same problem.
[Kirsten] It's different in the military. Everything's about the chain of command.
[Don] The chain of command controls the military justice system.
They have complete authority over it.
What I would say this is the equivalent of is,
for example, if someone was an employee at Walmart,
and they were sexually assaulted by another employee,
and that floor manager says, "Okay. Well, I don't believe you. Done."
Or he says, "Well, yeah, I think that's really serious,
so I'm gonna take it to the office manager."
And the office manager says,
"Oh yeah. I don't think anything happened. Go away,"
or the office manager's saying,
"We'll take it up to regional and see what they think."
And regional saying, "We'll take it up to corporate, see what they think,"
and then eventually, some CEO at Walmart decides
whether or not someone's prosecuted. It's absurd.
No one would want to work in a system like that,
but that's what the military has.
The grisly murder of Vanessa Guillén forced the military to recognize
that this was not going to be able to be one of those cases
that you can sweep under the rug.
We were promised that the bill was going to get voted on September 30th,
which is Vanessa's birthday, so we were looking forward to it.
And the day came, and all we got was a call saying
that it wasn't able to be done.
It was disappointing.
This bill was gonna be put out on the floor, and it never happened.
It never went on the floor for a vote.
And so every bill dies if it's not passed by the end of the year,
because next year, there's a whole new Congress,
and that new Congress starts new.
[reporter] Congress took up the bill back in September,
but it failed to advance.
[keyboard clattering]
The I Am Vanessa Guillén Act failed to pass, and, you know, it's frustrating.
[melancholic music plays]
[Mayra] It's sad, you know, to see all these victims,
and I don't know of a way to help people, and nothing's being done.
[thunder rumbling]
[Gloria praying in Spanish]
[Mayra] Ever since what happened with the bill…
it's been really hard on my parents,
and my mom has been sick.
[in Spanish] Move it to the right.
[Mayra] I can never find the thing.
-[in English] There we go. -[in Spanish] There you go.
[Mayra] When are they gonna start taking things out of the room?
[Gloria] When I get some help.
-[Mayra] When? -[Gloria] January, if God allows.
As long as we're all okay.
[quietly] No.
[Gloria] Sickness all around.
After the tragedy, came the sickness.
They say, "Calm comes after the storm." God almighty.
I don't know.
[Gloria] For us, sickness came after the storm.
[tense music plays]
[Mayra in English] I know we don't have it easy, but it's like,
"How do I manage with the stress?"
There's days where I want to shut everyone out.
Then I think back, and I'm like,
"This isn't going to help anyone," so I have to, somehow, just keep going.
[inhales]
Okay.
[reporter 1] New tonight, Cecily Aguilar's defense team
wants her confession tossed out.
[reporter 2] Aguilar's defense attorney claims
she was never read her Miranda rights.
[Lupe] We've recently found out that Cecily Aguilar,
uh, Robinson's girlfriend, was trying to throw out her confession,
meaning everything she said to CID throughout,
and, you know, we're not going to let that happen.
[Gloria in Spanish] God help you and protect you,
both of you, on your long journey.
[speaking Spanish]
My little daughter, God bless you and keep you healthy.
And try not to cry, eh?
Be strong.
[Gloria speaking Spanish]
[Mayra in English] The confession has a huge role in this prosecution.
Without it, I don't even know if there's evidence that would prove her guilty.
[Lupe] We're going to Waco.
We're gonna go to the courthouse
and hear what she has to say.
[Gloria in Spanish] I am proud of them 'cause they're doing it for their sister.
And as they promised her,
they were gonna do everything they could to get to the truth.
[Natalie in English] It's like, "How dare you?"
The family has a right to have some closure
in their loss of their daughter.
[Mayra] The biggest question of them all is, "Why?"
"Why take her life? And then, basically, get rid of her completely?"
I just don't understand how Aguilar helped him do such things.
I honestly hope that they're questioning Aguilar to see what she knows.
[Lupe] Justice! Justice!
[crowd joins] Justice for Vanessa!
