Mexico City - With a Bible and two cans of juice camouflaged as a bomb, Jose Marc Flores Pereira kept all of Mexico on its toes with an airline hijacking that drew international media attention. The news agenda changed radically, as Mexican media abandoned all coverage of the start of a debate on a new tax plan. Radio and television programmes, which were planning to interview Finance Minister Agustin Carstens and other experts, turned their focus to the hijacker known as "Josmar."
The Bolivian-born pastor, 44, hijacked a Boeing 737 operated by Aeromexico on Wednesday, as it flew into Mexico City from Cancun with 103 passengers on board.
His story became the centre of attention, particularly for television, and was told from all possible angles: the crew's comments, the rescue operation at Mexico City airport, Josmar's religious music videos on the internet.
He arrived in Mexico at age 27 because his family in Bolivia was fed up with his drug addiction. He has a restaurant in Cancun called Las Delicias de Josmar (Josmar's Delights). And he reportedly read verses from the Bible with flight attendants and handed out recordings of his religious songs to the crew.
He first asked that the plane fly around Mexico City seven times, but the captain told him that there was not enough fuel on board to do it.
Josmar later said that he had hijacked the plane because he needed to talk to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, to warn him of an impending catastrophe. The hijacker claimed he had received a "divine revelation" on a diabolical date, the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year, which when inverted turns into 666, the number of the beast.
He reportedly boarded the plane in very good spirits.
"He said hello in a very friendly way, too friendly," air hostess Maria de Lourdes Venegas told television Thursday.
He sat in row 30 and announced his plans 50 minutes into the flight.
"He never threatened us, he never shouted at us," Venegas added.
Josmar had as carry-on luggage a black suitcase and a brown briefcase. At the back of the plane - where he spoke to air hostesses without passengers realizing what was going on - he opened the suitcase to show that he was not joking: he had a bomb, he said.
The explosive device turned out to be made of two cans of juice full of sand and colourful lights that turned from red to purple to blue.
"He supposedly had a wireless detonator," a member of the crew said.
He said he had two accomplices aboard the plane, although he later explained that he only said that because he believed that it was in fact the Holy Trinity that was hijacking the plane.
Some 300 soldiers and 180 police officers gathered at the airport's emergency area, where the plane landed.
Women and children were released first, followed by the remaining passengers. Then, in a fast raid without a single shot, police stormed the aircraft and as a preventive measure arrested eight people, including a local legislator for the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
"There is nothing, we were duped!" one officer was quoted by the daily Reforma as saying.
"(The hijacker) took them for a ride," some Navy officers told police.
