Attacks on Migrants Heighten Tension

All Candido Salas wanted was a cup of coffee before he showed up at his usual Carlsbad street corner for another day of looking for work.

But, when the 26-year-old migrant worker stepped inside the Country Grocery Store on El Camino Real this week, all he found was terror and humiliation.

According to police, Salas was kidnaped for several hours by the store owners--singled out to deliver a forceful message that the presence of local migrant workers was no longer appreciated at the rural market.

Shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday, Salas was grabbed by Randy Alfred Ryberg and beaten repeatedly while handcuffed to a railing in a rear delivery area outside the market, Carlsbad police said.

Then, along with his brother Rickey Joe, police said, Randy Ryberg--6 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 220 pounds--bound the migrant laborer’s arms and legs with duct tape.

Before Salas was released to hobble into a nearby field, a paper bag was fastened over his head. The bag was painted with a face and a simple Spanish phrase.

The message: “ No Mas Aqui ,” ungrammatical Spanish for “Don’t Come Back,” according to Carlsbad Police Detective Richard Castaneda.

The Ryberg brothers were arrested a short time later on a host of charges that included kidnaping, false imprisonment, battery and civil rights violations.

The incident is among a new series of attacks on migrant laborers that were being investigated Friday by North County law enforcement agencies, authorities said.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is searching for two Anglo men believed to be responsible for a string of armed robberies and attacks in migrant camps in the Fallbrook area during the past three weeks.

On Sunday, Pablo Adrellano was shot once in the chest with a rifle after he resisted the men, who had robbed several other groups of migrants nearby. He was listed in fair condition Friday night at a local hospital.

“He was shot because he said he didn’t want to give them his money,” said Lt. Bill Flores of the Fallbrook sheriff’s substation. “He didn’t offer any physical resistance, though.”

The pair also are suspects in the beating and robbery of a Bonsall migrant, Flores said. They are described as young men, in their early 20s, wearing Army fatigues, one with collar-length hair, the other closely cropped.

In addition, they are sought for questioning in at least two other robberies in migrant camps that have netted nearly $2,000 in cash, he said. The men reportedly drive a white pickup truck to the area, then walk from camp to camp robbing migrants.

“This stuff is not unusual with the migrant camps we have in the area,” Flores said. “These laborers usually have cash, and they’re very reluctant to report a crime because they’re afraid of being deported.

“They make the perfect victims.”

Rise in Crimes

Many robberies of migrants are committed by bands of illegal aliens from Tijuana who swoop into the camps after payday, he said. But authorities have also seen a rise in such crimes by Anglos--including a Texas drifter who last month was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for a string of migrant camp holdups, Flores said.

But authorities Friday were quick to downplay either the Carlsbad kidnaping or the Fallbrook robberies as “hate crimes.”

“The way they dress, these guys could be part of the KKK or the skinheads, but we’re not investigating these incidents as hate crimes at the moment,” Flores said.

“They didn’t leave behind any swastikas, they didn’t scar anyone or tell them to get the hell out of the country. So right now, we’re looking at them strictly as robbers and gunmen.”

Carlsbad Detective Sergeant Bill Huntington said the Rybergs’ store continually had been victimized by shoplifters and the brothers told police they were afraid the migrant presence outside the store was scaring away customers. On numerous occasions, police said, they had been called to the store by the brothers, who complained about the thefts and men drinking liquor outside the store.

“They were frustrated, pure and simple, but I don’t think this has any racist overtones,” he said. “This thing is a two-way street. A businessman loses thousands of dollars a year to shoplifters, people scaring away his good customers.”

However, Huntington said, police believe that Salas was not going into the store to shoplift and that he simply wanted a cup of coffee.

“I’m not taking any sides in this, although I know Rick personally. What he did was wrong. But I can also see the frustration.”

But migrant advocates say the Carlsbad attack has all the makings of a racially motivated crime.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t see these two thugs try this type of thing if they thought some white kids were shoplifting in their store,” said Roberto Martinez, director of the U.S.-Mexican Border Program for the American Friends Service Committee, an immigrant rights group.

“They sent a clear message to the migrants, and they did it in a racist way. It’s something you used to see in the Deep South, people playing judge, jury and executioner all at the same time.

