Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) turned in its final report on last year’s unrest in Oaxaca May 24, blaming both authorities and protesters for “excesses,” and urging the government to investigate its finding that federal police tortured detainees. The… Read moreMexico: human rights commission hands in Oaxaca report
“Agriculture likes immigration bill,” reads the May 21 headline in the Columbus Dispatch and other McClatchy newspapers. The new bill would expand and streamline the guest worker program which has been in place since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control… Read moreDeadly repression greases “guest worker” program
Two months after the detention of a group of young people protesting the visit of President George Bush to the southern Mexican city of Merida, Yucatan state, five remain behind bars, unable to pay bail which has been set at… Read moreYucatan: five anti-Bush protesters still behind bars
Fourteen assassinations attributed to narco gangs were carried out May 20 in Mexico City, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Guerrero, Sinaloa and Oaxaca. Additionally, federal army troops exchanged fire with 20 gunmen with AR-15 automatic rifles, bullet-proof vests and uniforms of the… Read moreMexico: assaults on security forces spread across country
Mexico May 15 called upon the US to prevent weapons from landing in the hands of drug gangs that increasingly use them to kill soldiers and police. “The firepower we are seeing here has to do with a lack of… Read moreMexico: US arms narco gangs
Sonora state police killed 15 in a fierce gunbattle just south of the Arizona border May 16 after tracking into the hills a group of heavily-armed gunmen who earlier that day killed five municipal police in Cananea. Three Cananea residents… Read moreMexican drug gangs escalate war on security forces; torture in Michoacán
The First Summit of Latin Americans Migrant Communities concluded May 14 with a “Declaration of Morelia,” named for the city where the meeting was held in Michoacan, Mexico. The declaration called for modifying national and international laws on immigration, calling… Read moreMexico: migrants summit demands greater rights
Gunmen fatally shot a high-ranking Mexican intelligence official as he drove to work at the federal Prosecutor General’s office in Mexico City May 14. Jose Nemesio Lugo, who investigated drug trafficking and illegal migration, was shot several times. The assailants… Read moreMexico: hitmen take out federal police, army jefes
Gamaliel López Candanosa and Gerardo Paredes Pérez, two journalists with Mexico’s national network TV Azteca in Nuevo León, have been “disapeared” for the last four days, the network says in a May 14 statement. “The atmosphere of violence generated in… Read moreMexico: more journalists “disappeared”
Jo Tuckman in Mexico City writes for The Guardian, May 12: Man in the mask returns to change world with new coalition and his own sexy novel A bead of sweat is visible through the eyehole of his famous black… Read moreSubcommander Marcos writes erotica, predicts social upheaval
Two families who adhere to the indigenous organization Las Abejas have fled their homes in the hamlet of Tzanembolom, Chenalhó municipality, following threats from local followers of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in southern Mexico’s conflicted Chiapas state. The families,… Read moreChiapas: more threats at Acteal; rural violence escalates
Mexico’s federal government has expropriated more than 14,000 hectares of the Lacandon Selva, the lowland rainforest region of southern Chiapas state. The expropriation, approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), came in response to a request by the… Read moreChiapas: government expropriates 14,000 hectares of Lacandon Selva
