 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Mexico Police Take Rebel Town
 Noel Randewich - Reuters
| | Mexican riot police detain a villager in San Salvador Atenco, near Mexico City May 4, 2006. Over 1,000 riot police firing tear gas flooded into a town at the edge of Mexico City on Thursday to hunt for agents taken hostage in a riot sparked by flower traders that left at least one dead. Violence exploded in the area on Wednesday when police arrested roadside traders suspected of illegally selling flowers. Dozens more were arrested later in the day. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Thousands of riot police firing tear gas forced their way into a rebellious town near Mexico City on Thursday to hunt for fellow officers taken hostage in a riot that left at least one person dead.
Scores of police clad in body armor sweeping into the fractious farming town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles north of Mexico City, and hauling off bleeding protesters amid peasants armed with sticks, machetes and Molotov cocktails.
Violence exploded in the area on Wednesday when police tried to evict unlicensed flower traders from a market. A 14-year-old boy was killed in the riots, whose televised images raised concerns of stability in a presidential year.
Squads of police went house to house on Thursday, scaling concrete walls in search of missing officers and militant leaders, and hustling out bloodied prisoners to waiting pickup trucks. The acrid smell of tear gas hung in the air.
"The only objective was to restore the rule of law," senior security official Wilfrido Robles said at a news conference in the town hall, until recently occupied by the rioters.
By mid-day, six state and federal police officers were still unaccounted for after having been taken hostage the day before. Protesters released other police officers on Wednesday night in exchange for arrested comrades.
It was the first time state and federal police had entered the town since machete-toting protectors blocked President Vicente Fox's plan to build a new airport there five years ago with a standoff that lasted several days.
San Salvador Atenco ousted its mayor and has been under a form of self-rule since then, with local leaders trying to spread the system to neighboring villages.
PRE-ELECTION VIOLENCE
The airport defeat and the subsequent failure to bring the area totally under government control have been held up by rival politicians as an example of Fox's supposed weakness in dealing with conflicts.
Dozens were arrested on Thursday as police moved into the town, including a German and two Spanish women who authorities said would be deported.
The riot was the latest outbreak of violence in the run-up to the July 2 elections. A surge in drug-gang bloodshed has spread to beach resorts like Acapulco and two people were killed in April when armed police tried to break up a steelworkers strike.
The storming of the town was led by state police under the control of Mexico's main opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI.
PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo has referred to the town during campaigning for the election, saying he would not be scared off by peasants with machetes. Ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon later picked up the same theme.
Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said the violence in Atenco was the work of a small group of people opposed to democracy and not a sign the country was slipping into further violence. "I can categorically assure you there is no lack of governability here," he told reporters.
The Zapatistas staged a brief but bloody uprising in the Indian-dominated southern state of Chiapas in 1994. Rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos, who is on a tour of Mexico City, has hardened his political stance in recent days, calling for a government overthrow and vowing to expel foreign capital.
Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us