Mexican mob beats 2 alleged kidnappers to death

ASCENSION, MEXICO -- In a small rural town of Chihuahua, the rule of law is a vague concept, and angry residents felt justified in killing two presumed kidnappers Tuesday.

The two 17-year-olds, Raymundo Rascón Ortega and Andres Ramírez González, were part of a group of eight who had abducted 16-year-old Thelma Díaz Salazar from a seafood restaurant, state police said.

Ascensión is a farming town 120 miles southwest of Juárez and close to the U.S. border with New Mexico.

The town had been the scene of a rash of kidnappings in the past few months. In the past, Ascensión residents had banded together to raise ransom money. On Tuesday, they banded together to get revenge.

The kidnapped girl's aunt, Maricruz Salazar, said the group had been carrying out at least three kidnappings a week for months. People of Ascensión knew the kidnappers because they were members of the small community.

"We are a town in so much distress," Salazar said. "We are sick of the kidnappings."

What occurred Tuesday was bound to happen, many residents say.

State police said eight gunmen arrived about 8 a.m. at Mariscos Lolo, a restaurant owned by Noel Dolores Loya. He is a town alderman and the uncle of the kidnapped girl.

The eight kidnappers appeared to have confused the girl with Dolores' wife. They grabbed the girl and escaped in three vehicles northbound toward Buena Vista, a ranch of Mennonites, officials said.

Meanwhile, the father of the girl and the owner of the restaurant

called the Mexican army and federal police.
They also called friends and relatives in town to organize a mob.

"I don't understand how they could gather everyone so quickly," Salazar said.

On their way to Buena Vista, the kidnappers were already being followed by at least 20 people on horseback and in vehicles.

One of the kidnappers' vehicles, a Ford Explorer, rolled over on the highway. The second vehicle, a truck, turned over and fell into an irrigation channel to avoid crashing with


A gunfight then erupted between the Mexican army and the kidnappers. The army captured the three men traveling in the first car.

The passengers of the second vehicle tried to flee by hiding in the cotton fields. The passengers of the third vehicle are at large.

By then, dozens of residents had already joined the search for the kidnappers, forming a group of about 200 people.

Thirty minutes after the crash, about 9:30 a.m., people found two alleged kidnappers a mile from the crash scene. The people attacked them.

Ignacio Ramírez said he paused to observe what was going on.

"Everywhere I looked, I saw people whose family members had been kidnapped in the past," he said. "The hate had been accumulating from months before."

Finally, he said, the military and the federal police separated the alleged kidnappers from the mob.

But the crowd would not drop the matter so easily.

The crowd made federal police take the alleged kidnappers in a civilian truck supervised by residents.

Many more followed the truck carrying the two boys back to the military barracks.

At the barracks, one of the boys told the mob, "See you here in 15 days," witnesses said.

The crowd, now grown to nearly 2,000 people, exploded again. Crowd members broke into the barracks with trucks, took the two boys outside and beat them, witnesses said.

Federal police agents tried to separate the disorderly crowd from the alleged kidnappers by putting the boys inside a police vehicle for several hours. The windows were closed.

People obstructed police from helping the two boys inside the vehicle and also blocked the area where a federal police helicopter was trying to land.

About 3 p.m., a man informed the crowds that the boys were dead.

It is unknown whether the boys died of the beating or were asphyxiated. The Chihuahua state attorney general's office had not determined the cause of death Wednesday.

The alleged kidnappers the Mexican army detained were Obed Alberto Flores Arellanos, Jesús Manuel Rascón Ortega and Arturo Matancillas Lozoya.

Officials did not release their ages.

The suspects were taken to Juárez and are detained on suspicion of kidnapping. State police were expected to present the

suspects before a judge today, said Jorge Leyva, of the Chihuahua state attorney general in Ascensión.

Leyva said the state attorney general opened an investigation into the kidnappings and also into the killings of the two boys.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Ascensión, Rafael Camarillo, said it was clear the power of the residents on Tuesday was greater than that of the authorities.

Although he opposes the way residents acted, Camarillo does not want the people of Ascensión to face homicide charges.

"It would make them even angrier," he said.

Camarillo on Wednesday fired his 14 municipal police officers. He said people demanded the firings, and he did not want any more conflicts.

Soldiers meanwhile patrol Ascensión, a town that has seen devastating effects because of organized crime.

Ascensión is a rural town where residents grow cotton, onions and red chile. Some work in the factories or own small businesses.

Camarillo said crime is worse in his town than in Juárez, a city known worldwide because of its drug-cartel violence.

"It has been a difficult administration," Camarillo said. He will leave office the second week of October.

More than drug-trafficking, Camarillo said, the economic crisis has caused gang crime in the rustic town.

"This has never happened before in the history of the state of Chihuahua or Mexico," he said.

Ascensión used to be a safe town, people say, until recently.

For several months, multiple kidnappings have taken place in town. Residents organize to donate money for ransoms of up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Ignacio Ramírez will become the second-in-command in Ascensión in October.

Ramírez said Tuesday's events prompted residents to form a civil police, or vigilante group, that will respond to future kidnappings. He said he did not know whether the residents would be armed.

He has contacted the LeBarón community, which is also under siege because of kidnappings.

This religious community, also of northwest Chihuahua, became known last year when Eric LeBarón was kidnapped. The community protested against the governor until Eric LeBarón returned home.

But later, his brother and a community leader, Benjamín LeBarón, turned up dead. Now, vigilante groups in LeBarón and other communities in Chihuahua patrol towns with hunting weapons, the only ones allowed by the government.

"We can't go on living a life that is like hell," Ramírez said.

Well mob justice here works because some of the gov't officials are in the drug lords payroll.

YO NO SE, PERO PA MI QUE SE LOS LLEVE EL QUE LOS TRAJO. EL @#!%$ DIABLO!
QUE BUENO QUE MI GENTE YA SE CANSO DE ESTAS @#$!% MMADAS
VIVA MEXICO CA!@*#!$ES!!!

Power to the people. Mexico needs the people to rise up against the cartels, its government, the rich elite, and foreign investors.

I guess we are back to the censorship "stickola" once again, right?

Red Barr

hurray for these heroes!!!!!!!!!!
I hope that they suffered a lot of pain those filthy maggots!!!! I would have loved to helped them!!!!!!

bout time they said enough and did something. i'm not for mob mentality, but it's crazy out of control down there, and obviously the authorities aren't able to do it alone.

ISN'T THAT SPECIAL.... MORE POWER TOO THEE MEXICAN PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD MORE THEN ENOUGH OF THIS KIDNAPPING JAZZ...

mexico doesn"t EXIST.

whenever they put someone who appears to be mexican on tv or movies, they are "puerto ricans" or "cubans". that movie "blow"? they were time travelling back mesopotamia to find weed.

mexico doesn"t exist.