Ambush in the Plaza

When a team of U.S. and Mexican inspectors, vaccinating Mexican cattle against aftosa (foot & mouth disease), set out for the mountain country northwest of Mexico City, it was warned of possible trouble. A scout reported that villagers and farmers in the area were being told by the deeply Catholic, anti-government Sinarquistas: "He who cooperates with the anti-aftosa commission is a traitor. Do not cooperate. The anti-aftosa is a. Russian Communist plot to destroy your cattle."

Stocky, brown-haired Robert Proctor, the 23-year-old team leader, was not the sort to walk away from trouble. Handy with his fists, fluent in Texmex Spanish,* he had been one of the most promising rodeo riders around Tucson, Ariz, before he went south to help stamp out aftosa. He had handled plenty of tough situations; he figured he could handle this one too.

Just after noon one day last week, Roberto, as his teammates called him, rode his horse up the steep path to tiny (pop. 150) San Pedro del Alto. Ten yards behind followed his Mexican assistant, Raul Sanchez. About 40 yards farther back rode three soldiers (the only armed men in the party) and a guide. Topping the rise, Roberto rode slowly up to the church on the sunbaked, cactus-hedged plaza. As he was about to dismount, he suddenly cried to Sanchez: "Get out quick, go back."

From behind church and cactus rushed 600 screaming men & women armed with clubs and stones. They surrounded the riders, grabbed the soldiers' rifles. Sanchez was beaten into unconsciousness; Proctor fought his way out and dashed towards a wooded area with a mob at his heels. The soldiers escaped to give the alarm.

Three hours later, Sanchez was carried into Toluca hospital. Government police fanned out over the hills looking for Proctor. Only after getting tough with the farmers were they led to a mountain grave. There they found the battered body of Roberto Proctor. He was the ninth official (and second American) to die at the hands of superstitious Mexican farmers fearful that anti-aftosa teams came to do them harm instead of good.

*The half English, half Spanish patois of the U.S.-Mexican border region.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.