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
The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón May 11 authorized the dispatch of federal army and police to the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. “This morning, I spoke with [Veracruz] Gov. Fidel Herrera,” Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña told a… Read moreMexico: army troops to Veracruz; narco gangs defiant
Veracruz state prosecutors have concluded that 73-year-old grandmother Ernestina Ascencio* wasn’t raped or beaten by Mexican federal army soldiers but died of natural causes, spokesmen said at a news conference in the state capital, Xalapa. Juan Alatriste Gómez, a special… Read moreVeracruz: rape-murder case against soldiers dropped —as victims’ children “disappear”
Eleven anti-Bush protetsers in the Yucatan city of Merida were released on bail of up to 20,000 pesos ($2,000) May 8. They had been arrested on charges of damaging the Municipal Palace and other violations during protests against George Bush’s… Read moreYucatan: Merida starts to release anti-Bush protesters
