Mexico charges Bolivian in plane hijacking

updated 2:12 p.m. ET Sept. 12, 2009

MEXICO CITY - Prosecutors charged a Bolivian pastor with sabotage, illegal retention of people and attack on a means of transport in this week's hijacking of a plane from the resort city of Cancun, the attorney general's office said Friday.

The charges carry total maximum sentences of up to 43 years in prison. The illegal retention charge is used to describe a lesser form of kidnapping.

Jose Flores, who was taken to a Mexico City prison to await a judge's decision on whether he should stand trial, has said he doesn't regret threatening to detonate a fake bomb aboard an AeroMexico commercial jetliner Wednesday.

Flores' demand to speak with President Felipe Calderon sparked an hourlong runway standoff that ended peacefully when armed police raided the airplane, freeing the 103 passengers and seven crew members aboard unharmed.

'Never going to regret it'
Flores, 44, has said he was acting on a divine revelation and wanted to warn Calderon of an earthquake that would occur in 2012. That year has been widely mentioned on the Internet as the date for potentially catastrophic events, based on astronomical alignments and purported ancient prophesies.

"I am never going to regret it," Flores told Milenio Television Friday. "My intention was to do good, to announce, without regard to my life or liberty, that we should join together and pray for the earthquake not to occur."

"I am happy because I know this is God's" work, he said as he was transferred to prison.

He added that he's had divine revelations before and predicted President Barack Obama's election and Michael Jackson's death.

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