9 Mormon women and children were shot and 'burned alive' in an ambush near the US-Mexico border
Source: CNN
By Madeline Holcombe, Holly Yan and Gianluca Mezzofiore, CNN
Nine members of a Mormon family were killed on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, and authorities are investigating whether the attack was the result of mistaken identity.
The slain victims include three women, four small children and two infants, family member Alex LeBaron said from Mexico. He said all nine were dual US-Mexican citizens.
The victims were "all shot while in vehicles while driving," LeBaron told CNN.
Investigators believe three vehicles traveling between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua were ambushed by criminal groups Monday evening, Mexican authorities said.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/05/americas/mormons-attacked-us-mexico-border/index.html
FULL story and video at link.
at140
(6,110 posts)Couple of years ago I was on a cruise stopping at ports on west coast of Mexico.
Every port had armed military people patrolling the tourist areas. Mexico is taken over by drug cartels.
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)She's posted a lot of pictures of cows in the road, but nary a peep about cartels. It's a big country.
at140
(6,110 posts)and the Yucatan coast. But lately I am avoiding Mexico cruises. Just don't feel right to see armed guards walking around with long rifles in ports. Sailing for the Bahamas and 2 private islands this Saturday on Norwegian Cruise ship Sun.
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)Its always been that way, at least since I started visiting in 1978, stop pedaling stuff you apparently know nothing about
at140
(6,110 posts)Puerto Rico, and just about every port in the Caribbean Sea during my 30+ cruises in Caribbean.
I have NEVER SEEN police or military patrolling with long rifles like I see in Mexican ports.
Are you telling me there is no crime problem in Mexico, and the police are walking the cruise ports with long rifles just to get some fresh air and exercise?
MuseRider
(34,109 posts)It has been many years but when we landed you could see them in dugouts in the middle of the airstrips behind mounted weapons following the planes. There were tanks too. When you got into customs there were armed military, at least one per every 2 people. There were not a lot of tourists so that was not as bad as it sounds. Still, you had to stay in that little room and wait for your next small plane to the islands to come. No treats or goodies or air conditioning. This was in the 60's so there were reasons and traveling in the country was difficult if not impossible in some areas. I would guess Honduras never changed from those rules.
at140
(6,110 posts)Maybe I still want to do a Panama Canal cruise and that route might stop in Honduras.
My travels these days are STRICTLY on cruise ships. It is a place where you walk to restaurants with unlimited food, walk to the theater for live stage entertainment, no parking problems, the Gym is usually nice with a panoramic view of the ocean, and there is a library & dozen bars & dozen stores for shopping, and the Casino, all within a few 100 yards from the cabin.
Best part for little 79 year old me is, they make bed twice each day, no cooking, no cleaning, no vacuuming, no trips to grocery store. Lastly, most 2000-6000 passengers on ship are in good and friendly mood.
MuseRider
(34,109 posts)but only because of the way they treated women as a whole. That particular group even annoyed my young sons by putting me under their care. They had room keys, I did not etc.
I think that the way you are getting around is perfect. We can no longer afford to travel so home we stay. Have a great time.
Honduras was bad in the 80's and I think it is not probably very safe now. I am glad I got to go there 3 times and even get in to see Copan. Not sure I would even try it now. We did find the people of Honduras to be some of the nicest people we ever met, same with Belize.
SharonAnn
(13,772 posts)MuseRider
(34,109 posts)God what a beautiful place and what wonderful people we met there some living in the worst poverty I had ever seen. We never had trouble but it was always a reason for concern.
The year we went inland to go to Copan we had trouble getting there. We were stopped numerous times and made to get out of the bus we hired and stand with our arms against the bus while little boys with great big guns checked us out. It was scary but never because of the way they acted and we were clean so it was all OK but quite an experience.
We went there 4 years in a row, one of the best places I have been but except for a few times we were isolated on an island for diving. Still, people come and go and of all the places I have been it was one of the kindest.
If it is not too intrusive, where did you live there?
