Thousands of farmers armed with machetes, PVC pipe, and belts occupy a region slated for expropriation by the Mexican Gov't to build an airfield. Insurgents kidnap government officials, block roads, and seize and destroy vehicles, including four Coca-Cola tractor trailors. pix (article 1)

Mexican Gov't attemps to seize land for airport, 3000 farmers occupy region

Mexico sends in 1000 special police forces; farmers take a dozen hostages; seize Coca-Cola trucks; burn vehicles

JAVIER SALINE CESAREO And RENE RAMON ALVARADO CORRESPONDENTS for LaJornada

Acolman, Mex., 11 of July. At least a thousand members the Special Police Forces of Immediate Action & Reaction (FARI) of the Estado De Mexico attacked more than 100 farmworkers of San Salvador Atenco when they marched to the municipal capital to protest an announcement by the Governor of the state, Arturo Red Montiel. The farmers responded to the repression with machetes, stones and sticks in a clash that left at least 30 injured campesinos and 19 missing. Three state agents were hurt.

Just after noon on the 11th, the farmers of San Salvador Atenco left for in Teotihuacán the zone of Texcoco to halt the announced construction a new airport for Mexico City. A group of 40 laborors, headed by Jesus Adam Espinoza and Ignacio Del Valle, boarded three light trucks for the trip to Teotihuacan.

When they arrived at the town of Santa Catarina, the farmers were confronted with a truck placed by state troopers to prevent passage. They pushed the vehicle into a ditch by the side of the road. The group of ejidatarios continued on their way, but met almost 40 state police of the FARI, with anti-riot equipment and shields. With just meters separating them, the two sides shouted at each other for nearly an hour.

Meanwhile, some farmers warned others in San Salvador Atenco, causing the resistors' numbers to triple. The number of the police swelled to 100 amid heated words.

The Clash

Violence eventually erupted between the well-armed Special Police and the farmers, the farmers fighting them off. Immediately afterwards, hundreds of military police appeared and attacked the farmers with tear gas and live ammunition.

A farmer known as Zapata, one of the most active members of the movement, could not retreat and was beaten by at least 20 police, his body sitting in a pool of blood while the Special Police continued to rain blows on him.

At least 300 ejidatarios entered the Suboffice of the Attorney General at Texcoco, where they kidnapped seven workers in response to the arrest of Ignacio Del Valle. Del Valle was arrested by agents of the Military Police when he received medical attention in a Texcoco hospital.

When word got around, hundreds of inhabitants and ejidatarios congregated in the main esplanade of San Salvador Atenco, where they immediately blocked the four points of the Texcoco-Lecheria national highway.

At around 2:30 pm, around 3,500 insurgents barricaded the roads from to all vehicles. The inflamed inhabitants of the towns of Acuexcomac, Atenco, Magdalena Panoaya, and Tocuila, armed themselves with machetes, sticks, rocks and dozens of molotov cocktails. The resistors burned three police cars at the entrance to the town of Acuexcomac. 158 Military Police, nearly 3000 members the Auxiliary Police of the state, and almost 7,000 Public Security officers had now arrived on the scene.

Meanwhile, at the town of Atenco, at the other end of the Texcoco-Lecheria federal route, the resistors afire other two other official. They also seized three Coca-Cola tractor trailors and a criminal transport unit.

The resistors captured five people: Marcelino Rocha, a guard; Apolinar Vargas, a member of the military police; Luciano Maldonado and Manuel Velázquez, of the Banking Police, and Rubén Martinez, "highway measurment specialist".

Four light trucks, a Coca-Cola truck, a bus, and dozens of bicycles carried farmers to the Texcoco to the Attorney General's office. When they tried to enter, judicial agent David González brandished his pistol, and screamed to the ejidatarios, "Do enter Here, cabrones!". Seeing they were untroubled, he threw the gun and ran.

When the farmer's militia failed to find to their leaders, they kidnapped the Assistant Attorney General, Jose Andres Mendiola Valdes and and 6 other government appointees.

After securing the occupation, the demonstrators returned the blockades without interference from the police. Felipe Alvarez, a resistor from Nexquipayac, explained the farmers' position,

"We demanded that they release our companions in exchange for our hostages. They will be the first dead ones if the government tries to use the Public Security forces to release them."

The farmers threatened burning alive the 13 retained people if in the next hours the government of the state did not answer to their demands.

At press time, an atmosphere of alarm and tension remained, as well as the threat of three burning Coca-Cola trucks. Resistors dug trenches around the occupied areas until night fell.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2002/jul02/020712/052n2pol.php?origen=index.html