Nov. 26, 2004, 12:55AM

Mexican officials name 6 in riot deaths

MEXICO CITY - Investigators have identified at least six people who organized an angry mob, threw paint thinner on two federal agents they believed were kidnappers and set them ablaze, federal authorities said Thursday.

Among those arrested in the vigilante slayings was a 16-year-old boy, Deputy Attorney General Gilberto Higuera said at a news conference. He refused to confirm radio and newspaper reports that the teen was the one who started the fires, however.

The six were among 31 people captured during a massive raid on San Juan Ixtayopan, a town on outskirts of Mexico City where dozens of locals on Tuesday severely beat three plainclothes federal agents and then burned two alive, Higuera said.

The gruesome slayings were taped and then aired hundreds of times on all major Mexican networks, horrifying people across the nation.

Also on Thursday, federal authorities belonging to the same agency as those killed expressed outrage their superiors didn't do more to save the lives of their colleagues.

About three hours passed between the time local news media reported problems and the time townsfolk killed the agents. Both federal and city officials failed to get forces to the site.

Hundreds of federal officers halted work and staged protests outside their offices, demanding the resignation of the agency's leaders, who they said had failed to give orders to rescue the policemen as they were being killed.

The slain agents had been photographing a neighborhood elementary school as part of an operation against drug dealing, but a rumor spread that the men were kidnappers.