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CNN Saturday Morning News

Mexican Farmers Continue to Hold Officials Hostage

Aired July 13, 2002 - 09:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For a fourth day, protesting farmers have held Mexican police at bay. The farmers, angered by a planned airport project, have threatened to -- the hot -- to tie hostages to gas trucks and then set them on fire.

Harris Whitbeck joins us now via videophone with the latest on the Mexican standoff, quite literally. Hello, Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

I'm actually not on the videophone. There have been some more roadblocks set up between the town of San Salvador Atenqua (ph), and Mexico City. The standoff there continues. Seven people are still being held hostage. Two were released last night. These -- those who were released by protesting farmers were private security cops who had been working, and the farmers decided to release them because they -- they are not direct employees of the state or federal government.

Farmers say that they will now only negotiate with representatives of the federal government. They are protesting, as you said, a planned construction of a new airport on land that they say belongs to them, and land for which they have not, according to them, been offered appropriate compensation.

So the situation is still very much at a standoff. There is a lot of federal and state police presence here in this area. Again, the hostages apparently had a quiet night. They say that they have been treated well. But of course they have this very, very worrisome threat hanging over them, the threat that they would be killed if the government does not announce that it is doing away with the plans to construct this airport -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Harris Whitbeck in Mexico City on the phone, not the videophone. Thank you very much.

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