'The Prosecutor' Documentary Recap: Does Sayuri Herrera Leave The Department In The End?

The Prosecutor is a new Spanish-language documentary series from Mexico that has been released on Netflix and should be on the watchlist of any serious fan of the non-fiction genre. Over 3 episodes that have a genuine intent without any form of sensationalizing, the series introduces us to Sayuri Herrera Roman, the director of the Femicide Department in Mexico City, who investigates numerous crimes against women. In a world where femicide is drastically on the rise, The Prosecutor raises very pertinent questions about society and culture, reminding us how fighting for the right cause, even when there is ample proof to substantiate the fight, can become a brutally difficult task.

How is Sayuri Herrera’s story inspiring?

The Prosecutor begins with the appointment of Sayuri Herrera Roman, a professional lawyer, as the director of the Femicide Department in the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City. To begin with, this is the first time that the administrative office has created such a department to counter the growing number of femicides, or crimes targeting women, in the city, with the hopes of encouraging other administrative offices in the rest of the country to follow suit. Ernestina Godoy, the attorney general of Mexico City since 2020, decides on the need to address femicide as a serious problem that the government should tackle, and starts the department. As she explains, the authorities had deemed it best to open the position of the director of this department to public applications, encouraging any practicing lawyer to apply, and this was how Sayuri had been selected and the news of her appointment announced on social media.

But Sayuri is no ordinary lawyer, and so the social media announcement does create ripples in certain sections of society. As the series presents in a neat and concise manner, Sayuri Herrera already brings with her a solid profile of achievements and successes as an activist. This was also the very reason why the rest of the public prosecutors resigned from office the day she joined, in protest against her appointment, as they considered her to be ‘not institutional,’ and therefore not worth working with. As it so happened, Sayuri belonged to the famous, or notorious (depends on who you ask), batch of 1999 at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the largest university in Latin America. The authorities at the university announced in 1999 that they were about to significantly increase the tuition fees and also bring in stricter rules for graduation, which led to a large-scale protest, and this was when Sayuri’s activism truly began.

The protesting students pointed to the article in the Mexican Constitution that stated that all education imparted by the state must be free, claiming that the UNAM authorities were going against the very constitution of the country. Although UNAM had been charging some negligible fees until that point, its decision to raise the fee significantly effectively meant that many would be unable to pursue education at the esteemed institute. The students, who had called for a total strike, were deemed criminals by the state, both because of their anti-authoritarian movement, and also because of some of their ties with the Zapatista National Liberation Army. The EZLN, or simply Zapatistas, are a far-left militant and political group that still claims to be at war with the Mexican state, with their ideology being one of civil resistance leading to an armed resistance to overthrow the government and the political setup in the country.

Sayuri admits to having been inspired and taught important lessons by the Zapatista movement, which largely called for social equality and freedom for people from all classes. She had already decided to become a lawyer by the time the protests had broken out, and had applied to law school as well. She recalls how her father, who had been cheated into becoming a laborer after selling off his farmland, had been helped by a female lawyer, who had inspired her to follow the same profession. After graduating from law school, Sayuri started practicing as a lawyer, helping those who had been made victims of class exploitation and also female victims of sexual violence. 

When a student named Lesvy Osorio was found strangled with a telephone cord at the UNAM campus, Sayuri took up the case, representing her family, and fought hard to prove that it had been a case of femicide. Encouraged by the massive support she received from the masses, and also by the satisfaction of bringing justice to the family of the victim, she continued working femicide cases from then on, and when the position for the director of the newly created Femicide Department opened, she immediately applied. Because of her stellar career as a lawyer, she was selected and backed by Ernestina Godoy, even though she did not really come from within the institution of public authority and was seen as an enemy by most because of her work as an activist. Now, she expresses hope and enthusiasm to put in her best efforts and fight the just fight for victims of femicide, even though a section of the country, including the politicians, do not even want to accept femicide as a serious matter to address.

How do even homes become unsafe for women in some instances?

The Prosecutor takes us deep into multiple cases that Sayuri and her team investigate over the course of a few weeks, from which a number of matters become evident. Among these is the very shocking realization of how women are often unsafe and in danger even inside their own homes, for the individuals, the men, who had once taken vows and made promises to protect them now turn against them for various reasons that can never be justified. In most homicide cases all over the world where the victim is a woman, chances are that their husband/partner turns out to be the perpetrator. Mexico City is no different from the rest of the world in this context, and what is even more shocking is the sheer lack of guilt or remorse the murderers show after being caught. In many cases, they try to present their stories and their motivations in such a manner as if expecting the court to understand and support their instinctive acts. One such case shown in the series is that of Joan Esmeralda, a mother of two who had been murdered in her own home.

Joan’s family members reveal how there had been signs of abuse in her marriage with Juan Perez, a man with obvious anger issues. While the family tried to do something about Joan not having responded to their calls or messages in quite some time and essentially having gone missing, Perez walked into a local police station and simply confessed to having murdered his wife. Throughout the police investigation and then the court trial that followed, he cooperated with the authorities completely and stated without any remorse that he killed his wife after realizing that she had been having affairs behind his back. In reality, Joan had not been able to leave her husband despite his terrible behavior, because she already had two daughters with him. But she had eventually decided to divorce him, which infuriated Perez. Despite his claims of having acted ‘out of love,’ the court sentenced him to 70 years in prison, without the possibility of parole.