-[Lupe] What do we want? -[crowd] Justice!
-[Lupe] When do we want it? -[crowd] Now!
[Lupe] My parents and my family did not want me
to go into the courthouse
because of my age, and going through it would have been kind of traumatic.
-What's her name? -[crowd] Vanessa!
-Loud and proud! What do we want? -[crowd] Justice!
Justice! Justice! Justice for Vanessa!
So I was like, "Well, if I can't do anything inside,
then at least, I did something outside."
I feel that it's… it would be a great idea to spend right now
connecting as a community, so if anyone is willing to, like,
speak and say their name, like, raise your hand or anything, I don't know.
We're gonna pass it around. Okay?
-[woman 1 talks indistinctly] -Mm-hmm.
[woman 1 in Spanish] Good afternoon. I came from Austin.
If we unite to demand justice for Vanessa, we will get justice.
-[horn honking] -[crowd applauds]
[woman 2 in English] This means a lot 'cause I'm a survivor of sexual assault.
You know, I hear lots of people say, "Oh, I'm not gonna make a difference."
Well, I'm one person, and I'm here, and my voice is loud.
-[horn honks] -[crowd applauds]
All of us have a voice. That's why I say, "Be the voice. Be the change."
We're here with you. Your fight is our fight.
[Lupe] No matter the age, no matter the gender, no matter the race,
in order for change to happen, we have to speak up.
My name's Lupe Guillén.
Um, I'm 17 years old. I'm still in high school.
I'm Vanessa's youngest sister.
When I was four or five years old,
I had speaking problems. I couldn't talk at all.
I started speaking at the age of seven.
And I was ashamed for that, so I used to, like, just stay quiet.
I didn't even try because, when I tried, like, I couldn't get it out,
and it's like getting bullied for it.
And I guess now,
it drove me to, like, a very, you know, spoken-out person.
I express my opinion when I have to.
And I'm speaking for a good cause, and I'm here for it.
The woman named Cecily Ann Aguilar is in there, inside, facing my family.
[sniffles]
And she still has the nerve to show her face after what she did to my sister.
[somber music plays]
You saw a body being dismembered, being burned.
And then you have the energy to dig up holes, to drive to a river,
to be quiet for two months even though you saw us in the news
every single day.
[sobs]
She stole the chance for me to see her one more time.
[sniffles]
But my mom always says, "You just have to keep fighting,"
and every single day, I remind myself, "This is not only about Vanessa."
[sniffles]
It's about all of us.
We hope that everything that's going on inside goes as we want.
-So thank you. -[horn honks]
[crowd applauds]
[Natalie] We just got out of our hearing.
The judge denied their request to suppress Cecily Aguilar's statement,
her confession, uh, with what happened.
One of the things we learned was that Cecily tried to allege
that Aaron Robinson put a gun to her head
the night that she helped him, uh, dispose of Vanessa's body.
That was, you know, something that we find hard to believe.
We're sure it's just part of her defense tactics.
So, trying to spin the truth
and the law didn't work today in her favor,
and, hopefully, justice will prevail in this case.
[Lupe] This is a step on the right direction.
This is a step to justice for my sister, justice for Vanessa Guillén.
And we will never stop fighting. We'll keep pushing.
-[woman in Spanish] Justice for Vanessa! -[crowd] Justice for Vanessa!
Justice for Vanessa!
-[man] Justice for Vanessa! -[crowd] Justice for Vanessa!
[reporter 1 in English] Tonight, the US Army is releasing
a scathing report saying leaders at Fort Hood in Texas
ignored complaints of sexual harassment from Vanessa Guillén.
[reporter 2] Army officials confirmed what Vanessa Guillén's family
have been saying all along,
that she was sexually harassed on Fort Hood.
[Gloria in Spanish] It was proven there was sexual harassment.
Is that what you were investigating for five months?
Is that what you had me in anguish for?
That was the criminal investigation from the Army,
to say what I had already told them.
It was for that?
By God, everyone knows that already.
I know it being her mother. You don't have forgiveness from God.
