MEXICO CITY - Hundreds of federal police officers stood guard outside a bruised Congress building and politicians exchanged verbal fire Wednesday as they sought to fix blame for an attack on the legislature a day earlier by protesters seeking government aid.
The Attorney General's office said it had launched an investigation into the violence, which erupted Tuesday evening when protesters apparently belonging to farmers and teachers unions forced their way into the congressional chamber where lawmakers were discussing next year's budget.
The protesters rode horses into the lobby, broke down a glass partition in the lobby, hurled fire extinguishers at security guards and shook their fists at legislators inside the main chamber. The actions sparked chaos and sent some legislators diving for cover under their desks.
Police said the attack was organized by a national teachers union demanding higher wages, as well as by farmers and ranchers angered by a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement that will lift tariffs on several U.S. farm products in January.
But leaders of both the teachers' union and farmers groups issued statements Wednesday decrying the violence and insisting that they wanted to resolve their issues in the legislature peacefully.
Felipe Calderon, congressional leader for President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, called the protests a "huge snub to democracy on the part of the PRD," or Democratic Revolution Party, a major leftist opposition party that he accused of inciting the violence.
In an appearance Wednesday morning on the national Televisa network's morning program Contraste, Calderon pointed to a recent newspaper photograph of PRD leader Rosario Robles seated next to a farm leader whom he claimed was one of those leading the protest. The photo was accompanied by an article in which the party pledged its support to the farmers.
"What more do we need?" he said. "I invite you to unmask those who incite this violence. ... I am not going to allow people to bust in (to the legislature) with horses and pigs."
In addition to trotting into the legislature on horseback, several protesters had let farm animals loose outside the Congress for several days prior to the attack.
Robles, at a Wednesday news conference, denied that her party was responsible for the violence. She said that the "real culprit is the lack of attention the government has given to the farmers" of Mexico.
Meanwhile, President Fox issued a statement Wednesday saying that Tuesday's events threaten "the sovereignty and dignity of the Congress."
"The profound change that our country is experiencing requires that conflicts be resolved within the norms of our democratic institutions," the statement said. "There is no place in a democratic Mexico for violence. The only correct path is through dialogue."
Farmers and other groups in Mexico blame Fox's government for hurting Mexican interests by supporting NAFTA.
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