NationStates Jolt Archive

Something you don't see too often:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/americas_mexican_mutiny/img/1.jpg

Seems like the good people of San Salvador Atenco, Mexico declared their town a police free zone on Wednesday, and here we can see the boys in blue being 'escorted' out of the metropolis.

Why were they being 'escorted' away from the city?

Why were they being 'escorted' away from the city?
More like.. why aren't they beating the people with those batons..

GO TOWNIES! Run them pigs out 'o town...

I smell bacon
I smell grease
I smell San Sal-va-dor
po-lice!

Maybe they realized that chasing them away was bad enoguh. To beat up the police would bring hell upon them

Why were they being 'escorted' away from the city?

Because they challenged several street traders over the issue of permits, apparently.


EDIT: am I the only one who finds their attention focusing on the 'generously proportioned' cop who looks like he is about to have a heart attack?

I noticed him too

Just from looking at the picture I don't really see police forces being run out of town. I see what looks like police or military forces on a hike or something. What is the whole story?

Just from looking at the picture I don't really see police forces being run out of town. I see what looks like police or military forces on a hike or something. What is the whole story?

If only we had some kind of global information storage system which could be accessed by use of remote programs which searched and catalogued the contents. A silly pipe dream, I guess.

Just from looking at the picture I don't really see police forces being run out of town. I see what looks like police or military forces on a hike or something. What is the whole story?

exactly what I was thinking. Does someone have a link to the whole story?

Why were they being 'escorted' away from the city?

Based on what I've heard of Mexican police, my guess is to make the town safer XD

I've never heard of police anywhere running away from a crowd, regardless size.

They got back in Thursday morning.

It's about land and corruption.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1767.html

If only we had some kind of global information storage system which could be accessed by use of remote programs which searched and catalogued the contents. A silly pipe dream, I guess.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look it up on the internet. I would like to know the article the original poster was using though.

exactly what I was thinking. Does someone have a link to the whole story?

How hard is Google?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/americas_mexican_mutiny/html/1.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4974116.stm

Thanks for the tip. I'll look it up on the internet. I would like to know the article the original poster was using though.

The clue is in the picture url, no?

maybe this si the first sing of the mexican people finally deciding against the long difficult journey to the United States and attempting to reform their own government?

maybe this si the first sing of the mexican people finally deciding against the long difficult journey to the United States and attempting to reform their own government?

Did the whole Zapatista malarky pass you by?

how hard is it to right-click on the image and look up the properties?:rolleyes:

Based on what I've heard of Mexican police, my guess is to make the town safer XD

They are legendary for thier coruptability.

Why do all the cops in the picture look like drug dealing gangsters?

Why do all the cops in the picture look like drug dealing gangsters?

look at the post above yours

:upyours: (just think of this thing as pointing up ;) )

Why were they being 'escorted' away from the city?

any reason will do

How hard is Google?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/americas_mexican_mutiny/html/1.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4974116.stm

Is it somehow more difficult for you to copy and paste a link in the OP than it is for you to make snarky replies?

Anywho, here's the story:
Police take control of Mexican town after clashes

Thursday, May 4, 2006 Posted: 1818 GMT (0218 HKT)
State riot police fire tear gas Wednesday at angry residents of San Salvador Atenco, Mexico.

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico (AP) -- Hundreds of federal, state and city police took control of a rebellious Mexican town early Thursday, hours after angry farmers bearing machetes clashed violently with authorities, beating officers and taking them hostage.

The police made it to San Salvador Atenco's central plaza in front of City Hall about 7 a.m. local time after launching tear gas canisters and breaking through human barricades formed by residents, Mexican news media reported.

Mexican presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar confirmed that police had taken control and said all police hostages had been released.

Officials said area highways had been reopened after being blocked all day Wednesday during the clashes, which began when inhabitants attacked police in response to the arrest of several of their companions at a market in the nearby town of Texcoco.

Shortly before midnight Wednesday, radical community leaders in San Salvador Atenco called Red Cross officials to a small clinic near the center of town and released the six state and federal police officers they had seized hours earlier. Organizers said it was a gesture of goodwill since all of the former hostages were injured -- having been beaten and some sliced with machetes.

A 14-year-old Atenco resident was killed during the pitched battles that happened throughout the day, but circumstances surrounding the death were unclear, said Humberto Benitez, secretary-general of the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City on three sides.

Benitez said, as did a spokesman for the Federal Preventative Police, that a federal police agent was beaten to death. Hours later, however, Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto called television newscasts to say the officer remained hospitalized in grave condition.

Television images from helicopters overhead showed residents repeatedly punching and kicking the semiconscious officer in a beating that continued even after he had been put inside an ambulance that was trying to drive him to safety.

Mexican media reported that at least three dozen police officers were injured, though federal and state police spokesmen could not agree on an exact number. Pena Nieto told Televisa, Mexico's largest network, that as many as 50 officers were wounded, but that only about 12 sustained serious injuries.

Police responded to the violence by firing tear gas into the crowds and arrested 31 people, including Ignacio del Valle, a key community leader.

An Associated Press photographer sustained bruises on his head and body after being clubbed by a group of police officers who were trying to keep him from taking pictures. He was not seriously injured, however.

Police also beat and tackled at least one cameraman from Televisa.

"We are working ... to re-establish order, peace and harmony as soon as possible," said federal Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal.

Rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said that the Zapatista Liberation Army of southern Mexico will go on red alert to support Atenco residents.

Marcos made the comments in Mexico City, where he was addressing supporters as part of his so-called "other campaign," in which he is touring Mexico, talking to different dissident and community groups in the run-up to the July presidential elections.

The Zapatistas staged a brief armed uprising in southernmost Chiapas state in January 1994 to demand Indian rights. Since then, the movement has been aimed more at propaganda than at armed rebellion.

Atenco, 15 miles (25 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City, was once planned as the site of a new international airport.

But farmers claiming the government was offering them too little in exchange for their land staged a violent protest in July 2002, taking 15 police officers and state officials hostage to demand the release of residents jailed during the protest.

The standoff lasted several days, and President Vicente Fox eventually canceled plans to build an airport there.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/05/04/mexico.police.ap/

GO TOWNIES! Run them pigs out 'o town...

I smell bacon
I smell grease
I smell San Sal-va-dor
po-lice!



ooh rah