[in English] I'm actually glad that they were confirming
what we were saying the whole time.
That we weren't just saying things to say them.
Because at some point, they were like,
"You're lying about sexual harassment. There's no proof."
This is an example of why we have this broken trust with the Army.
[melancholic music plays]
[Heather] The report found that in the summer of 2019,
one of Vanessa's superiors tried to solicit her for a threesome.
Later during a field training exercise, that same supervisor approached her
as she was performing personal hygiene in the woods.
She told her friends, and she told her superior
that she was afraid
that she was going to be retaliated against.
How long did Fort Hood leadership know that she was sexually harassed?
Was this common knowledge when they were repeatedly saying
that there was no evidence to prove that she was?
Army leaders were asked several times if they'd release
the name of Vanessa Guillén's harasser, and they refused to do so.
They also couldn't say whether or not that person
would face criminal charges in the future.
[Mayra] From talking to different soldiers at the base,
there wasn't only one supervisor harassing her, but two.
There's still one of them currently serving at Fort Hood.
He's still getting his salary. Um, it's like nothing happened.
[truck engine revving]
He can still harm another person.
[reporter] According to investigators, this incident has no connection
to her alleged killer, specialist Aaron Robinson,
and there is no credible evidence that he harassed her,
but he had harassed someone else.
[Natalie] They think that if they keep on saying
that Robinson did not sexually harass Vanessa, that we'll believe it.
Given his reputation,
there is a high likelihood that that happened more than anything.
They have no idea because of their poor investigation
of what he did to Vanessa before he killed her.
I'd say it's more likely than anything that he killed her during the process
of a sexual assault.
[helicopter blades whirring]
Without a doubt to me, the Army's number one concern was
to detach the murder from any allegation of sexual harassment or sexual assault.
They were in the middle of the fight on the hill,
and they could not have this family and Vanessa's disappearance
be used as ammunition against them.
The Army wasn't going to change on their own.
The Army's only concern was about protecting the Army,
and so legislation was the only real, uh, response to this.
[Lupe] If the legislation gets reintroduced,
victims will get the justice that my sister did not get.
And so we have to keep going with it no matter how long it takes.
[Mayra] Now that time did go by,
it just makes things even harder.
But at the end of the day, we have to find a way to get this done.
If we got Congress to listen, then we can get Congress to pass the bill.
[tense music plays]
[Natalie] What we decide to do is reintroduce a new bill
and hope that that gets passed, because this is our last chance.
There's no way that we're gonna have the momentum in the campaign
like we have this year ever again.
-[tense music ends] -[plane engines roaring]
[Lupe] After the presidential elections under Biden's Administration,
we decided to introduce the I Am Vanessa Guillén bill
for the second time.
We hope, you know, we get all the support to pass the House, the Senate,
and go to the president to be signed into law.
-[Mayra in Spanish] How are you feeling? -[Gloria over the phone] A bit better.
[Mayra] Okay.
[Gloria] Tell Lupe to eat.
Yes, look at this.
Eat that fruit.
-It's healthy. -[Mayra laughs]
[Mayra] Okay, let's talk later.
[man in English] Tell Natalie thanks for everything.
[Mayra] Yes.
-[man] Okay, mija, bye-bye. -[Gloria in Spanish] You're in my prayers.
-[in English] Bye. Bye. -[man in Spanish] Bye.
-[crowd talks indistinctly] -[camera shutter clicks]
[Natalie in English] To say, "What is justice?"
Justice isn't only incarcerating
or holding the person who was part of the murder accountable.
It's also about… fairness.
Hello. Hi, Speaker. Mayra Guillén. Nice to see you again. It's been a while.
-[Speaker laughs] We promised you. -[Mayra] Thank you.
-[Lupe] Good to see you, Speaker. -[Speaker] Hi, Lupe. How are you?
Nice to see you again.
[Natalie] We're never gonna get Vanessa back,
but I believe, if this was my daughter,
that the greatest thing you could ever do is
have a law in your name
and change history with that law, and that would be, in a sense, justice.