The second case is that of Karen Itzel, who went missing in the Tlahuac borough in CDMX, and when her mother, Nadya, asked Karen’s husband, Jose Luis, to file a missing complaint, he suspiciously said that he would go ahead and do it and that Nadya need not bother about the situation. But Nadya remained persistent that action be taken right away, and that she also accompany Jose Luis to the police station, which surely changed the course of the situation. After weeks of investigation, the shocking truth was revealed—although Jose Luis had told everyone that Karen had gone missing after leaving home to submit her bachelor’s thesis at her university, she had actually never left the house on that fateful day. According to the testimony of her young son, Karen got involved in an argument with her parents-in-law, Jose Luis Sr. and Martha Beatriz, who beat her violently, before her husband joined in too. Karen was murdered in her own home, and then her body was dumped by the two men, following which the family pretended nothing unusual had happened. Just like Perez in the previous case, Jose Luis showed no remorse either, even after he was sentenced to 105 years in prison for the femicide.

How do the incidents shed light on systemic corruption?

The Prosecutor also sheds light on the systemic corruption that exists in Mexico to this day, once again through the femicide cases that Sayuri and her team have to investigate and solve. The first case in this instance is that of Yrma Lydya, a 21-year-old woman who dreamt of becoming a famous singer in the country, and possibly on the global scene as well. But her life, and all her dreams, sadly ended inside the Suntory Restaurant in the posh and affluent Del Valle neighborhood of CDMX, where Yrma’s lifeless body was discovered by the police. According to the witnesses, Yrma had been dining with her husband, 70-year-old Jesus Alcocer, when an argument broke out between the two, following which Alcocer shot Yrma thrice, killing her on the spot. He then fled the scene with his two bodyguards, but was soon arrested by the police and charged with the femicide.

But Jesus Alcocer happened to be a very famous and influential lawyer with a long and distinguished career, during which time he personally got to know a lot of powerful individuals in the government. He had ties with Genaro García Luna, who was once the Secretary of Public Security and was also then convicted as a drug trafficker. Ernestina Godoy, the attorney general of CDMX, admits in the docuseries that she too personally knew Alcocer because of his work as a lawyer. Therefore, as soon as he is arrested and charged with the crime, Alcocer knocks on every possible door and makes every possible attempt to save himself from the law. Despite having claimed that he was ready to go to prison after committing the murder, he now tried to bribe individuals and make use of his corrupt contacts to get away with the crime. However, Jesus Alcocer ultimately died a painful death while in custody, awaiting sentencing.

The other case, that of Ariadna Fernanda, is even more shocking, as the perpetrator almost managed to get away because of the rampant corruption in the country. Ariadna’s body was discovered in a vacant lot in the state of Morelos, and since she was a resident of CDMX and had been reported missing by her family in the city, Sayuri and her team could take over the investigation. Ariadna was last known to have been hanging out with her friend, Rautel Astudillo, at his house in the Condesa neighborhood, along with Rautel’s girlfriend, Vanessa Flores. Rautel’s claims about what had happened started feeling odd to Ariadna’s other friends and also the authorities right after her body had been discovered in Morelos, as he first claimed that Ariadna had left her house in an Uber but then changed the story and stated that one of his bodyguards had taken her home. Since the dead body had been discovered in Condesa, the authorities there conducted the primary investigation and were in a real hurry to close the case, as they stated that the death had been caused by alcohol poisoning, with no sign of it being a femicide.

Sayuri had to go through a lot of effort to ensure that her team could take on the investigation and even take a look at the evidence in the case, which quickly revealed the whole truth. In the footage from a security camera outside Rautel’s home, he was clearly seen carrying out Ariadna’s lifeless body into his car, following which he dumped it in a lot in Morelos. The spot was specifically chosen because of the fact that Rautel hailed from an influential family in the Morelos State, and so he was confident that his crime would easily be covered up. He almost succeeded as well, as the prosecutor in Morelos, Uriel Carmona Gandara, did try his best to cover up the whole matter, claiming that there was no sign of an unnatural death, even though the dead body showed clear signs of violence and trauma. Ultimately, Rautel was charged with femicide, and his girlfriend, Vanessa, was considered the co-perpetrator, with both of them fleeing. After a few months, Vanessa was finally arrested, following which Rautel surrendered as well. Uriel Gandara was criminally charged as well, but corrupt politics took over, as Ernestina Godoy was replaced by Gandara’s own wife, who quickly set him free. 

Does Sayuri Herrera leave the department in the end?

Sayuri Herrera goes through a number of developments in her personal and professional lives throughout The Prosecutor, with the most significant one being that she becomes a mother. After having initially believed that it would be unfair to bring a child into this cruel and unfair world, Sayuri eventually decides to help out a baby, specifically a girl, who has already been born and whose life could perhaps be brightened by her. Therefore, she adopts a baby girl and starts raising her as a single mother. At one point, she faces obstacles from her immediate senior in the Prosecutor’s Office, but thankfully, Godoy helps her out by having the senior removed from the position. But the situation gets tougher when Godoy is ultimately removed, and she also wants to focus more on giving time and company to her daughter. Therefore, when Sayuri Herrera receives an offer from the Women’s Secretariat to be a part of their new drive to implement gender-specialized prosecuting offices all over the country, she accepts the new role, bidding farewell to the prosecutor’s office in Mexico City. While her time in the position of the head of the Femicide Department does come to an end, Sayuri does not obviously end her efforts to bring social justice and equality or at least to ensure that women are safe in the country.

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