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Mexican police shoot striking steel workers { April 21 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/world/americas/21mine.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/world/americas/21mine.html
Mexican Police Battle Workers at a Steel Plant
April 21, 2006
MEXICO CITY, April 20 (Reuters) — Hundreds of Mexican police officers stormed a major steel plant on Thursday to force out protesting workers in a clash that spilled into the streets and left three workers dead.
Two of the dead were shot and the other was crushed during struggles between steelworkers and police officers at the Villacero steel company's Sicartsa complex in the western state of Michoacán, which has been closed for three weeks by workers defending a union leader the government accuses of graft.
Dozens more workers were injured when about 600 police officers advanced on the plant early Thursday morning behind volleys of tear gas canisters, officials said. Both workers and police officers were hurt in the ensuing melee; some of the police were wounded by people in the crowd throwing stones and homemade gasoline bombs.
"A very violent conflict situation arose," said Enrique Bautista, a senior official in the Michoacán state government, in a radio interview.
The Villacero company said that it briefly regained control of the plant as workers were evicted but that the workers were again blocking the plant and that it probably would not reopen Friday.
The union said President Vicente Fox had "blood on his hands," and it demanded an investigation.
"There was a violent evacuation where more than 600 officers from different police forces in Michoacán entered the complex to unblock the strike," said a union spokeswoman, Consuelo Aguilar. "We don't know where it will end."
It was the worst clash since thousands of miners and metalworkers across the country went on strike last month in defense of Napoleón Gómez, the union leader the government has accused of corruption.
The dispute arose after 65 workers were killed in an underground gas explosion in a mine in northern Mexico, setting off angry protests over mine safety and the failure of rescue teams to reach the bodies.
The police arrived quietly in the early hours of Thursday, some of them landing by boat behind the plant, according to a local reporter.
Residents living nearby — some still in their pajamas — came out to support the steelworkers, throwing stones, blocking roads and burning vehicles.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
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