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)military gear and long rifles. Ive seen it elsewhere in Latin America...sorry you got freaked out when you disembarked from your cruise. They are not just in the ports and tourist areas, but cities of any size including the district federal ( Mexico City). Crime and drugs have certainly taken their toll on Mexico,but I still love it and go whenever I can. Id like to buy a place there when I retire.
at140
(6,110 posts)lots of English speaking Americans live there. I just bought a beautiful one story house in Florida,
and like it a lot here in St John's county. I see neighbors living their garages open all day. That is a good sign there is very little crime here.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)So there is that...
at140
(6,110 posts)so you staying away, I have no problem!
ArizonaLib
(1,242 posts)I started college in the late 80's and was always advised against traveling to Mexico. Mexico had become a big spring break destination.
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)Never had an issue at all. Two 19 year old wome. I cringe when I think about it. We studied in Jalapa, Veracruz and used to hitch hike to Mexico City or the beaches on the Gulf coast. Once we hitched all the way fro the gulf coast to Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific. Kind of crazy to think about but we received nothing but kindness. Mexico is a gorgeous country, with wonderful food and music and the Mexican people are for the most part kind and gracious. Sorry you dont like the way the federal police are outfitted but it has been that way at least since Ive Ben going which is over 30 years. Mexico is a great place. Sorry you got spooked when you disembarked from your cruise ship.
Zorro
(15,740 posts)and the Mexicans I have met are extraordinarily gracious and friendly.
The reported drug-related violence is horrendous, but the enormous appetite for drugs by its neighbor to the north contributes to the terror.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Why my goodness, I even dated a Mexican woman once...
And have a number of friends from Mexico.. And ya know what? They are all bi-lingual and can freakin' cook, and are great musicians....
check out,
Response to pangaia (Reply #27)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)at140
(6,110 posts)News item:
On Monday, at least six children and three women living in a Mormon offshoot community of U.S. citizens in Mexico were shot to death and five children were injured after their convoy came under fire during a brazen daylight ambush believed to have been carried out by gunmen affiliated with organized crime in the country.
New Item:
More than a dozen other members of La Mora a decades-old settlement in Sonora state founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were missing after the attack on the convoy of three SUVs, a relative told The Associated Press.
News Item"
In Mexico, they're heading toward a new high of homicides this year and last year was a record. In the United States, as you know, we have these tens of thousands of people who are dying of drug overdoses.
LeftInTX
(25,316 posts)Recently traveled there by herself and hitchhiked by herself. Chiapas.
Her family is originally from there, but she didn't visit family and only speaks some Spanish. (She was born and raised in the US) She said Chiapas is safe.
a la izquierda
(11,794 posts)And is not permitted if one is an employee of the US government. But the whole country is not the violent hellscape that the media and Dolt45 make it out to be.
My work is mostly based in Mérida, which was just named one of the worlds top cities.
Im more fearful (generally) of being shot in my university classroom than I am of being injured in Mexico.
EX500rider
(10,847 posts)They both have a higher homicide rate....so does the US Virgin Islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
at140
(6,110 posts)I will report back.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)OMG how horrific.
brush
(53,776 posts)Hard to believe nine peoplewomen, children and babiesin three different cars are just killed by mistaken identity. There's more to this story than that.
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)The history there is to try to say victims were involved in the drug business rather than call them civilian victims; here it would not have been possible to say they were involved in some way with a cartel, so they've called it "mistaken identity." In the past when this has happened (the Iguala 43, the femicides of Juranez) it has incensed the parents and relatives of the dead, who can't bear to see the reputation of their children impugned by calling them cartel associates or, in the case of the Juarez girls, "prostitutes." It's a matter of honor that the truth be found out when civilians are murdered with impunity. But very few homicides are solved in Mexico, according to journalist Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez.
Baitball Blogger
(46,705 posts)Was it mistaken identity? I doubt that because people are easily identified by the vehicles they drive in small areas.
brush
(53,776 posts)LisaL
(44,973 posts)brush
(53,776 posts)several survivors. And there is so much speculation as to the reason for the attack. We just have to wait and see.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)They live in Mexico where the laws on bigamy and child rape are loosely enforced.
dware
(12,375 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)dware
(12,375 posts)If not, then I apologize.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)"Nine members of a Mormon family" all of whom were women and children in that family.
