2 College Dropouts And A Christmas Heist

An empty display case after the 1985 heist at the Natl Anthropology Museum in Mexico City

On Christmas Morning 1985, Mexico City newspapers rolled out a sensational story. 140 priceless artifacts from 7 display cases at the city's National Anthropology and History Museum had been stolen.

At 8 o clock on the morning on December 25th, the morning shift of security guards entered the National Anthropology Museum in sprawling Chapultepec Park and were shocked to see the Maya Room of the Museum virtually empty. Several display cases were empty. Nearly 140 Aztec, Mayan and Zapotec pieces had been stolen overnight.

The media and society immediately blamed an inside job. The night security guards, who were supposed to visit the rooms every hour on the hour were arrested and interrogated. Due to lack of evidence they were freed. Focus turned on international thieves. The problem was that the artifacts were so famous and well known that it would be virtually impossible to sell them off. Several pieces were from the Palenque and Chichen Itza archaeological sites in southern Mexico. One was the famed "Murcielago" Zapotec God mask. One US expert said trying to sell the items was like trying to "hock the Mona Lisa".

Three years later investigators caught the real culprits of the daring multi million dollar heist at the Anthropology Museum: Two college dropouts with an obsession for archaeology. It wasn't a gang of professional international art thieves as previously thought and how they did it wasn't that difficult either. They were certainly no Danny Ocean.

On Christmas Eve 1985, they scaled a fence at the museum. Then they broke in through an air duct. Once in the Mayan rooms they pried open the cases and stole about 100 priceless artifacts (not 140 as previously thought). Then they drove off with the loot.

First they wanted the artifacts for themselves but then decided to sell them off. They met in Acapulco with a drug dealer and supposedly established a "1 billion dollar" deal. They would trade the items for Cocaine. Before this could happen, authorities closed in on them and some accomplices, arrested them and recovered most of the stolen loot. The Murcielago Mask had been cracked and had to be repaired but most the artifacts were indeed recovered.

Far from being sophisticated, 2 amateurs with a fetish for history committed one of the most expensive museum heists in the world one Christmas Eve in 1985 and stole irreplaceable and priceless objects important to Mexican culture and heritage.

Nightmare at Balderas Station

Esteban Cervantes (white) grapples with gunman Luis Castillo (center). Note man in blue shirt rushing to aid Cervantes before he too was shot.


On the evening of September 18, 2009, all seemed normal at Mexico City's busy Balderas subway station. Commuters crowded the platform and watched a metro train arrive in direction to Indios Verdes station. Unknown to them, pissed off Jalisco farmer Luis Felipe Hernandez Castillo who had recently arrived in the capital with 500 dollars had an agenda. He hated the government, whom he believed was responsible for the countries woes. He believed the Calderon administration responsible for Global Warming and believed a famine would soon ravage the nation in 2012.

With a permanent marker he started to write the words "This Government of Criminals..." on the wall at Balderas station, ignored by the commuters. Police Officer Victor Manuel Miranda saw Hernandez defacing the wall and approached him and told him to stop and drop the pen or he would write him up.

Hernandez quickly scuffled with Officer Miranda and pulled out a .38 caliber revolver out of a small black leather bag and shot at him. The crowd on the platform soon scattered and fled in terror as Hernandez shot an unarmed and fleeing Officer Miranda, killing him.

Inside the train that had just pulled up to the station, Hernandez' wild shooting was being observed by the terrified passengers. One such passenger, a construction worker named Esteban Cervantes Barrera reacted instinctively. He hated injustices and always stood up for others. Without thinking and without saying one word to his friend who accompanied him on the train, he darted out of the metro doors and lunged at Hernandez.

Cervantes and Hernandez struggled for a minute as Cervantes sought to disarm the crazed gunman. Hernandez shot at Cervantes, who slipped several times trying to tackle the shooter. A third man approached Hernandez and attempted to also stop him, receiving a gun shot wounds in the hand. The man walked away, to tend his wounds as Hernandez and Cervantes continued to struggle, their fight being watched by stunned onlookers who opted to do nothing and offer no aid to Cervantes, who was now on the floor.

Hernandez then, seeing he had the upper hand in the fight, without hesitating shot Esteban Cervantes point blank in the head, in front of the Metro's Surveillance Cameras, taping the entire incident. Cervantes body slowly grew limp.

As the bodies of Officer Victor Miranda and Esteban Cervantes lay dead on the platform amid scattered sheets of paper and bags, Luis Felipe Hernandez Castillo walked into the stopped train and kept shooting out at the platform at approaching Judicial Police officers. He yelled out to the people on the train that "his beef was not with the people but with the government". He also said "he was doing God's work". Then he said "This is all fucked up", referring to himself having being shot in the right shoulder by a Judicial Police officer who was quickly reaching the train.

Several plainclothes and uniformed cops rushed the train and tackled Hernandez Castillo, stopping the madman's shooting rampage, an event unheard of in the city that usually, has seen everything (An Aeromexico jetliner having being hijacked on Sept 9, by another deranged man claiming to also be doing God's Work) They arrested him and sent him to Reclusorio Oriente prison. 10 people were hurt in the rampage.

After the tragic events at Balderas station, one thing was certain. Two modern day "heroes" had died that day. One in the line of duty, and another acting on instinct. Without a doubt, Esteban Cervantes' attempt to stop Hernandez, gave time for the rest of the people on the platform to flee. His selfless action cost him his life. Only sad thing is that among the hundreds of people at Balderas, and witnessing the events, Cervantes seemed to be the only one brave enough to take action.

