San Juan de los Planes, Baja California Sur: Hit Men Kidnap A Couple At A Wedding

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

San Juan Bautista Church in the region of San Juan de Los Planes, municipality of La Paz

On Saturday, October 8, a wedding was being celebrated in the San Juan Bautista Church in the San Juan de los Planes Delegation, municipality of La Paz, when at the end of the mass an armed criminal cell of at least 30 gunmen with rifles and grenades burst in.

After the Eucharistic celebration, officiated by Father Moncada, at approximately 6:45 p.m. the attendees were having a photo session with the priest and guests when the gunmen entered. They asked for a couple from Tijuana, Baja California, whom they were supposed to pick up and who, according to what they said, they intended to disappear.

Seeing that they did not respond, the armed men were ready to abduct the couple, whom they pointed out as the couple from Tijuana, however, one of the assistants insisted that wasn’t them.

"If its not them, we'll take them until the intended targets show up," the gunmen warned.

Relatives of the bride and groom volunteered in their place. Once handcuffed, the volunteer and his partner were taken out of the temple, despite the insistence of the priest who officiated the mass to let them go, because according to them, they were not the people they were looking for. They were taken out of the place and taken towards an unknown direction.

Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz, Bishop of the Diocese of La Paz, denounced the break in of an armed criminal cell in the church of Los Planes when a wedding was taking place.

At Sunday Mass on October 9, the Bishop of the Diocese of La Paz, Miguel Angel Alba Diaz, reported:

"Yesterday, Saturday, at the end of a wedding, in the parish temple of Los Planes, while the bride and groom took pictures with the priest, with the godparents and the people, exchanged hugs and congratulations, a group of more than 30 armed men entered the temple, they were looking for a couple who fortunately were not there, the people were frightened, they were afraid, they kidnapped a couple that thank God was released half an hour later, things didn’t escalate beyond that.

 "I thank the parish priest of Los Planes, Father Mondaca, a young priest, for his courage in facing the situation, his prudence in calming the situation. I send him a hug, he is not alone, I thank you all for your attention, and I hope that our churches will enjoy more security.

The State Attorney General's Office (PGJE) confirmed the incident, but until approximately 8:00 p.m. they received a phone call from the Center for Control, Command, Communication and Computing (C4) about the "interruption of armed people in the church of the community of Los Planes," who took the couple with force.

They also confirmed that "the victims were released hours later," with no information about any arrests so far.

"Perhaps before I never denounced this type of events, but it was not because I kept silent like a mummy, but because before, there had never been this type of events in the 21 years that I have been serving in the Diocese of La Paz. There have been problems, there have been mistakes, there has perhaps even been corruption in previous regimes, but this insecurity did not exist. I am infinitely grateful to the State Attorney General, Daniel de la Rosa. They immediately responded to my call and took charge of the matter," said the Bishop of the Diocese of La Paz.

The community of Los Planes is located 44 kilometers southeast of the capital, there are only two land exits, one to La Paz and the other to the community of San Antonio, in addition to a sea route, which makes it complicated for the authorities to have responded to the call without noticing several pickup trucks with heavily armed men.

THEY WERE AFTER PAOLA AND ROBERTO

Paola and Roberto, a couple from Tijuana, went to the religious celebration at 6:45 pm.

"We were at the end, and through a side door the assassins broke it and got in, immediately the priest asked what was going on, and their leader told him bluntly: 'Father, our problem isn’t against you', they went directly to the bride and groom and said 'we’ve come for Paola and Roberto'. We were all pale and bewildered, because that's not the name of the bride and groom," a family member explained to the officers.

Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, State Attorney General of Justice, helped the couple kidnapped by gunmen

The gunmen threatened the attendees, who were asked to get down on the ground when they asked for a man and a woman, presumably relatives of the bride and groom who, according to their reports, arrived at the celebration and had even warned that they were in the religious precinct.

"It is something very worrying, something like this had never happened in our town, I had not seen so many armed people, much less the interruption of a celebration. They asked for a man and a woman, and they were not going to leave until the couple was delivered. In fact, they wanted to take the bride and groom, but when they took out their INE credentials they confirmed that they were not the ones they were looking for," the witness said.

