GROOM KIDNAPPED FROM JUAREZ CHURCH HAS TIES TO LA MESA

A groom kidnapped by gunmen during a wedding at a Juarez church is
reportedly from a small community in New Mexico.

The kidnapped groom, Rafael Morales, is from La Mesa, located between
El Paso and Las Cruces, Channel 9-KTSM (cable Channel 10) reported on
Sunday.

Morales, his brother Jaime Morales and their uncle Guadalupe Morales
were taken away after gunmen burst into the wedding ceremony on Friday
evening at El Senor de la Misericordia Catholic church. The men remain
missing.

Another man, identified by Chihuahua state police as 25-year-old
Alonso Soteno Corral, was shot twice and killed in the parking lot
outside the church after he reportedly tried to run or interfered in
the kidnapping.

A motive for the kidnapping had not been disclosed but it comes as
drug cartels have been warring for control of Juarez.

The Morales family could not be reached for comment
Sunday.

Moments after the brazen kidnapping, family members were outraged at
the inability of law enforcement to curb the city's crime wave and the
lack of respect shown by criminals in breaching a religious service,
according to numerous news accounts out of Juarez.

"The police don't do anything, the (expletive) soldiers don't do
anything. They spend all day going in circles and where are they now,"
a woman at the ceremony complained to reporters. "... People are tired
of this Juarez."

A family member told reporters the wedding took place in Juarez
because that is where the bride wanted it and that the family was
originally from Namiquipa in the central part of the state of Chihuahua.

The wedding kidnapping is believed to be one of the most brazen acts
of violence to take place inside a church since the drug cartel war
began in Juarez two years ago.

Mexico is heavily Roman Catholic and churches have traditionally been
neutral ground during gang and underworld conflicts. But that has not
made religious groups and services exempt in the current Juarez crime
wave.

Gunmen have previously staged attacks at funerals and funeral homes.
Some pastors have reportedly been targeted by extortionists. And
earlier this year, a church was damaged in a failed arson attempt in
the Valley of Juarez.