Armed to the Teeth

Chilling and heartbreaking reconstruction of the murder of two students by the Mexican army in 2010. When Jorge and Javier go out one night, they are killed by soldiers chasing criminals. Relatives go on a search for truth and justice, but the cover-up reaches to the highest levels.

Jorge Mercado and Javier Arredondo are students at a tech university in the Mexican city of Monterrey. One night, just when they leave the campus to go out, they walk into a firefight between the army and sicarios – drug cartel members. When they are killed by soldiers, their dead bodies are tampered with to make it look like they were criminals. The government claims that the two were ‘gunmen’ who were ‘armed to the teeth’.

In the heartbreaking documentary Armed to the Teeth (Hasta los Dientes), the story of Jorge and Javier is told by parents, relatives and friends, who move back and forth between a terrible sadness and a great hunger for truth and justice. Witness accounts, underscored by security camera and cellphone footage, provide a chillingly detailed reconstruction of what happened on that fateful night in 2010.

Armed to the Teeth has been selected for the Camera Justitia competition.