peasants with machetes

04 May 2006 17:35:40

Source: Reuters

By Noel Randewich
SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico, May 4 (Reuters) - Thousands of riot police firing tear gas flooded into a rebellious town near Mexico City on Thursday to hunt for agents taken hostage during a riot sparked by flower traders that left at least one dead.

National television images showed scores of police clad in body armor sweeping into the fractious farming town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles (24 km) north of Mexico City, and hauling off bleeding protesters.

Violence exploded in the area on Wednesday when police arrested roadside traders suspected of illegally selling flowers. A 14-year-old boy was killed in the rioting by peasants armed with sticks and machetes.

Dozens more were arrested later, including a German and two Spanish women, who police said would be deported.

During the chaos, angry demonstrators cornered 11 policemen and took them hostage. They released several of them early on Thursday but officials said six had not yet been found.
It was the first time state and federal police have entered the town -- where many residents link themselves to Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement -- since machete-wielding 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 has to some extent been under radical self rule since then, with local leaders trying to spread the system to neighboring villages.

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.

SURGE IN VIOLENCE

The storming of the town on Thursday 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 July 2 election, saying he would not be scared off by peasants with machetes. Ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon later picked up the same theme.

On Thursday, police, backed up by low-flying helicopters, over-ran roadblocks set up by the demonstrators, who were demanding the release of flower sellers and leaders arrested in raids and running street battles on Wednesday.

The speed, size and early hour of the operation seemed to take the town by surprise, and resistance was limited to small groups throwing Molotov cocktails.

Police used strips of cloth as makeshift masks against the swirling clouds of tear gas, and stormed houses to pull out residents in a hunt for protest leaders.

The riot was the latest outbreak of violence in the run-up to 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.

Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said on Thursday 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.

Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos, who headed a brief but bloody uprising in the Indian-dominated southern state of Chiapas in 1994, said his guerrilla army was on red-alert following the clashes.

Leftist Marcos, who is on a tour of Mexico City, has hardened his political stance in recent days, calling for the overthrow of government and vowing to expel foreign capital.

When they entered San Salvador Atenco, police found pro-Zapatista murals and slogans painted on walls.