[Speaker] Good afternoon, everyone.
As Speaker, I'm proud to support Jackie Speier's I Am Vanessa Guillén Act.
I thank you for helping us all keep our promise we made a year ago
to the family that we would have legislation
and it would make a difference.
[Lupe] So we must be the voice, be the change and honor my sister.
[Mayra] We're here to ensure that her name won't be forgotten.
This change needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.
-[Lupe in Spanish] My mom says hi. -[Sylvia] Thank you.
-[Lupe] She thanks you for being with us. -[Sylvia] Thank you for your words.
[Lupe in English] Oh, look how my feet are.
[Mayra] Why did you wear those shoes?
[Lupe] I don't know.
-Can we go take a picture over there? -[Natalie] That's what I wanted. Come.
-[Lupe] We're taking a picture quickly. -[Mayra] Yeah.
[Lupe sighs]
[Natalie] Okay, one.
We've been seeing senators and congresswomen and men
fighting for this for a decade.
And it's every year, it's died and died and died.
It becomes, like, one of those, "We don't wanna talk about this issue."
I realized I have a bullhorn, and I need to make sure
that everybody heard about it and every reporter knows.
This is not gonna die on my watch. This has to change.
[elevator dings]
And we have this machine rolling now, and we just got to get it passed into law.
[Jackie] You have been very powerful in convincing members of Congress,
but some members that supported it last year are not supporting it this year,
so talk to them.
[Mayra] We have meetings with congressmen, congresswomen to try to convince them
to say yes to the bill.
Right now, we're hoping to get a vote on it before the year ends
because, if not, we would have to start all over again next year.
-[woman] Hi. -[Natalie] Hi, Senator.
How are you? Natalie Khawam. Good to see you again.
-And this is Mayra Guillén. -[Mayra] Mayra.
[Natalie] It's important that we keep the pressure on
and that we make sure that this is a household issue, a mainstream issue.
[tense music plays]
We are hopeful and believe the legislation will be passed this year.
We're gaining traction on this.
And for me, a turning point was… was your sister.
[Mayra] Talking about Vanessa's murder often,
it brings a lot of memories.
So having to be repetitive over and over again,
it's hard.
When you suffer the loss that you did in such a horrible way,
the human instinct is
to, what the Bible calls, "curse the darkness."
[Mayra] Hmm.
The saintly instinct is to light a candle.
That's what you're doing so it doesn't happen to anyone again.
-[Mayra] Right. -Touching.
[Natalie] There was a lot of highs and lows
with who I felt like were gonna be on the good team
and who were gonna be on the team that was gonna fight us.
The basic ethic of the military
is to protect your colleagues and subordinates, not to exploit them.
Right.
[Don] Despite all the momentum, there's still strong resistance
within senior senators
and senior congresspeople serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee
and the House Armed Services Committee to really sweeping fundamental reform.
[Lupe] The determination that Vanessa always used to have comes into my mind.
I'm going to do this in her memory.
But I hate being, like, days and days far from my family,
especially from my mom.
[congressman] How are you doing? How are you holding up?
-[Lupe] Okay. It's just frustrating. -[congressman] It's very frustrating.
[Lupe] 'Cause traveling back and forth to DC and have nothing in our hands.
We're just waiting for the legislation to pass.
-So… -[congressman] Yeah.
Government's not made to work fast.
Unfortunately, it's made to work very slow.
And a lot of times, you get one shot at legislation,
because, if you get it to the floor, and it fails,
the chance of you getting it back to the floor are just not good.
So right now, there is some opposition to it.
Timing is the most important thing,
and I don't know when that timing's gonna come available.
[melancholic music plays]
Lupe spoke out so much that it affected her emotionally a lot.
So I try to tell her, basically, that I'm proud of her.
[Lupe] I never got the chance to grieve until now.
That's why, you know, it's been hard.
I tried to, like, you know, do it the right way.
Yet there's no right way to grieve,
and the anxiety you build up, I guess,
now I get nervous no matter with one, two people, I--
You know, it's something that it's now affecting me in my daily life.