This was not a quick incident, in which hired killers enter and leave immediately. For half an hour, the armed men abducted those attending the wedding 

Witnesses testified that not a single one of the gunmen had his face covered, but they were very imposing on all those present, carrying tactical clothing, magazines, grenades and long weapons.

"Imagine the fear, I can't define the faces, they were not locals, they were almost on top of us, many standing on the benches, they pointed their guns at us and repeated the name of the couple, and at the same time they pointed guns at the bride and groom and were going to take them, but another one of the family members got involved and said 'take me', but they didn't take him alone. They picked him up along with his wife, and they were both handcuffed," another witness told authorities.

The parish priest played an important role to somehow raise awareness among the armed men, right in the middle of the church, the religious man approached them and told them that if it that wasn't the couple, it wasn't necessary to do such a barbarity of taking them, that "by the mercy of the Lord they should leave them" and almost convinced them, because - according to testimonies - one of the hired killers tried to remove the handcuffs, but the leader of the cell raised his voice and ordered them, "No, sir, we're going to take them away" he turned to the Father and said: "I'm going to take them away so that the others give themselves up, afterwards I'm going to bring these two back".

Some of the attendees began to take out their cell phones and tried to establish communication, it’s not known if they called the authorities or the family members who were wanted.

What they did confirm to authorities was that "the gunmen came back and took the cell phones from everyone present," and one by one, "since there were so many of them," they began to destroy them.

Several minutes after the altercation, everyone at the wedding looked at each other, frightened. They immediately looked for a way to communicate, and it was right after that they contacted the Bishop, who in turn contacted the attorney general, Daniel de la Rosa, who sent a special police operation.

Hours later, the kidnapped couple was released, no one confirmed the whereabouts of Paola and Roberto, but those taken from the Mass were taken to their homes and handed over to family members.

AUTHORITIES OVERWHELMED

The first of Bishop Miguel Angel Alba Diaz's denunciations came at the beginning of 2022, affirming that in Puerto San Carlos the rights of the fishermen were being trampled upon, as hired killers were charging them for their labor and controlling the sale of alcohol and cigarettes.

Since then and to date, according to residents, they have spread to other communities in Loreto and Comondú.

Then, on May 1, while residents of the community of El Pescadero in La Paz were celebrating the Chile and Strawberry Festival, armed men arrived in several pickup trucks and broke into the festivities, silenced the police and beat up farm workers in the same field where the residents were celebrating.

Also in La Paz, the National Chamber of Commerce and Tourism denounced the fee collections in the capital to bars and nightclubs, mainly with the sale of alcohol.

Finally, on the night of September 25 in Ciudad Constitución, municipality of Comondú, 15 hit men were videotaped brutally beating municipal agents who were responding to a report of a fight, making it clear that the authorities have been overwhelmed.

What happened in Los Planes," the bishop said, "showed that the local police force is overwhelmed, with only five officers guarding the town and its surroundings. There is only one patrol car to take care of San Antonio, Los Planes, El Triunfo and the rest of the surrounding ranches. 

"I have nothing to complain to them, neither to the Los Planes delegation, what can they do against 30 armed men, nor to the Municipal Presidency," Alba Díaz said.

And as Iliana Talamantes Higuera, mayor of Comondú, would say: if not even the Federal Police, the Secretary of National Defense or the Navy have been able to do anything, much less will the Municipal Police, and this is what the bishop referred to:

"I realize that you are right, the municipal police are not strong to confront organized crime, they have not been sufficiently supported neither from the Federation, nor from the State, they have not been supported."

Regarding the incident at the October 8 wedding, Governor Victor Castro declared that it is not known with certainty what happened, but the inconsistencies arose when family members and the Bishop himself communicated with the Secretary General of Government, Homero Davis Castro, and within half an hour, the hit men had already delivered the couple to their home in Los Planes.

"It was in San Juan de Los Planes, at a wedding, we do not know, no one knows for sure, we are investigating, the investigation is being done to find out what happened, who were the ones who intervened, from where this matter that put on alert the security system in Baja California Sur," said the president.

It has become clear that the authorities no longer have control, that members of organized crime "are letting them operate as if nothing," said the Diocese. But the most serious thing is that the authorities themselves are unaware of what is happening in such a small town with very few exits.

Zeta Tijuana