Peasants On Way To Rally Slain At Police Checkpoint Townsfolk, Police Disagree On Who Started Deadly Shooting

Townsfolk and police disagree about what happened at a checkpoint outside of town. But when it was over, 16 people were dead.

On Thursday, the families buried their dead, prosecutors opened an investigation, TV newscasts fed weary Mexicans scenes of the carnage and workers washed away the blood.

Some say a truckload of peasants, headed to an anti-government protest, was armed and opened fire on police Wednesday. Survivors say they were unarmed, that what took place was nothing short of an ambush and a massacre.

Either story is believable.

This town is a 30-minute drive over rugged mountains from Acapulco. But Guerrero, despite its chic beach resorts, is a desperately poor farming state where crops include marijuana. Its police have one of the worst human rights reputations in Mexico. Disputes are often settled violently.

Elias Reachi Sandoval, a state police inspector, said the truck was stopped at a roadblock for a routine weapons check, when the peasants drew machetes and one of the farmers fired a shot.

“Of course we returned the fire,” Reachi said.

Authorities said one peasant lopped off a policeman’s arm with a machete and all hell broke loose.

In all, 16 peasants were killed and at least 18 wounded, some seriously.

Survivor Apolino Belon recalled it differently. He said the peasants were ambushed.

“They were waiting for us. Another patrol saw us and told the police we were coming,” Belon said. “They took our machetes and made us lie face down on the ground, and they started shooting us.”

The demonstration that the peasants never reached was called by the opposition Democratic Revolution Party to demand information about another peasant who had disappeared May 24.