Mexico on the Brink: There's a Riot Going On

But to many jittery residents of the neighborhood like café proprietor Carlos Diaz, "Vantage Point II" looked a lot like a dress rehearsal for what could happen after the July 2nd presidential election here. "I hope it's only a movie" Diaz muses to a regular patron.

Despite outgoing president Vicente Fox's avowal that Mexico is "at` peace", it doesn't really look that way. As the tightest presidential election in its 196-year history comes down to the wire, the nation is wracked by a spasm of violent social confrontation.

Item--On April 21st, a thousand elite state and federal police descended upon a striking steel plant in Lazaro Cardenas Michoacan, firing tear gas and live ammunition wildly. But 600 strikers fought back with slingshots and iron ore pellets and drove the police off with heavy machinery. Two young workers were killed in the melee, inflaming a usually quiescent Mexican labor movement. The strike at the Villacero steel plant, Latin America's largest steel bar manufacturer, continues in its fourth month.

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