Pancho Villa rides again in U.S. border town

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Scores of Mexican riders, some dressed as bandits and toting sabers, trotted across the U.S. border Saturday to remember a raid by Francisco "Pancho" Villa that left 18 Americans dead and this dusty U.S. frontier town a smoking ruin.

The riders crossed the border in an annual commemoration of bandit-turned revolutionary Villa's bloody attack on Columbus, New Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution in March 1916.

The reenactment is organized by historical enthusiasts from both sides of the border, and draws hundreds of tourists and residents who gather to watch and hold picnics.

Villa raided the town in reprisal for the U.S. government's support for his rival, the nationalist government leader Venustiano Carranza.

His gun-toting pistoleros crept into the streets under cover of darkness, attacked the U.S. Army garrison here killing 10 soldiers and eight civilians, and torched adobe and timber-framed homes across Columbus.

"Today we come in peace, we have no guns," said Narciso Martinez, 57, a rancher from the Mexican state of Durango, dressed as Villa in a pith helmet, cravat and spurs, and twirling a saber above his head.

"We come in a spirit of friendship, love and the love of God," he added in Spanish, moments after crossing the border from the gritty town of Palomas, Mexico.

Villa's raiders looted stores, stole machine guns and ammunition as well as horses and mules before running for the border and refuge in revolutionary Mexico. Sixty-seven of his men were killed out of more than 500.

Outraged by the raid, the U.S. government dispatched an expeditionary force of 10,000 troops in a failed bid to capture Villa, who had dispersed his insurgents and vanished.

Concern over violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has flared again in recent months, as the Mexican government struggles to curb drug cartels that have killed more than 7,000 people since the start of last year.

The riders commemorating Villa's attack were met at the border early Saturday by Luna County sheriffs' deputies, as well as scores of U.S. riders, some dressed as bandits, others as U.S. cavalrymen from the era.

They trotted a few miles up from the border and rallied at a park in Columbus, where hundreds of local residents and visitors swayed to a mariachi band and held picnics in bright sunshine.

"The border is a violent place, but this brings us together," said Francisco "Chito" Flores, a construction worker from the town who turned out to enjoy the event with his family.

"It's our way of turning violence into friendship."