MEXICO CITY - (KRT) - The bloodied face of federal policeman Victor Mireles, pleading in vain for his life before being burned alive by a mob on national television, has become the latest image that stokes fears of future anarchy in this gigantic metropolis.

The ghastly lynchings of Mireles and a colleague, Cristobal Bonilla, two weeks ago also has unleashed a bout of national soul-searching in Mexico, as investigators try to get to the bottom of what happened and officials face increased pressure to do something about a growing lack of law and order.

The mob action was just the latest in a trend of vigilantism in Mexico. The worst has been in the poor, southern reaches of the capital, where suspected thieves and others have been beaten, tied up in town squares and even killed by residents harboring little faith in the justice system.

Twenty-nine people have been arrested in the police lynching. Critics also are calling for the ouster of the city's security chief and the federal security minister while President Vicente Fox and Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have been accused of contributing to an environment of lawlessness through what some consider their permissive attitudes.

Along with investigating the mob lynchings, the federal attorney general's office continues to interrogate officials over why no law enforcement agency responded to the officers' plight as millions watched them being beaten live on television for three hours Nov. 23.

At a recent news conference, Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard said it was "impossible" to get anti-riot police into the neighborhood because of rush-hour traffic, bad roads and the angry crowd, even though TV cameramen got there.

On Monday, Fox fired Ebrard and Jose Luis Figueroa, head of the Federal Preventive Police, the agency to which the three officers belonged, and urged a complete investigation into why police took so long to respond. Ebrard blamed his dismissal on a longstanding feud between Fox and Lopez Obrador.

Some analysts believe the rising clamor for a tougher line against crime could end up benefiting the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. The PRI, while famously corrupt, offered at least the facade of safety and stability during its 70 years in power and is trying to make a comeback after being ousted by Fox in 2000.

Residents of San Juan Ixtayopan, where the lynchings took place, say what is needed is fewer police, not more. They say the police only bring corruption, mistrust and other problems to neighborhoods such as theirs, where panicky residents mistook the undercover officers for kidnappers and most are livid at the hundreds of police who stormed into town the day after the lynchings. Federal agents conducted a second raid Saturday.

"We just want the police out of here," said Antonio Medina, a neighborhood leader, after a church mass for the two slain officers last week. "The police don't function, and this is the clearest proof of that."

Mireles, Bonilla and Edgar Moreno said they were in the neighborhood investigating drug dealing. But the area was awash in rumors about child kidnappers, and the officers were surrounded by the mob after they were seen videotaping outside a school.

People were videotaped laughing and holding up their children to see the beaten officers before youths doused two of them with a flammable liquid and set them alight. Moreno was eventually rescued by city police armed with machine guns and firing tear gas.

Fox said his government "will not rest" until it discovers who was behind the killings. He also vowed to punish any government official found to be negligent for not responding.

"My government will not permit these savage acts to put our society in danger," Fox said. "There will be zero tolerance of people taking justice into their own hands."

Yet analysts say the situation may have been exacerbated by political tensions between the right-wing Fox, and Lopez Obrador, the leftist mayor, which could have created a lack of police coordination. Fox has repeatedly blamed the city for the lack of rescue efforts, saying it was not the job of federal officials.

Dozens of the slain officers' colleagues disagree. A few days after the lynchings, agents from a nearby Federal Preventative Police unit publicly protested that they were prevented from responding by their commanders.

Some observers have criticized the government for not having a plan in place or a rapid response force ready to deal with such events. What also is needed, experts say, is resurrecting faith in the justice system by changing the perception that police respond slowly, if at all, to crime complaints, that detainees buy their way out of jail and that politicians only care about who wins the next election.

"The problem is the system itself," said Arturo Arango, technical director of the Citizen's Institute for the Study of Insecurity. "People think that the government doesn't address urgent problems, so they are taking justice into their own hands."

Critics say there is not enough respect for the basic rule of law among the citizenry or Mexico's leaders. Some point a finger at Fox, who they say set a bad example with decisions such as allowing a group of machete-wielding protesters to block construction of a new airport in the city.

Lopez Obrador has been criticized for appearing tolerant of vigilantism. After a thief was beaten to death with sticks in 2001, he said some communities were accustomed to dealing with such matters in traditional ways, and that it was better for the government "not to get involved."

The rule of law "is very fragile, and almost nonexistent in the streets," political columnist Eduardo Valle wrote in El Universal newspaper Sunday.

San Juan Ixtayopan and its rural surroundings, normally an hour's drive southeast of the city's center, is one of the capital's least crime-ridden areas. For that reason, there have been few police patrols, and residents are known for banding together to deal with their own problems.

The area of 38,000 has absorbed an explosion of growth in recent decades. The ramshackle hillside barrio where the lynchings happened is home to newer working class families from the provinces who complain of a lack of government services.

"The agents showed up and said `We are here to search for drug houses,' but nobody believed them because everybody knows where the drugs are sold and by whom," said Rafael Arenas Montero, 73, a local lawyer. "We don't need the police here. We are like one great big family."

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