[melancholic music continues]
It's been overwhelming.
I've kind of separated myself from a lot of things,
like my friends
and playing soccer.
The memory just comes back of me playing soccer with my sister
and the way I'm never going to be able to do that again.
Now, I'm trying to go back to the way it was,
but after going through a lot of stuff,
the way you see the world, you see it way differently.
I think all of us always need a break.
Especially for our mental health.
[birds chirping]
I'm not giving up on my sister.
I'll be fighting for her, even if it's in the background.
[Mayra] Lupe was forced to grow up.
Now she has to go back to school
and try to focus on getting back to normal.
She deserves to enjoy her life.
[Lupe] I need 300 more words in the essay.
I think I wrote it really, really good.
Yeah, I can review it. Just send it to me when you're done so I can read it.
[Natalie] Hi, Lupe. I like your bangs. [laughs]
[Mayra] Natalie works hard,
but she's also a very fun person to be around.
I've always told her, "You're not one of those nine-to-five lawyers
that I can't… like, after five, I can't call you and stuff like that."
-[CJ] Hello? -It's Mayra and me, Natalie.
[laughs] She took over my phone, Landy.
She's been there for me,
not only as a lawyer, but as a good friend,
and she's even treated me like a daughter,
so I… I appreciate her a lot.
Thanks, Landy. Talk to you later.
-[CJ] All right. Bye. -Bye.
[Natalie] This is not just a job for me.
This is… a commitment,
and my commitment to my family is just as strong.
My parents are from Lebanon, and we left, uh, because of the civil war.
My dad really wanted me to help others, and he said,
"This is you giving back to this country that gave to you."
I'm proud to be Lebanese, but I'm American to the core.
Daddy, would you like the lights off? Are they distracting?
[beat starts, stops]
I'm trying to get the… the beat to…
[upbeat music plays]
[all clapping to the beat]
[Natalie] Being an immigrant, you wanna help other immigrants.
This is a calling.
It's about becoming an extended family on a mission.
[upbeat music ends]
[all applaud]
[insects chirping]
[reporter] New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's lengthy battle
with the Pentagon to change the way victims of sexual assault
in the military are treated has cleared a major hurdle.
[Natalie] So just as an FYI, just a quick and dirty of this,
the Gillibrand bill is expansive. It's more expansive.
We really are doing the bill on just sexual assault in the military,
which is what our focus was.
She's doing her bill on all misdemeanors gonna be out of the chain of command.
Versus us, we were just focused on the… the sexual assault.
When we finally got through the process, and we had Jackie Speier
championing the I Am Vanessa Guillén bill, we saw that Gillibrand had her bill,
and that almost became, in a sense, competing bills.
Even though one's in Senate, one's in the House,
it was gonna put everybody in a position of, "Which one do we want?"
So everything's changed right now.
We're flying out to meet with Senator Gillibrand, but obviously,
working together is what our goal is.
To accomplish some legislation to come out of this together.
[upbeat music plays]
[Jackie] Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has a bill on the Senate side
that she has worked very hard on. Um, I have a bill on the House side.
Both bills take these cases
of sexual assault out of the chain of command.
They are similar, but they are not exact.
So what needs to happen through this process
is that we come up with, um, a single version.
-Great to see you. -Thank you for being here.
You must be tired of coming to Washington over and over again…
-It's an experience. -To just keep demanding justice.
-It's a calling, really. -Yeah.
It's a full-time effort,
but I think the work you've done to bring a coalition of people
behind this idea really matters.
Lifting your voice up by coming to Washington
and knocking on doors and demanding meetings with senators works.
I think it's essential.
But I would not let people celebrate what's in the House version.
It's a good first step.
And we're very proud of the work we've done to get it that far,
but it's not enough.
It does sexual assault and harassment, but Vanessa's case would not be included
because it doesn't include murder cases.
Right.
So we just have to be really clear about that because, unfortunately,
what happens behind closed doors is they take out reforms
that the DOD is not comfortable with.
