“Bring this Marine home Mexican government and now that you have a new president just installed in Mexico, the relations with United States are especially important to treat the United States citizens who are response peaceful in their intent, innocent in their observation of the Mexican laws. Where no harm has been done, send that U.S. Marine back to America and back to his family in Miami. “

 

Well, Senator Nelson spoke for nearly six minutes vowing to keep pressing for Hammar’s release. So how did he end up in prison to begin with? Frankly, the deeper we dig into the story, it gets kind of stranger and stranger. Like many other veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, Johnny Hammar has struggled post traumatic stress disorder, a lifelong surfer. He finds peace on the water riding waves. So after completing a PTSD treatment program last summer, he set off to go on a surfing trip to Costa Rica and that’s when his life took a terrifying turn. Here’s Gary Tuchman. 

 

Johnny Hammar is an American war veteran. He was a Marine serving in the Infantry in Afghanistan and Iraq. He decided to drive with a fellow Marine from Florida in a Winnebago, all the way through Mexico to Costa Rica for a surfing vacation. Johan and Olivia Hammar are Johnny’s parents. 

 

“I mean, he had been there before and surfed. I mean, they took every single decent board they had.”

 

So he was looking forward to a cool trip, driving in there. I mean, he knew it was Mexico, but he wasn’t planning on staying in Mexico. 

 

No, they were going to drive through. The only reason they stopped was to get more gas. 

 

His parents were concerned when he said he wanted to bring an antique Sears & Roebuck shot gun. His great-grandfather once owned. One that looks just like this. His parents said he wanted to be able to hunt with it. They said he got the proper forms from U.S. border agents to declare it. But once he did declare it, the nightmare began. 

 

How far was he from the United States of America when he was arrested?

 

He was on the border. He was crossing the border. 

 

So he was…

 

He was not…

 

40 feet away from America? 

 

Or less

 

Johnny Hammar’s friend was released, but Johnny was brought to this jail in Matamoras, Mexico, charged with violating Mexico’s strict gun laws. His parents say they were told the jail is largely controlled by Mexican drug cartels members. A few nights after Johnny was imprisoned, his parents got a call from someone threatening to kill their son unless the parents paid money. 

 

So then, he said, I have your son, and he said I’m going to F him up and he said, and I already have. And for some stupid reason, my response was, oh, no, I’m gonna call the consulate. And he put Johnny on the phone, and I just, I couldn’t believe it. I just, then I realized, I was like, oh, my god, and I really thought he wasn’t in the prison. I thought, someone has taken him out of the prison. Because, I just couldn’t conceive of this going on in a government facility. 

 

Olivia, what did Johnny tell you?

 

He said, mom, you need to do whatever they say. And he said, they’re really serious. 

 

The Hammars never heard from the caller again. Although the U.S. consulate has known about this from the beginning, Johnny’s parents kept the story out of the press. Scared that attention could be bad for their son, but increasingly desperate they are speaking out now. 

 

The longer we go in with him in there, the greater chance is that he is not going to get out alive. 

 

The Hammar’s congresswoman is Illena Ros-Lehtinen who heads up the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The family has just informed her about this. 

 

This is outrageous and I’m asking for the State Department to be more proactive. I’ve communicated with them. I’ve communicated with our U.S. ambassador in Mexico. This week I meet with the Mexican ambassador to the United States, and enough is enough. 

 

Their son had looked forward to a surfing vacation. Now he’s passed the four-month mark in a Mexican prison. He talked to his parents on the phone Friday.

 

I said, Johnny, we’re going to get you out. And he said, mom, you’ve been telling me that since August.