Realizing who they were is not blaming them. But it may be a window on who is responsible for killing them.
If, for example, they were attempting an escape, that would be a reason to stop them.
But it is more likely this is related to the workings of the cult than to some random mistaken identity by a drug cartel.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Kali
(55,008 posts)lots of Mexicans think the local Mormons are involved in the drug trade. whether that is just rumor or not, I don't know but it is "common knowledge" with the folks I know in Chihuahua.
floppyboo
(2,461 posts)who had some kind of travel exemption from Mexico through the US to Canada. Were busted for stuffing couches with drugs. These people were Mennonites, though.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2617194/How-Canadian-Mennonites-got-involved-Mexican-drug-cartels.html
floppyboo
(2,461 posts)FreeState
(10,572 posts)They are fundementalist that typically dont follow a church and live independently.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/11/05/victims-mexico-killings/
« many La Mora residents believe in mainstream Mormon tenets, they also believe "they shouldn't be forming churches, they shouldn't be organizing under one leader. They should just be Mormon and live their Mormon life. That's who the people of La Mora are," Rosetti said.
Some of the families living there still practice polygamy while others stopped generations ago, she said.»
FLDS is a group in Southern Utah/Northern Idaho (Warren Jeffs group).
LisaL
(44,973 posts)FLDS women wear these long dresses, whereas here photos show victims wearing regular clothes.
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)to this notion this was a case of mistaken identity.
Three books by a single author have helped me understand better why the situation in Mexico is so perilous and confusing: A trilogy of short books by Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez: The Femicide Machine, The Iguala 43 and Field of Battle.
LuvNewcastle
(16,845 posts)I didn't know anything about S.G. Rodriguez, so I looked him up on Amazon. Looks like he's fine writer. I ordered "The Femicide Machine" and I'll get the others later. I've been looking for something interesting to read, and I think I've found it.
Cartaphelius
(868 posts)will send troops to protect Mormons practicing polygamy from
other criminals?
Not one of our military should be used for this.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)it's not very hard to understand that the protection would not be because they're polygamous (which this group is mostly not, yes, read the stories about it and you'll see). the protection is because they are American citizens. governments generally try to protect their citizens at home and abroad.
ripcord
(5,383 posts)Even if they had been Mexicam family members of cartel or gang affiliates there would have howls of outrage that the US hadn't protected them along with 24 hour news coverage and constant protest by the Mexican government if the situation was reversed. Seems US citizens have no right to expect similar reactions when another countries shamefully allows like this to happen.
And to the posters who are suggesting this group provoked the gunmen or somehow deserved this you are truly sick fucks and you seriously need help.
Cartaphelius
(868 posts)No. Polygamy was the crime they adopted, voluntarily, causing them
to flee the jurisdiction AND protection of the US. Those they are not
polygamists are co-conspirators, aiding and abetting criminals in the
furtherance of crimes.
As such, regardless of wherever they fled from criminal prosecution,
forfeit the right to the protections of the country they spurned by
they voluntary and willing refusal to curb their illegal actions.
Remember; you make your bed and you lay in it. No one
else. Asking me to protect stupid, ignorant or illegal while I have
to watch "fellow citizens, white christian, republicans, who live
in my country DEMAND that all of us fund and accept their illegitimacy,
is crossing unacceptable line. If they were doing so from foreign soil,
Mexico, Russia, etc. etc. like too many are, NOW, I would be and AM
be for their total and complete exorcism from our society.
Traildogbob
(8,739 posts)I read the post talking about Mexico taken over by drug cartel and being a deadly place to vacation and have to think.....what do other countries think about vacationing in AmurKKKa taken over by the oil/NRA/GOP cartel. TRump will head us straight to armed militia, demand HIS military and police shoot opponents. Before tRump we have 30 thousands guns deaths annually. Just wait folks. We may be fleeing to Mexico to live a safer existence. God be Blessin MURKKKA. Mexico may need to build the damn wall after all.