[Mayra] Right.
And there will be four men in that conference room,
and they do not support the full Vanessa Guillén Act.
We have to really push on them, to insist.
I completely agree.
This is a family that has been through hell and back,
trying to give voice to their murdered sister and daughter.
It's important that her case would have had
this independent justice system.
Having their advocacy, having their support, and having a coalition
of the leads in the House and all of us in the Senate
is a defining aspect of this legislation and moving it forward.
So what we decide to do is marry the two bills, come together,
and know that we have the House and the Senate in support of this,
which is a great move strategically.
So everything is-- I always say, "You can have all the plans you want
and then go to the Hill and realize every day is a new day."
-Stay well. Stay strong. -[Mayra] Will do.
-[Natalie] We're gonna do this. -Thank you for your leadership.
-[Mayra] Thank you. -[Natalie] Thank you for all your support.
[Jackie] Today we announce
the Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement
Increasing Prevention Act.
Senator Gillibrand and I have dedicated the better part of ten years
to right this wrong.
We will pass this bill this year.
[Natalie] We're really close to the end.
This is like the final inning. If we don't get this, it's game over.
This is our last chance.
[triumphant music plays]
[reporter 1] The push to overhaul the military's handling
of sexual assault cases is moving towards becoming law.
[reporter 2] The US House voted Wednesday to pass
the National Defense Authorization Act,
which contains the revised I Am Vanessa Guillén Act.
[reporter 3] The bill now moves to the Senate before it makes its way
to the White House.
[Mayra] And there we go.
So the bill did get passed in the House.
Now, we're just waiting for the Senate vote.
[Natalie inhales]
[Mayra] It's crazy.
When things like this happen or even with the courts,
I can't sleep as much as I would want to. Like, I'm just anxious,
like, wanting to get it over with,
so that's me, like, I hate doing that, but I can't help it either.
[Natalie] Okay. Thank you.
[Mayra] So…
[Mayra humming]
…basically, the cheeks is what…
[Natalie] Do whatever you wanna do.
[upbeat music plays]
I like how you do the white under your eye and your eyelid.
I now see it.
[Mayra] Otherwise, my eyes would be closed.
I would look like I have closed eyes in the pictures.
I really want to stay positive, but I got to protect my clients
and their expectations.
I would hate to think that they raise our hopes up this high
to, like, just let it drop, so… But you never know.
[birds chirping]
[reporter] This bill includes historic, sweeping reforms
in how the military investigates and prosecutes sexual assault.
Clerk, call the roll.
[clerk] Mr. Wyden, no.
Mr. Hoeven. Mr. Hoeven, aye.
Mrs. Hyde-Smith. Mrs. Hyde-Smith, aye.
Mr. Durbin. Mr. Durbin, aye.
Mr. Warner. Mr. Warner, aye.
Miss Ernst, aye.
Mr. Whitehouse, aye.
On this vote, the yeas are 89. The nays are 10.
The motion to concur is agreed to.
[reporter] Lawmakers for the first time agreeing on legislation
that would hand military sexual assault cases
to an independent prosecutor outside the chain of command.
It's being called "historic reforms" to how the military investigates
and prosecutes sexual assault.
A lot of folks have been hailing this new legislation, this agreement,
as a sea change, a giant leap forward.
[dramatic music plays]
TODAY, TOMORROW, ALWAYS JUSTICE FOR #VANESSAGUILLÉN
-[Natalie] Congratulations. -Thank you, Nana.
[Natalie] You did it.
"We." [chuckles] I wouldn't have been able to do anything without you.
[Natalie] I couldn't do it without you either.
-Thank you. -I'm proud of you.
This has been worked on for over ten years now.
To see we were able to accomplish it, it's something that I ask myself,
"How did… how did we do it?"
I mean, it shows, uh, the drive that family love can have,
and it proves that if you want to move mountains, you can.
President Biden signed an executive order today to make sexual harassment
a crime under military law.
These are historic changes and a step forward
in a decades-long battle for reform.