“It’s the way the Klan works. You send someone a message by lynching them. It’s the same mentality.”

Keeping Records

Martinez said he has documented 10 years of racial attacks in San Diego County for his organization, including at least 14 assaults and killings of documented and undocumented workers by “white gangs and self-proclaimed supremacists.”

The cases include a November, 1988, incident in which two migrants were shot dead as they walked along a rural stretch of Black Mountain Road in North City West. Two San Diego teen-agers since have been arrested. One has plead guilty, and the other is awaiting trial.

“This is typical of what we’re seeing all over North County,” he said. “And it’s spreading. There’s a lot of copycat gangs at work. They feel that these people don’t have any rights in this country, so they can get away with it.”

For years, migrant laborers from Mexico and Central America have been pouring into North County, working day jobs in construction and agriculture, while living in makeshift encampments in the rustic arroyos and canyons throughout the area.

Claudia Smith, a lawyer for California Rural Legal Assistance, another migrant advocacy group, said that civil action may be taken in the Carlsbad kidnaping.

“My reaction to this is revulsion and, unfortunately, not one of surprise,” she said. “It reflects the ambivalence that exists in the North County towards these people.

“They subsidize a relatively affluent life style. People want them to work for them, but they don’t want to see them. It’s like they’re saying, ‘Get out of town by sundown. But be sure to come back by dawn. And bring along a few friends while you’re at it.’

“That’s the message these (Anglos) are sending. But these people have got to learn they can’t have it both ways.”

History of Tension

Migrant advocates said there has been a history of racial tension at the Carlsbad market, known to passing motorists by the smiling, 12-foot fiberglass chicken perched on its roof.

“There’s a long history of harassment at this store,” said the Rev. Rafael Martinez, director of the North County Chaplaincy in Encinitas. “The owner is a big guy. And he continually insults the workers who come into his store.

“And, if they stand outside to drink their coffee, he goes outside and pushes them around. He’s a bully.”

Martinez said he was asked by the property owner from whom Rickey Ryberg rents to visit the store in an attempt to mitigate the problem.

“The workers said they couldn’t boycott the store because it was the only one around,” he said. “But, when they arranged for a catering truck to come to the lot, the store owner kicked the driver off. I’m terrified that these people are getting so bold.”

Contacted at his brother’s grocery, where he works as a baker, Randy Ryberg said Friday that he and Rickey had been released on $22,500 and $22,100 bonds, respectively, but that neither had to put up any money for their release.

“They let us go without putting up any cash because of our good standing in the community,” he said, adding that they are scheduled for a Jan. 25 arraignment.

Ryberg, 36, refused to comment on the details of the case, but denied that he and his brother dislike Latinos.

“We’re not racists,” he said. “We’ve got nothing against these people.”

Ernie Eisley, who works in a nursery next to the store, said, however, that the migrants’ presence has been a constant worry for the brothers.

“It’s a point of contention every time we get together, which is every day, in fact,” he said. “They’re frustrated. They don’t know what to do about it.”

Eisley said there have been many break-ins at the nursery and migrants have posed a shoplifting problem at the grocery store. “I think, if Rickey could get out of his lease, he would,” he said.

“After this, I’m sure he’ll just close up the shop altogether.”

Carlsbad Detective Castaneda said Salas had gone into the store, but ran out before he bought his coffee because he saw a possible employer pull up to the curb.

Then, according to police, Randy Ryberg, who was standing in the front of the store, grabbed Salas, possibly thinking the laborer was running out with goods. He allegedly dragged Salas, who speaks no English, to the rear of the store, leaving him handcuffed until store owner Rickey Ryberg arrived.

Salas, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico, who has been in the United States for less than nine months, was terrified by the kidnaping, which police said lasted about three hours.

“He didn’t know what was happening,” Castaneda said.

“When they let him go, he couldn’t see because of the bag they had over his head. He just staggered out into the field.”

A passer-by called authorities, and Salas was untied by an officer. Randy Ryberg was arrested at the store, police said. Rickey Ryberg, 37, turned himself into authorities a short time later.

“Apparently,” Castaneda said, “these were two really frustrated people.”