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Cecil Martinez, he's the Belizean who was held for a $10,000 dollar ransom by a Mexican Cartel after his family received a troubling video as evidence of his abduction.
Tonight, he's been safely re-settled in the U.S.A., seeking asylum in that country rather than making what he says would have been a perilous journey back to Belize.
It's a story right out of an action film but one with a happy albeit expensive ending. Here's what Martinez told 7 News via zoom today about his terrifying time with the cartel and how his family got him to safety. Cherisse Halsall reports:
The last time Ceil Martinez made the news it was because he and his attorney Norman Rodriguez claimed that Belizean police had locked him up for days without any just cause.
But tonight he's back in the spotlight after what he says is much more terrible ordeal.
It happened on the way to Tijuana Mexico Mexico where Martinez says that he and his family were quite dramatically abducted by the cartel.
Cecil Martinez, Taken By the Cartel
"We said that we were going up to Tijuana and have a little fine time over there for a couple of days you know, and before we even got to the destination two pick up trucks pulled in front of the bus, alighted, you know police flashing lights, you know like immigration personnel dressed in Mexican immigration uniform. And then he just started to point out people and say off the bus, off the bus, off the bus. So it was like 30 of us they took off that bus no and they took us outside playing like they are looking through passports and need information to see if everything is legit, if we have legitimate passports and if we were legally in Mexico."
But that was just the start of what Martinez describes as a nightmare scenario for him and his family.
Cecil Martinez, Taken By the Cartel
"And then they boarded us up in the same trucks and they took us and they took us into the desert somewhere in Sonora and upon reaching the location they took us they started to you know, search us they took my passport, they took everyone else's passport, they took phones, all the valuables that we had, they took the money and then they started to say ok umm, El Chapo, Sinaloa, he said El Chapo cartel has you guys, the Sinaloa cartel has you guys, you must pay to get out of here alive and then they made several contacts with my family members because I told them men I don't have anymore money mean I have to call my family in Belize."
"Belice lot of money he was saying and I said no man I'm poor, I don't have any money like that and he was like well they will find it because if they don't find it then they won't find you either."
"He contacted my Dad and had him on video call and telling him that we have them and you must pay 10,000 for the release of your family members, no. It took a while for my family to come up with that amount of money to send to them Western Union which they bravely and body send names to Western Union that could be tracked and they were calling off WhatsApp numbers you know they had little toddlers there as well, people from Ecuador people, from all over Central America, you know they beat us, you know they gave us little food, you know some little, little bit of water. We were out there in the desert for 12 days and um that was it mean my dad sent them some money you know and througth Western Union, that is how they released me and my family with some other people and we left some people there in the encampment behind. So, I don't know what is the status of those people if they are still there."
"I then proceeded over to the U.S. Mexico border because I don't want to go back that route so I knew the only way was if I got to the Americans so that was the only way I would have been safe." Jules Vasquez: "So, you remain in the United States at this time, are you seeking asylum, yes, yes, I am seeking asylum in the U.S. because I am still here. Currently, legally I can move around, I sent all the information off to the FBI, they have all the information and it seems as if though they are well aware of the situation because they had some Americans as well. So I may get justice from this side of the border, um, in regards to that whole ordeal because they are tracking them and I am sure that they will find them."
But in the mean time many at home may be quick to judge.
Jules Vasquez:
"Some people who say the boy Cecil staged that thing to come up on a money or that it was some type of operation or some type of scam, what would be your response to people who say that?"
Cecil Martinez, Taken By the Cartel
"They are just being very ignorant, reckless, by saying that without getting to the bottom of the situation, I mean, I mean each to his own opinion, I know what I went through and I mean my family was there with me they recant well of all we went through and other people was there so if they want to do that then let them go through Mexico and test the waters, these the waters brother."
And while Martinez says that the F.B.I is in hot pursuit of his abductors, U.S. news outlets including the Washington Post have reported that authorities have been forced to abandon volunteers searching for over 110,000 missing persons in Mexico after a fake report of a mass grave was used to lure police into a deadly bomb trap.