We made landmark reforms in military justice and to help end
the epidemic of sexual violence and harassment in our armed forces.
[crowd applauds]
[Lupe] I'm just so proud of Mayra for having the courage,
even though she doesn't like being in the public eye.
To pass this legislation, I feel that
Vanessa, you know, she didn't die in vain.
[Lucy] What's so incredible about this is that we saw a family
stand strong and make change.
[reporter] Senator Gillibrand, you said, "Yes, it does have some major reforms,
but it doesn't go far enough," and you voted against it. Why?
[Kirsten] We had such a groundswell of support,
and unfortunately, the conference committee
chose to retain enormous amount of authority within the chain of command.
Being able to offer a discharge, deciding which evidence is allowed,
which expert witness is allowed, um, even just deciding judge, jury,
prosecutor, defense counsel,
it's all still sitting with Commander so-and-so,
the decision of whether or not to prosecute.
That's the only decision
that the independent prosecutor gets to make,
but it's a positive step because at least you have the beginning
of a system that could eventually be independent.
We just need to keep advocating. We need to keep pushing back.
We need to keep explaining why just one step isn't adequate,
that you need to fix the whole system.
[truck engine revving]
[Lucy shouts] Say her name!
[crowd] Vanessa Guillén!
[Lucy] Say her name!
-[crowd] Vanessa Guillén! -[man] Vanessa!
[crowd in Spanish] Present!
-[man] Vanessa! -[crowd in Spanish] Present!
[woman in Spanish] Hello, how are you? How have you been?
[in Spanish] Good.
[Mayra in English] There's so many things I could say.
It's the second-year anniversary, and it feels like it was just yesterday…
Long story short, the bill has been passed.
Uh, it was a lot of hard work, and there's…
[crowd cheering]
There's, um, still more work to do
on behalf of Vanessa and a lot of, uh, service members
that are still currently suffering in silence,
so, this year, I'll be in DC again. We're trying to get another act
with all provisions that we proposed the first year,
and, um, thank you, everyone, for coming today, and it means a lot.
[crowd cheers]
[Don] Vanessa Guillén's legacy in history is going to be defined as
the person who changed the process.
I've been saying the military was just one scandal away from real reform,
and… and Vanessa, unfortunately, was that scandal.
[Gloria speaking Spanish]
[Don] If her family had stayed silent,
I don't know if we'd be where we are.
You know, the price they've paid
is immeasurable, but the impact they've had is also immeasurable.
[woman] Guadalupe Guillén.
[crowd cheers, whistles]
[Lupe] The last few months of my life, I graduated high school.
And I've been recently playing soccer.
I want to get into journalism and go to college, get my diploma,
and make my parents proud, make my sister proud.
[triumphant music plays]
[birds chirping]
[Mayra] I would say I grew a lot as a person.
Especially in politics.
I do see myself, hopefully, one day, running for office
and continuing to use my voice in order to get positive things done.
It's a miracle that we were able to do such a thing after so many decades
of actual lawmakers trying.
It's crazy how, when we placed her here, all of that was empty.
Now it's full.
[Lupe] Well, we all die.
Yet, we shouldn't die by getting killed.
Now I just have to acknowledge that
I may never know the answer of what happened to my sister.
Going through this tough journey, it has taught me so much.
Time goes by fast.
Life is short, and while you're living life,
you have to, you know, cherish every moment.
[Gloria in Spanish] My little piece of heaven, my Vanessa,
in my heart and in everybody's heart around the world…
because everybody got to know her.
Now I understand why I felt something special for my daughter.
Because God our Lord was lending her to me for a short time.
She already had a destiny planned out,
and she had a purpose.
STRONGER TOGETHER
HAIL THE CAUSE HAIL THE RACE AND HAIL UNITY!
[triumphant music ends]
[martial music starts]
[martial music ends]
["Vanessa Guillén" by Ivonne Galaz plays]
["Vanessa Guillén" by Ivonne Galaz ends]
[somber music plays]
[somber music ends]