Mexico Airport Standoff Ends

An explosive four-day standoff ended Monday as villagers fighting to block a $2.3 billion airport project outside Mexico City released all of their hostages after officials freed 10 of their imprisoned comrades.

Two hours after officials freed the prisoners, leaders from the town of San Salvador Atenco brought out 15 hostages, put them aboard two pickup trucks and sent them off to an exchange point along a highway.

Hours later, the last remaining four hostages were freed. Town leaders also promised that by the end of the day, they would open one-lane of the four-lane highway that runs past the town. It has been blocked since Thursday.

Most barricades remained early Monday, while Mexico state Gov. Arturo Montiel promised to try to avoid future violence.

"The most important thing is to return to talks ... and resolve the conflict," he said.

The villagers had threatened to kill the hostages during their desperate bid to block the expropriation of their land for the airport.

The release of the prisoners was a victory for the protesters over state officials who had insisted the villagers be tried for a clash with police on Thursday.

In possibly a bigger triumph, officials who have long insisted that the airport was inevitable hedged their statements about the long-delayed project, suggesting that it could depend on negotiations.

About 1,000 villagers packed the town square of San Salvador Atenco just before midnight, singing the national anthem and waving machetes as eight neighbors were brought home from a prison where they had been held since Thursday.

The scene was repeated a few minutes later as two more arrived.

"Thank you, people! I never thought this would be possible," one of the freed men, Gil Morales, told the crowd in the town some 15 miles northeast of Mexico City.

"Isn't this a magic moment?" asked a village spokesman, David Pajaro.

"Yes!" the crowd roared back.

The villagers have been fighting plans to expropriate their land for the airport since October. On Thursday, a clash broke out with state police that led to arrests on one side and the seizure of hostages by the other.

Newly freed from prison, village leader Ignacio del Valle called for dialogue with the government.

"Today we have to tell the government: sit down so that you can listen to me, not so that you can give me orders," he said at a post-midnight rally as his young son jumped onstage, grabbed his father in a bear-hug and buried his face against him.

Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, the top man in Fox's Cabinet, also appealed for negotiations during a late-night news conference at the presidential residence.

"There is no need to create a situation of violence," he said.

Creel said 10 other communities affected by the airport had been negotiating with the government for six months while Atenco and two others had balked.

The federal expropriation ruling in October offered villagers only 60 cents a square meter for most land. Creel said that was forced by law, and he said the talks were to determine fair additional compensation.

Creel said the government was willing to offer benefits ranging from new houses and schools to jobs at the airport for the villagers. Other land could be found nearby for those who want to continue farming, he said.

He said the government sought consensus with the villagers, and that it was "restating" its offer. But he repeatedly refused to say what would happen if the villagers refused the offers.

Before the airport project was announced, this scruffy town of cracked concrete streets was famous for its clandestine cockfights and grilled corn-on-the-cob.

The town's machete-waving defiance of the government thrilled many social activists around Mexico, ranging from farmworker advocates to environmentalists to anarcho-communists.

At least 70 groups sent representatives to offer food and speeches during a marathon rally in the town square on Sunday.