Posted on 05/03/2006 7:54:13 PM PDT by Flyer
MEXICO CITY, MAY 3, 2006: As the political demonstration in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, in this city’s Tlatelolco neighborhood, came to an end, in reaction to the confrontations between flower producers and police in Texcoco leaving three dead, Delegate Zero-Subcomandante Marcos decreed a red alert in the Zapatistas’ Good Government Councils in Chiapas and the temporary suspension of the Other Campaign’s activities.
The preceding information has been confirmed by telephone from Tlalteloco by Narco News/Other Journalism correspondent Roberto Chan Kin Ortega and by Hermann Bellinghausen of the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada.
Through this morning and afternoon the clash between flower growers and police has been reported mainly by a few radio stations and briefs on the La Jornada website. Just a few kilometers away from the battle-tested town of San Salvador Atenco, according to information from La Jornada reporters René Ramón and Javier Salinas, “at least nine municipal police and six flower sellers were injured in a confrontation that occurred this morning when the farmers, supported by the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land (the organization of Atenco farmers that successfully blocked an airport project on their land in 2003), tried to set up in front of the Belisario Domínguez market to sell their products. After the scuffle about 50 Atenco residents took refuge in an apartment building armed with sticks, machetes and rocks. Meanwhile, around 500 riot police remain in the streets and 500 Atenco residents are blocking the Texcoco federal highway.”
Ramón and Salinas’ reports in La Jornada maintain that “the tension rose in the area as federal forces and several helicopters arrived. In total there are 800 riot police in the zone. One of the people holed up in the apartment building is Ignacio del Valle, leader of the Peoples’ Front in Defence of the Land. Around 2:45 pm another clash occurred due to an attempt to remove the Atenco residents from the Texcoco highway. The protesters began throwing Molotov cocktails and burning tires.”
According to Narco News correspondent Chan Kin Ortega at 6:20 p.m., people are marching toward the office of the federal government’s Interior Minister tonight. Tomorrow at 8 a.m. the Other Campaign will assemble at the University of Chapingo (in Ecatepec, near the scene of today’s violence in the state of Mexico). A mobilization has also been called tonight for adherents to the Other Campaign and people in general at the Fierro Bridge and the University of Chapingo to support the people under attack.
Kind readers, Narco News’ Other Journalism Road Team will be reporting on all the events of the coming hours and days…
500 riot police remain in the streets and 500 Atenco residents are blocking the Texcoco federal highway
. . .people are marching toward the office of the federal government’s Interior Minister tonight
There are no race problems in the paradise of Mexico.
And we have no need to worry about the war zone that is brewing just to our south.
Teenager Killed in Mexican Police Clash
By EDUARDO VERDUGO Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico — One person was killed as machete-wielding protesters near Mexico's capital clashed with police Wednesday, blocking highways, throwing molotov cocktails and taking at least two police officers hostage.
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A 14-year-old boy from San Salvador Atenco was killed, though circumstances surrounding his death were unclear, said Humberto Benitez, secretary general of the state of Mexico.
Benitez said, as did a spokesman for the Federal Preventative Police, that a federal police agent was also beaten to death. Hours later, however, Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto called television stations to say the officer remained hospitalized in serious condition.
Television images from helicopters overhead showed residents repeatedly punching and kicking the semiconscious officer even after he had been put inside an ambulance.
More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3839596.html
Day 2 live coverage on Univision.
Hundreds of riot police on scene
By Daniel Aguilar
SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico (Reuters) - A protest by flower vendors erupted into a clash between machete-wielding peasants and riot police on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and several held hostage.
Fifty police officers were injured, 11 seriously, state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto said, and about 100 people were arrested.
Angry demonstrators from the town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles north of Mexico City, cornered 11 policemen and were holding them hostage at nightfall, officials said. The demonstrators refused to release the policemen unless protesters who were arrested earlier in the riot were freed.
bttt
I hope they don't overthrow the state and plant gardenias everywhere.
I'm made uncomfortable by gardenias.
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