Benjamin LeBaron

Benjamin LeBaron
Born	Benjamín Franklin LeBaron Ray 4 October 1976
Died	7 July 2009 (age 32)
Cause of death	Violent death after home invasion
Residence	Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico
Other names	Benji
Citizenship	Dual American-Mexican
Occupation	Pecan farming and trade between Mexico and the US
Known for	Anti-crime activism and assassination presumably by drug cartel members during the 2009 Mexican drug war
Religion	Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times
Relatives	Brother-in-law of fellow murder victim Luis Widmar

Benjamín "Benji" Franklin LeBaron Ray (1976 – 2009) was an anti-crime activist and community leader in a fundamentalist Latter Day Saint community in Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico, who had founded the advocacy group SOS Chihuahua (Sociedad Organizada Segura or Secure Organized Society). LeBaron, 32, a member of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times and a citizen of both Mexico and the United States, was murdered along with his brother-in-law Luis Carlos "Wiso" Widmar Stubbs, 29, on 7 July 2009, by a group of assailants.

Activism

LeBaron spearheaded the movement after his brother, Eric LeBaron, sixteen at the time, had been kidnapped in May.^{[citation needed]} Residents from the surrounding communities, including individuals who are fundamentalist Mormon, as well as mainstream Mormon (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and Mennonite (evangelical Protestant), organized vigils at the office of the governor of Chihuahua. The government sent in the Army to search for the victim, but after eight days Érick was released by his captors, without their receiving ransom. In mid-June, a leader in the mainstream Mormon faith, Meredith Romney, 72, the former president of the Colonia Juarez Chihuahua Temple, was kidnapped and held in a cave; Romney was ransomed the next day.

Benjamin Franklin LeBaron Ray, at the age of thirty two years old, and Luis Carlos Widmar Stubbs, at the age of twenty eight, joined the S.O.S. Chihuahua, and Benji was the foremost leader of this movement. He helped organize committees, and worked with all the communities in the northwest quarter of Chihuahua to put a stop to kidnapping and extortion.

After LeBaron's death, the movement has operated without a single figurehead. Mexico has strict gun control laws but began to train and supervise armed citizen's patrols among the Chihuahua religious enclaves. This would be an extension of an existing program that trains members of remote Mexican indigenous tribes to man such patrols. SOS Chihuahua's media contact, Karyn Longhurst of Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, said the group desires rapid response to kidnappings (presently the police must await a police report's being filed), the forfeiture of the assets of convicted kidnappers, mechanisms for reparations to victims, tightening of judicial and sentencing loopholes used by those suspected or convicted of kidnapping, increased prosecutions and punishments for those aiding and abetting kidnapping, including through official corruption.

See also

• Mexican Drug War
• Timeline of the Mexican Drug War
• Home Invasion
• Kidnapping

External links

• "What Makes a Mexican Mormon?" – GetReligion.org
• "Fear and Death in a Mormon Town in Mexico," by Elisabeth Malkin – New York Times, July 26, 2009
• "A petition to the Mexican people," by Julian LeBaron – Dallas News, April 16, 2010