May 5, 2006 - 3:14PM
Thousands of riot police firing tear gas forced their way into a rebellious town near Mexico City and freed fellow officers taken hostage in a riot that left one person dead.
Scores of police in body armour swept into the fractious farming town of San Salvador Atenco, 25km north of Mexico City, and hauled off bleeding protesters amid peasants armed with sticks, machetes and petrol bombs.
Violence exploded in the area 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 election year.
Squads of police then went house to house, scaling concrete walls in search of missing officers and militant leaders, and hustling out bloodied prisoners to waiting utility trucks.
The acrid smell of tear gas hung in the air.
Eleven police officers held hostage by protesters were all released, Televisa television station said, and police took control of the town.
"The only objective was to restore the rule of law," senior security official Wilfrido Robles said at a news conference in the town hall, which had been occupied by the rioters.
It was the first time state and federal police had entered the town since machete-toting protesters 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 neighbouring 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.
There has been a riot in Santiago, a small town 25 kilometers from Mexico City. Violence exploded when three flower sellers were arrested on suspicion of trading without permits. 

Rioters attacked the police with sticks, machetes and petrol bombs.

Thousands of police quelled the crowd with tear gas and batons. Dozens were arrested. The arrested include peasant leader, Ignacio del Valle.

All 11 police officers held hostage by rioters were released. 

Javier Cortes Santiago, a fourteen year old boy, was killed in the riots. 

In 2002 rioters managed to cancel plans to build an airport in the town.