Sidney resident Isabella Gonzales Kaminsky was born in Mexico but moved to Canada at a very young age. Her dad, Roberto Gonzales, still lives in Cabo San Lucas. Despite the distance, the two are close.
“I see him for Christmas and go and see the family and then he comes up for my birthday in July,” said Isabella.
She expected to see him later this week but that may not happen since he’s missing.
“There is no communication and now I don’t know his whereabouts it feels truly like the floor has been taken out from under me,” said Isabella.
“We just want him home and safe that is all we want,” said Isabella’s mother Stacey Kaminsky.
What is even more worrisome is that they believe police corruption is at play.
“What they are doing is illegal and it’s wrong,” said Isabella.
Roberto, who is an accomplished realtor and former pro golfer, was last heard from Friday.
He was on the phone with his boss who was still on the line when he was pulled over by police.
“The boss actually heard everything, stop the car its the police,” said Jaime Tacher, the family’s lawyer who is helping in the search for Roberto.
At that point, the call ended but Roberto reached out to his boss later that day saying he had been kidnapped and his captors wanted a ransom of $55,000.
The relatively low amount is one of the reasons his family suspects police.
“It may be more of a local police force just a couple of officers that had gone offside and done this because of the low amount,” said Isabella.
Furthering that theory Isabella says her cousin was also illegally detained and roughed up by authorities, trying to get more information about her dad.
“When we realized my cousin was taken in the same manner we realized ok this not something that is being done the right way and it’s out of line here,” said Isabella.
The state of Cabo San Lucas has no record of detaining Roberto or having him in their custody.
“The legal response of the local prosecutor is that they don’t have Roberto detained,” said Tacher.
CHEK News reached out to local authorities for comment but have not heard back.
But Roberto has officially been declared missing.
“That is a big step for us because that means the authorities are starting to looking for him,” said Tacher.
Roberto is not a Canadian Citizen so global affairs will not get involved but because Isabella is Canadian she hopes that makes a difference.
She’s calling on both governments to work together.
“I’m hoping that having Canada’s eyes on this and the state authorities in Mexico seeing that will hopefully bring a resolution,” said Isabella.
“By Canada looking at this and Baja California state authorities taking a look at this they will realize we’ve got the wrong guy here he has a lot of backing from his community in Cabo and his Canadian Family.”
Luisa Alvarez
