Hands up

I have a huge family. I have at least 40 first cousins and 18 uncles and aunts. It has been my long standing opinion that way too much intra and interfamily dating and marriage happens because everyone is from the same two or three families. One of my cousins is Banner. Banner is Fernanda’s son and Yenner’s younger brother. Is was Banner’s father that died in December of 2009 after working as a bread maker his whole life and not receiving the medical attention he needed in his last few hours.

I really love this part of the family. There are five children and they have probably more than your average amount of disputes due to a very jealous and high strung sister, Fabiola (don’t tell her I said that). However, the family really took a hit when the father passed away completely unexpectedly right after I got here.

After that, Banner, who is 16, took a turn for the worse. He began to hang out with the not so awesome people in my town, drinking all night long, vandalizing, dropped out of school, and basically acting like a screwball which is unfortunately how a lot of the male youth act in my town.

However, Banner has had his older brother Yenner look out for him tremendously. As a way to gain incentive to work, Yenner bought Banner a brand new mototaxi under the premise the Banner would work in my town for however long it took to pay back his brother and take care of it like it was his baby. There were other stipulations to, for example that he could never take the moto into Tumbes (it’s too dangerous and Banner doesn’t have his diver’s license) and that he had to stop drinking. He loves that moto. If I can, I will take a picture of it and post it here so you can all see it. So Banner has passed the last five months working everyday to get money.

Unfortunately, there are a few bad apples in my town that have gotten involved with gangs, drugs, and have made robbing a way of living. Here in San Juan, things have stayed mostly peaceful, but those who make their living in a more illegal way either work in Tumbes city or just keep a low profile in my town as to not draw more attention than they already get from a community that LOVES to gossip.

So anyways, let’s rewind to last Monday. My annex town Tacural, was just finishing it’s anniversary celebration (which I judged the beauty pageant for) and a lot of people were just drinking in the morning. One of the “bad” apples in my town whose name is Kokon asked my cousin Banner to take him there. Let me just say that Kokon is 15 years old, is still in high school, and I’ve definitely had conversations with him before. Of course Banner had no problem taking him over there, I usually just go walk but he would be making the equivalent of a cool 20 cents from the business.

After getting to Tacural, Kokon offered my cousin a glass of beer and to sit with him and another man named Julio. Julio grew up in San Juan, married a girl here but beat her unconscious two years ago while she was pregnant so he’s been living in Tumbes ever since but still comes here to celebrate during the fiestas.

After drinking their “vaso” Julio and Kokon asked my cousin Banner if they could take them into Las Merecedes in Tumbes. Knowing how Las Merecedes is the equivalent of no man’s land and should definitely be avoided, Banner said he didn’t want to go in there.

“But come on man, you’re with us; we’ll protect you.”

And so they went.

In hindsight this was a very poor decision.

Banner was set up by both Julio and Kokon and soon enough another moto came up from beind and crashed into my cousin’s. Julio then kicked Banner off, beat him up and two men from the second moto pulled out a gun and shot at Banner’s foot. Luckily, it missed him. Banner was rightfully enraged and tried to get his moto back but after the shot rang he gave up and watched his moto disappear with the four guys.

Banner ran to the nearest police station where the police told him to go to another one. Eventually he got there, identified Julio in one of the suspect books and went with a policeman to Julio’s house. Funny enough, Julio opened the door, denied the charges, said that he and Banner had been friends with childhood and that he would never rob him. And that was it. The police said they could no longer help Banner.

Banner came home around lunchtime.

Apart from lecturing Banner on how he should have never gone into Tumbes, there was nothing we could do. His mother and older brother Yenner had left the night before for Lima and weren’t expected until later the week and his other brother Junior was out working in Tumbes and wouldn’t be home until the evening.

When Junior got home, he said that the thieves or chorros as we call them, had gotten Junior’s phone number and called with a ransom for the moto at 1000 soles. Understandably, no one has that type of money lying around so Junior tried to talk them down but they hung up.

This is when I walked outside and saw the whole family in a circle, watching and waiting for the cell phone to ring.

Eventually, Junior called an aquaintance of his that worked as a mechanic in Las Mercedes and ironically enough, this aquaintance was just getting ready to strip the moto (to sell everything individually so it couldn’t be traced). The mechanic was under pressure from the chorros and if he didn’t do as they said, reprucussions would be had.

Doesn’t this seem like something out of a movie?

Eventually the chorros called again and demanded 900 then 800 soles for the moto. This Junior agreed to pay. Us as a family would help come up with the money. Junior was told to take the money to a middle man and then the moto would be brought to him. Unfortunately though, no one could be sure we would get the moto because sometimes people just take the ransom money and then run away with the moto, leaving you sans moto and sans money.

So between a few people from the family (namely my butcher grandma) and myself, we came up with the money and gave it to Junior to take the next morning to the middle man. I routinely asked why the police couldn’t get involved and was told either a. the police refuse to get involved in things like this or b. if the chorros knew if Banner or Junior were contacting the police, they would go after them later and no doubt with guns.

In order to speed things up a bit, at the end of everything, Junior was able to pay the ransom and got the moto back (albeit without the battery or back tire).

That very day, I went with my sister and cousin to go buy carrots at the store when we came across 15 year old Kokon just walking around the plaza as if nothing had happened and had the decency to look us in the eye. Banner says he wants to buy a gun and make him pay. I probably would too if I were him, but the threat scares me nevertheless.