Mormon Fundamentalist Abducted

Excerpts from Mormon sect protests Mexico abduction, published in the The Arizona Republic

Clary Jones, a former mayor in the community, said about 500 Mennonites and members of the Mormon offshoot group protested to Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza about the kidnapping.

Masked gunmen abducted 16-year-old Eric LeBaron over the weekend as he was leaving his family's mountain ranch.

"We are pressuring the governor to help with a rescue," Jones said in a phone interview, "but also to send a message to kidnappers that we are going to demonstrate every time there is an abduction."

The LeBaron family name is legendary in polygamous Mormonism, with historic ties to controversial fundamentalist groups based in Arizona and Utah.

The Mexican colonists fled from the United States to escape persecution for polygamy beginning in the 1890s.