Kidnapped in Mexico...The Jesse Story

Jesse is 72 and in average condition. He speaks mostly Spanish and owned a few small bed and breakfast hotels in Tijuana. He looks like he boxed as a young man, with his large chest, square chin and a nose that has been broken a few times. His skin is dark and weathered, his hands made of stone. Jesse realizes the dangers of TJ but he knows little else. Jesse walked freely down the street when a van pulled up next to him. Four men a third his age jumped out and grabbed him in broad daylight. Jesse realized this was a kidnapping, but he is not cartel…why him?

Still in good form, boxers never forget how to punch; he punched the first guy straight in the ski mask covered chin. S-1 didn’t expect that and dropped like a sack of rocks. The next guy took one in the forehead staggering him for a few seconds. Jesse fought for his life, literally. A scene it was, a gray haired, 72 year old man lumping up three would be kidnappers. The last kidnapper pulled out a gun and fired in the air, making sure not to harm his cash cow. The fighting stopped and Jesse was pulled into the van, taken in broad daylight off of the streets of TJ.

While in the van they put gauze over his eyes, duct tape over the gauze and drove in circles to disorient him. Once at the safe house the cargo was unloaded into a small closet. He was kept in darkness and bound for two months. His new home (for the time being) was a 3’ x 5’ closet. It was his sleeping quarters, bathroom and kitchen. It was hot during the day and cold during the night. It stunk. Two men lived in the closet. The other was a construction foreman who the kidnappers thought owned a construction company. Jesse was taken out on a routine basis to be tortured. They needed to find out how much money could be leveraged as ransom. Cars, seconds on a house, savings accounts, credit cards, they wanted money, all of it. To show the family they were serious a new group of kidnappers came to the house. Anytime they entered it meant pain for the hostages, 5 in all. The leader instructed the workers to send “proof of life” to the family. In silence they cut off one of Jesse’s fingers. He refused to cry out. They mailed the severed digit to the family. Next would be his head if they did not get the money.

Jesse was moved from location to location in TJ to keep a step ahead of the police. It wasn’t too hard as the police orchestrated the kidnappings. While at a house on the west side of TJ the kidnappers realized they would get no money from the construction worker. He was poor. They took him out of the cage and made him kneel. His last words in Spanish were…mercy, mercy, mercy. They threw his lifeless, headless body back into the room with Jesse to motivate his family to raise the requested money. Blinded and bound, sitting in a cage with a lifeless co-hostage, Jesse could hear kids playing down stairs in the family room. Jesse cried as he thought of his own kids and grandkids.

Weak, defenseless and confused Jesse endured a brutal ordeal. Jesse’s brave daughter (whole different story) paid the ransom on her own not knowing if they killed her dad. He was eventually released. Jesse was pushed out of a moving car still blind folded and duct taped. He took a shower and immediately left for the US where he lives with his daughter and her fiancée a San Diego Police officer.

I learned a few things about policing from listening to Jesse’s story.

The kidnapping groups work in cells. Jesse believes there were as many as 5 different cells working and profiting from his pain and misery. Based on voice patterns and accent they were from all over Mexico.
They had a highly organized infrastructure. The police were involved to a great extent. That became apparent in the negotiations.
They had no regard for human life. It was worthless other than a means of income or increased revenue.

Two important spiritual lessons for me. They seem to be opposed to one another:

Discipline is important. Jesse had a chance to take off the gauze and tape. He refused. He believed they would have killed him. I have a tendency to take the easy way and sometimes it takes discipline to take the hard road. I appreciate those who struggle and take the hard road. I Timothy 4:8 “Physical training (discipline) is of some value but godliness (discipline) has value for all things…”
Weakness can be positive: Each of us are held prisoner by something that makes us weak. For some its fear, others cynicism or bitterness. Yet others a physical addiction weakens our very beings. We would do well to remember 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God, when asked, will give us the power to overcome, just as Jesse did.

Train spiritually to overcome weakness as I rest in of the Power of God. That is the lesson of Jesse, kidnapped in TJ.

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