On the morning of Jan. 10 some 200 members of the farmers’ group El BarzĂłn Popular took over the toll booths on the privately owned Mexico City-Toluca highway and allowed motorists to ride for free for about three hours. El… Read moreMexico: Barzonistas liberate highway
Thousands of Mexican army troops and federal police have been mobilized to the Texas border in a new offensive against the “Zetas,” paramilitary wing of the powerful Gulf Cartel. Authorities pledge to hunt down the Zetas and raid their safe-houses…. Read moreMexico launches new army operation against “Zetas”
Police and striking miners clashed at Grupo Mexico’s Cananea copper mine in Sonora state Jan. 11 after Mexico’s Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) declared a five-month-long strike there “non-existent” (illegal) and announced a provisional suspension of the National Syndicate… Read moreMexico: miners, police clash at Cananea
On the morning of Jan. 3 a unit of 15 masked people armed with AK-47 rifles set fire to three backhoes belonging to the Constructora Torreblanca, a construction company building a highway in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. “No… Read moreGuerilla attack, anti-NAFTA actions in Mexico
Zapatista women at La Garrucha To celebrate the 14th anniversary of their New Years Day uprising, Mexico’s Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) hosted a Women’s Encuentro (“encounter” or “meeting”) at the jungle settlement of La Garrucha, Chiapas state. Officially dubbed… Read moreChiapas: Zapatistas host Women’s Encuentro —amid ongoing violence
Two masked men forced their way into the Catholic diocese’s Human Rights Center in Saltillo, in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, on the evening of Dec. 20. The men struck Mariana Villarreal, who works in the center’s legal and… Read moreMexico: rights office raided in Coahuila
On Dec. 28 a number of Mexican campesino organizations announced plans for protests starting on Jan. 1, when tariffs will be eliminated on the importation of corn, beans, sugar and powdered milk from Canada and the US under the North… Read moreMexico: NAFTA protests for Jan. 1
Survivors and their supporters gathered in the mountain hamlet of Acteal in southern Mexico’s conflicted Chiapas state Dec. 22 to mark the tenth anniversary of the massacre of 45 unarmed Tzotzil Maya peasants by a paramilitary group linked to the… Read moreSurvivors accuse Mexican state at Acteal massacre commemoration
On the evening of Dec. 12 Melanie del Carmen Salgado Lopez was assaulted by an unknown man near the entrance of her home in Mexico’s Federal District (DF, Mexico City). He pushed her against the wall, grabbed her by her… Read moreMexico: legal defense activist assaulted
On Dec. 10 some 400 police broke up a demonstration by the unemployed in Mexico’s southern state of Tabasco. Some 300 people were blocking an avenue in Villahermosa to demand benefits that PRI governor Andres Granier Melo had promised to… Read moreMexico: unemployed protest in Tabasco
Some 1,000 members of the Federation of Socialist Campesino Students of Mexico (FECSM) blocked the Sun Highway in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero for more than an hour on Dec. 11 to protest plans by state education secretary Jose… Read moreMexico: student protests continue in Guerrero
The White House is hoping Congress will pass the Bush administration’s request for an initial $550 million for narcotics enforcement in Mexico and Central America before the fast-approaching holiday recess. The proposed aid package, known as the “Merida Initiative,” has… Read moreCongress mulls “Plan Mexico”