EX500rider
(10,847 posts).... the US is 5.3 per 100,000, so Mexico's murder rate is around 5 times worse the the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Traildogbob
(8,739 posts)Don't get your panties wadded up. When civil war starts we can be NUMBER one! Need sacrifices to get great again. God Blessin us. White Wing Steve, he goin rouge, says red states have "Trillions" of bullets, Gohmert and RW radio anxious to pop off some rounds. That will get us up to par with the best. MurKKKa, USA USA USA! Weeeed haa. God sent tRump to Clean house. Then the world will flock here for vacation, for clean air, water and no libs.
EX500rider
(10,847 posts)US homicide rate:
Mexican homicide rate:
?itok=J2sCHJXs
Traildogbob
(8,739 posts)We are the safest country in the world. And the trillion bullets in red states threatened to be used by Steve, he so strong, he gone rouge, and R/W hate media if we stand against tRump is only empty threats. Show your charts to the families of murdered people in nightclubs, Schools, Concerts, churches, synagogues, movies, peaceful protests, garlic festivals, malls, walmarts and pretty anywhere in MurKKKa.....along with the daily death threats from white wingers and ask just how safe we all feel. I am an uncle of a niece gunned down at a concert; my family are not afraid of Mexico, Brazil, Columbia or Venezuela. I am worried about GOP stoking up their cult to add more deaths to the steady 30,000 deaths every year by guns here. I served during Vietnam. 50,000 plus of my brothers and sisters gave their lives during the entire war. I knew the enemy. Certainly not U.S. Citizens. We are near that annually, add a GOP stoked civil war, we Will get there here, from our people. But....I feel very safe. I am well trained to protect me and my family face to face, not so much from Christian terrorist attacks. Kinda stand by the oath I took. I will again bravely defend from attacks from within. Be safe. Enjoy your charts and the peacefull feeling they give you. God be blessin MurKKKa. Just not so my niece and many other young innocent people.
EX500rider
(10,847 posts)I don't consider suicide by gun "gun violence" anymore then I think suicide by hanging is "rope violence".
By "enjoy your charts" you mean facts?
And Venezuela is in the top 3 most dangerous places in the world by homicide rate, the US is 89th.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Traildogbob
(8,739 posts)30,000 per year in a country of 360,000,000+. Don't know why I would get so upset. A good thinning annually is how we managed our Federal/Stare forest I spent a career in, fighting fires, and managing, along with killing and removing exotic plants and exotic diseases. We have to thin and keep out exotics (from shit hole countries) to maintain the genetically superior of the whole population to be sustainable. Sacrifices for the good of the many. I did. A niece. So forgive me if American violence, guns, machetes or whatever the tool, rile me up. We are done here. Take your "Sharpie" Enhaced charts are preach to someone else. (Did you include Alabama?) I have a war to train for. Your charts do not heal the wound of burying an 18 year old little girl. Have a great evening.
dalton99a
(81,485 posts)sop
(10,177 posts)Later today (maybe he has already) he'll be tweeting about building the wall, invading caravans of marauding mexican criminals and blaming Obama for the heavily-armed drug cartels.
I suspect we'll find out a lot more about this "wonderful family and friends from Utah" as details emerge, and how they happened to get caught up in a drug-related shootout. I don't generally believe in coincidences or bad luck, but I guess they could have been in the wrong place at the worst possible time.
Mollyann
(108 posts)The Labaron cult has long been involved in crime with family groups. One took place in Houston many years ago. Another group they were involved with were Chenoweths.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Surprised it has taken this long. Chenoweths,now that is a blast from the past. George Romney was raised in this same Community.
cannabis_flower
(3,764 posts)Here's a Wikipedia article about Ervil La Baron. I'm thinking this is the same family and I'd like to hear more details before I believe it was a case of mistaken identity and drug cartels were involved.
Ervil Morrell LeBaron (February 22, 1925 August 15, 1981) was the leader of a polygamous Mormon fundamentalist group who ordered the killings of many of his opponents, using the religious doctrine of blood atonement to justify the murders. He was sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of an opponent, and died there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ervil_LeBaron
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Pharlo
(1,816 posts)explains Evil Ervil, the Romney connection and the current enmity between the LaBarons and the Narcos. As dewsgirl mentions, it's from a 2012 episode of Vice.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017558273
djg21
(1,803 posts)They look to be members of LeBaron Order, which is a polygamist Mormon fundamentalist cult. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Firstborn_(LeBaron_order).
vsrazdem
(2,177 posts)to Chihuaua, well into Mexico. They are trying to make this a border issue, which it is not.
sop
(10,177 posts)vsrazdem
(2,177 posts)by saying Northern Mexico. This border issue is BS.
