A gay couple visiting Puerto Vallarta over the weekend were the victims of what they feel was a hate crime.
Mexico News Daily reported Palm Springs, California resident Carl Blea, who was walking hand in hand with husband Marc Lange in the Lazaro Cardenas Park area, was shot in his leg Saturday night.
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The real estate agent and former U.S. Navy officer was taken to a Puerto Vallarta hospital, according to the Desert Sun, where he remained until at least Monday with a swollen and numb leg and an unclear prognosis.
A local security guard initially reported Blea was the victim of a robbery gone bad.
Blea and Lange however, said that’s not an accurate description of what took place. Both men contend they were victims of a hate crime and have taken to Facebook to spread their story.
The two men were returning home to a condo they own in Puerto Vallarta after a night out dancing. As they were walking a man began yelling at them and then started shooting. A bullet went through Blea’s thigh.
On Sunday night Lange posted a message on his Facebook account stating: “This was not a robbery went bad. It was a hate crime as Carl Blea and I were walking hand in hand. We never spoke to the man who shot us. He yelled at us and then pulled out a gun and shot at us.”
The Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board and the LGBT Business & Tourism Association of Puerto Vallarta issued a joint statement condemning the incident, noting that both organizations stand in solidarity with the members of the LGBT community.
“As a community, we take all incidents involving visitors very seriously and we have all been taken by surprise by this incident as it is not normal in Puerto Vallarta,” Javier Aranda Pedrero, director of the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board, said. “We, along with the police, and authorities across local, state and federal government have been monitoring this situation along with the LGBT associations and leaders of the destination.”
The organizations pointed out that Puerto Vallarta remains one of the safest destinations for LGBTQ visitors, not only in Mexico but also on an international level.
The destination continues to be immensely popular. Last year, more than 17,000 LGBTQ international visitors came to Puerto Vallarta for Vallarta Pride alone, without incident, according to the tourism board. It is estimated that, in general, about 20 percent of visitors to Puerto Vallarta, specifically in the city’s Romantic Zone, are part of the LGBTQ community and safely enjoy the destination without any incident, the joint statement said.
“These types of incidents are rare and extremely isolated,” the statement continued. “Puerto Vallarta is a welcoming and friendly city.”
Numerous Puerto Vallarta authorities, including the PVTB, the mayor’s office, and the police, work closely on an ongoing basis with the destination’s ACT association as well as Vallarta Pride, meeting to obtain feedback and sensitivity training.
Puerto Vallarta also has an LGBT Tourism center offering members of the LGBTQ community direct assistance when visiting the city.
“As President of the LGBT Business & Tourism Association of Puerto Vallarta (Act LGBT A.C.) and on behalf of the board, our members and the LGBT community of Puerto Vallarta we deeply regret what Carl Blea and Marc Lange experienced this weekend and we hope for a speedy recovery. We believe this is a random and isolated incident, and definitely not part of the daily life in Puerto Vallarta,” said Armando Sanchez, President of ACT LGBT A.C.
“When we learned of the incident we made sure that Carl and Marc were taken care of and we worked behind the scenes to ensure that the proper procedures were conducted in accordance with Mexican law,” Sanchez added. “We also reached out to Mark and Carl to offer them our support and assistance on behalf of the different local LGBT associations and organizations.”
Pedrero, the director of the PVTB, told TravelPulse that the police presence has increased in the Zona Romantica in response to this weekend’s incident.
In addition, he said the annual Pride celebrations have already begun in the city and the event will once again have an Anti-Homophobia March to call attention to acts of hate targeting the LGBT community.