Mèrida, Yuc., April 28, 2021, (YUCATAN).- Under Mexican law, up to 140 years in prison would be given to the five people accused of kidnapping a Yucatecan Businessman.
However, the Yucatecan Prosecutor’s Office has not charged the alleged kidnappers for the crime of homicide of the businessman, found dead in Cancun.
The kidnapping victim: a hotelier in Yucatán
The victim is Jaime Francisco Chay Pérez, better known by the nickname of “Colado”, owner of two hotels in his native port of El Cuyo, Tizimín municipality, located in the eastern part of the state of Yucatán.
Regarding this case, the Yucatán Prosecutor’s Office reported on April 26, 2021, that Chay Pérez was illegally deprived of his liberty when he was traveling on the Tizimín-Colonia Yucatán highway and, later, he was taken to the neighboring state of Quintana Roo, where the kidnappers contacted the victim’s family to request a ransom.
Who are the kidnappers?
In the same statement, the Yucatan Prosecutor’s Office reported that, after fulfilling an arrest warrant (it does not say what day it was executed), it presented G.J.M.L., M.A.P.M., Y.M.M.L., M.A.P.B. and D.L.P.B. on Monday, April 26, before the Second Control Court, in Mérida, and accused them of the crime of aggravated kidnapping.
In publications on Facebook, the photographs of the five now accused are disseminated, with the following information:
Gregorio Jesús M.L., alias “El Chuy”, 20 years old, originally from Tizimín and a resident of El Cuyo. It is stated that he was the one who with deception managed to get “Colado” to go to the El Cuyo-Colonia Yucatán highway, where he was kidnapped.
The brothers Marco Antonio P.B., 18 years old, and Diana Laura P.B., 20, both from Cancun.
Manuel Alberto P.M., 23 years old, and Yiruba Merari M.L., 39 years old and mother of three children, both from Cancun.
The kidnapping took place in Yucatán, but the man was murdered in Quintana Roo.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021: Chay Pérez was “picked up” on the road that goes from the city of Tizimín to the Colonia Yucatán community, a town of lumber mills located a few miles south of the port of El Cuyo.
Thursday, April 22: The red Chevrolet Aveo license plate number YXX-714-C, owned by Chay Pérez, was found abandoned at the entrance of a ranch, on the Tizimín-Colonia Yucatán highway, near the Emiliano Zapata community.
The hotelier is found dead
Friday, April 23: Yucatan police officers questioned people in a supermarket located on Puerto Juárez avenue, known as Talleres, in the city of Cancun.
That same Friday, some 70 agents searched a property of the Vista Real subdivision, located in Cancun’s super-Manzana 252. There they detained the five suspects, who confessed to having a person kidnapped at home.
After the search, the Yucatecan businessman’s dead body was found bagged, covered with lime, and dumped in a green area of Monte de Gibraltar avenue in Super Manzana 252.
The hotelier had no gunshot or stab injuries, so it is suspected that he died of strangulation or suffocation. According to the first statements of the detainees to the police, Chay Pérez became aggressive, they lost control of the situation and he died of a heart attack.
The ransom: $ 10 million pesos
It is also stated that the family paid 10 million pesos as a ransom and that Chay Pérez owed precisely 10 million pesos to people who gave him that money to buy land and resell it.
A photo of the hotelier sitting on a mattress circulates on Facebook, he has a blindfold, blood on his nose, bruises on both arms, and his hands tied together, in front, with a light-colored cloth. He wore only dark-colored pants and no shirt. It is presumed that it is the photo sent to the family at the time of requesting the ransom.
The criminal process
Monday, April 26: The Yucatan Prosecutor’s Office presented the five detainees before a Control judge, in Mérida, who imposed the precautionary measure of preventive detention for the entire duration of the criminal process.
The hearing to link to criminal proceedings is scheduled for Friday, April 30th. The judge will decide whether or not there is evidence to prosecute the five suspects accused of the kidnapping of the businessman.
The Prosecutor’s Office will present evidence that the suspects “picked up” Chay Pérez. While the defendants and their lawyers will try to prove that they were elsewhere at the time of the kidnapping, not on the Tizimín-Colonia Yucatán highway on April 21.
Criminal punishment for aggravated kidnapping
In Yucatan, according to the Penal Code of the State, kidnapping is punishable by 10 to 40 years in prison if it complies
- Obtain a ransom, a right or the fulfillment of any condition;
- That the authority performs or fails to perform an act of any kind, and
- Cause damage or harm to the kidnapped or another person.
However, in Mexico, the General Law to Prevent and Punish Crimes in the Matter of Kidnapping establishes higher penalties for kidnapping, when certain circumstances occur, and when the victim loses his life, as was the case of the El Cuyo hotelier.
In the case of Chay Pérez, there are indications that he was kidnapped through deception by one of his neighbors in El Cuyo who took advantage of his friendship and, in addition, he was beaten and injured while still alive, circumstances established in Article 10 of the aforementioned federal law.
For its part, article 11 of the same law imposes a penalty of 80 to 140 years in prison for those accused who participate in the kidnapping and murder of a person.
Until now, the Yucatan Prosecutor’s Office has stated that it has collected indications that the five now defendants participated in the kidnapping of Chay Pérez, but they have not been accused of murder, which could mean that the authorities do not have enough evidence to prove that the kidnappers also caused the hotelier’s death.