It's a 3+ hour drive to the border from the location of the murders.
I could get pretty close to the border driving from central Texas in the same amount of time. A heinous crime where I'm at would never be described as a border issue.
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)IMO it doesnt matter what the parents did. It was kids.
RIP
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)Last edited Tue Nov 5, 2019, 08:59 PM - Edit history (1)
A Familys Legacy of Death : Ervil LeBaron said God told him to kill anyone who strayed from his polygamist cult. A tenacious Salt Lake investigator tracked the LeBarons for 15 years. Now, an anonymous tip may have helped him close a case that claimed as many as 30 lives.
By GARRY ABRAMS
SEP. 20, 1992 12 AM
TIMES STAFF WRITER
SALT LAKE CITY Ervil LeBaron listened carefully when God told him to take many wives. He married 13. When God told him to have children, he had at least 50.
And, 20 years ago, when God told him to break away from his familys polygamist sect, he founded his own church, tearing apart the once close-knit family.
Thats apparently when God told Ervil to start killing people, too, including his own kin.
Authorities say it was the start of a chilling family tradition that continues to reverberate today among his descendants and followers more than a decade after his death.
The bizarre saga of Ervils secretive cult--which also attracted a handful of non-family followers--stretches back to the Nixon era and follows a blood-spattered trail that zigzags through Mexico and the Southwest like an addled snake.
By one experts estimate, the group has committed 25 to 30 murders in Utah, California, Texas, Colorado and Mexico. Investigators can only guess at the total number of slayings because the bodies of some of the presumed victims have never been found. West of here, in Tooele County, for instance, a man disappeared some 16 years ago after reportedly coming into contact with the cult. Authorities were never able to determine his fate.
When the LeBarons were at the peak of their infamy more than a decade ago, self-styled redeemer Ervil and his sullen brood were media staples. In the search for superlatives, one news magazine tagged Ervil The Mormon Manson. His influence was so powerful, authorities say, that a shrinking band of wives, children and hangers-on continued to commit crimes in his name even after 1981, when he died at age 56 in a Utah prison.
Yet, as the years rolled by, the LeBaron story pretty much faded, thanks largely to Ervils permanent absence. Until last month, that is, when the murders of four more people were officially pinned to a last fanatic core of Ervilistas. On Aug. 24, the U.S. Attorneys office in Houston announced federal indictments against six members of the cult.
More:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-20-vw-1753-story.html
The movie:
~ ~ ~
Original outlaws:
~ ~ ~
From the BBC, Anna LeBaron:
Anna LeBaron: How I escaped my father's murderous polygamous cult
By Brian Wheeler
BBC News, Washington DC
17 February 2017
. . .
Anna LeBaron was born in Mexico in what she would later learn was a cult hideout. Separated at an early age from her mother, Ervil's fourth wife Anna-Mae Marston, she grew up on the run from the law.
Shuttled from one overcrowded safe house to the next, she slept on filthy foam mattresses and scavenged for food in dustbins with the other cult children and Ervil's "sister wives".
"We were taught that we were being persecuted because we were God's chosen people and that the world outside didn't understand us," she says.
"That was how they used to explain all the moving in the middle of the night and staying ahead of the law."
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38526255
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)I vaguely recall he was part of a prominent sub-group of Mormons in Mexico.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)I have no words.
Tarc
(10,476 posts)"illegals"
When in reality it is a fringe Mormon breakaway sect that has been in Mexico for years.
The loss of life is tragic, but this is going to be blown up by the Trumpkins who know their base can barely read, period, much less read an entire article to find the facts.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)I think we know the answer to that question.
Skin color.
ripcord
(5,383 posts)Where is your outrage?
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)It should. There has been some acts of brutality that exceeds ISIS.