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Honey is a tiny village in the pine forests that cover the high sierra between Hidalgo and Puebla. Last spring there was peace in Honey. Visitors found none of the tight sullenness sometimes evident in villages around Mexico City. The people were relaxed, easygoing, contented.

True, Mayor Herminio Rodriguez still wore a holster on his hip. But he packed no gun. The holster was a good place for carrying a carpenter's rule, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers. Explained Mayor Rodriguez: "Mexico is a law-abiding country now, and it isn't necessary for anybody to carry a gun."

That was last spring. This summer thunderclouds gathered over Honey. A state's agent was killed and his son vowed vengeance. Some state police thought that village officials had somehow inspired the murder. The governor sacked Mayor Rodriguez and his staff.

The villagers, resentful, decided to send a committee, including Rodriguez, to ask a rehearing by the governor. He refused to see them. But at the railway station in Mexico City they encountered the son of the murdered man. They talked a little with him and with three other men who were with him. After a time they all got into two station wagons and drove off.

Last week, early passers-by on the Puebla road came upon the bodies of the six committeemen. Like the other five, Mayor Rodriguez had been shot six times. It might have been better for him if he had carried a gun.

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