Several other able bodied men only watched as Cervantes and Hernandez fought for control of the gun. They watched, and didnt act, as Cervantes fell four times, almost catching a bullet every time he fell, nevertheless getting up each time and rushing the gunman. One final headshot, finally stopped the brave Cervantes.

In a city of 18 million. In a station crowded with several hundred. Only one man had enough balls to rush a man randomly shooting. Esteban Cervantes left behind 5 children.

As of September 21, 2009, the Mexico City Metro System announced they had created the Esteban Cervantes Award for Bravery, a medal that would be given to any citizen committing a heroic act. People in Mexico City also suggested to the city government they rename Balderas to "Heroes of Balderas" station in honor of the two men who died that day trying to stop a deranged farmer with a gun.

A well deserved honor indeed.

El Ano de La Peste 2009 (Year of the Plague)

An armed Mexican marine guards Pantitlan subway station amid Influenza epidemic in Mexico City - Apr 24, 2009

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death."

- Reveletions 6:8


In 1979, Mexican moviegoers were terrified by the new sci-fi/thriller/drama El Ano de La Peste, starring Alejandro Parodi, Daniela Romo and Jose Carlos Ruiz. The film tells the story of a mysterious disease that hits Mexico City and only Dr. Sierra Genoves (Parodi) seems to notice anything going on. People fainting on the subway, more than usual cases of "bronchial pneumonia" at the city's hospitals. He warns the city government of the possibility of a epidemic in the city and a resulting pandemic.

The city government decides to cover everything up. There is no plague in the city. Shocker right? Its Mexico. Nothing ever goes wrong in Mexico. In the seventies (pretty much as long as the PRI was the ruling party) NOTHING ever went wrong in the country. Sure problems here and there but "nothing serious". Ever.

So in the metropolis of 18 million, nothing is wrong. Health and Sanitation crews go through the city spraying freaky looking neon yellow "disinfectant" foam on buildings, inside homes and in one memorable scene, on a group of homeless men in sitting on a sidewalk in a drunken stupor. Buildings are evacuated due to "gas leaks". Bodies are quietly picked up in garbage trucks and buried in mass graves outside the city.

So Dr Sierra Genoves, while he isn't boinking his lover, hes out trying to warn people about the plague. A visiting diplomat from Norway, dies from the disease at the city airport and the news is out. Something is wrong in the city. By Christmas Eve, some 5 months after the disease is first detected, Mexico City is a dead city, a barren landscape devoid of life, trash and bodies littering the streets, its surviving residents scared of contact with other humans, gas mask wielding city police beating the mobs who demand medications.

As the President gives a Christmas toast with his guests and Cabinet, Mariachi band playing Las Mananitas, he smiles and proclaims:

"During my term, there wasn't any, and there will be no, plague".

Dr Sierra however, giving up hope, gets a flat tire in a ravaged neighborhood. He asks for helps and a passerby instead, runs away from him. Defeated, kicking trash, he walks into the night, passing debris on the street and cadavers.

Reading the Breaking News on ElUniversal.com.mx on the night of Thursday April 23rd, I was reminded of this movie. I remember the scenes of residents wearing gas masks throughout the city, the gas mask wearing and billy club wielding cops beating the people who demand answers. The mass suicides at the pyramids of Teotihuacan of people imploring the Aztec gods for some sort of mercy.

"Influenza epidemic strikes the Federal District (Mexico City) read the headline on April 23rd. Reading Influenza I remembered high school history class. The 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic which killed more than 40 million people. Spitting in the streets became illegal. I worried when news outlets started to use the words "potential pandemic". I wondered if Mexican authorities would be truthful during a health crisis like this. I quickly realized that the answer was NO. Probably Not.

You see, this epidemic of swine flu was detected as early in March and possibly as far back as December. During March and the first weeks of April, many people fell ill with what seemed was a common flu but then they died. Quickly. Healthy people woke one day fine, fell ill the next day then died days later. Dozens died. On April 23rd, the Ministry of Health broke the news. It was an Influenza epidemic in the city.

But not just in the city. People started dying in villages in Oaxaca. In the city of San Luis Potosi. Then cases popped up in Hidalgo. Then Veracruz. Then Mexicali, Baja California, near San Diego. Tlaxcala state. Zacatecas state. Deaths reported in Guanajuato. The United States had reported some cases in Southern California and Texas. Then a group of high school students fell ill in New York, they had visited Cancun during Spring Break. 20 cases so far in the US. Some in Nova Scotia, Canada. Others reported in Israel and New Zealand. Almost a dozen countries reporting people stricken with Swine Flu symptoms.

Then I noticed something peculiar. There was virtually no reports of the doctors and nurses who fell ill and died because of this outbreak. No attention was paid to the claims of a doctor that allegedly "dozens and dozens of people" had been dying in city hospitals since March but doctors were told NOT to report the cause of deaths as "influenza". They were told to put "heart attacks" or "pneumonia". The government death toll of 103 that stood as of April 27th, was far far too low. How many had died of Influenza but had been misdiagnosed? Maybe the doctors thought they had died from a common cold? Or flu? Or a heart attack? or pneumonia?

All of the deaths have been in Mexico. All the other cases abroad have been minor, and most of the victims well on their way to recovery. Why? What was the disease so lethal in Mexico? Questions that were not answered quick enough. Where had the disease come from? Why Mexico? Was it man made? Or somehow mutated from pigs, birds and humans? How many people had died from it, since March? All year?. Questions.

Only time will tell and the world is anxiously waiting and watching to see if the "Gripe Porcina" outbreak as it is called in Mexico, turns out to be the worlds next global pandemic.

Will authorities in Mexico proclaim 'There isn't and wont be any plague here"? Time will tell.