The president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), FlorentĂn MenĂ©ndez, was in Mexico April 11 to meet with officials from the federal Government Secretariat. MenĂ©ndez urged officials to seek a solution to the ongoing teachers’ strike in the… Read moreAPPO: Oaxaca struggle not over
Mexico, Colombia and seven Central American nations held a 24-hour summit April 10 in Campeche, issuing a nine-point plan for revitalizing the regional development alliance known as the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP). Joining Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon were the presidents of… Read moreMexico: Campeche PPP summit draws protests
Amado RamĂrez Dillane, 50, Acapulco-based correspondent for Mexico’s Televisa network and host of the daily news program “Al Tanto” on local Radiorama, was shot to death near the city’s main square April 6. He had apparently just left Radiorama’s studio… Read moreMexico: journalist gunned down in Acapulco
Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) announced that six more setlements—some which have been established for 70 years—have been slated for relocation from the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in the lowland rainforest of Chiapas, the Lacandon Selva. The named… Read moreChiapas: government marks more settlements for eviction from Selva
Indigenous peoples have no future under the neoliberal system, because it doesn’t respect their traditional self-government (usos y costumbres) and seeks to eliminate their ethnic identity, said the Bishop Emeritus of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, who… Read moreMexico’s Bishop Ruiz: no future for indigenous under neoliberalism
Some 500 Mexican army troops and Federal Preventative Police took over the Public Security Secretariat of southern Tabasco state March 17, and arrested three high-ranking police commanders. The three officials, summarily fired upon their arrests, are part of a clique… Read moreMexican federales raid Tabasco police
At least 22 were arrested and several injured in protests March 13 against the visit of President George Bush in the southern Mexican city of Merida, Yucatan. Hundreds also marched to the US Embassy in Mexico City, battling riot police… Read moreAnti-Bush protests rock Mexico
Diego Arcos Meneses, an indigenous Chol Maya campesino, has been arrested by Chiapas state police and charged with murder in connection with November’s massacre at the rainforest settlement of Viejo Velasco. The Chol campesino organization Xinich protests his innocence. The… Read moreChiapas: charges in jungle massacre; land conflicts escalate
As Umberto Eco said about Salman Rushdie, “A death sentence is a rather harsh review.” From AP via the San Diego Union-Tibune, Feb. 19: MEXICO CITY – Gunmen shot to death four men identified as members of a musical group… Read moreMexico: narco gangs kill musicians
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon visited a small village outside the Rosario monarch butterly reserve in Michoacan state to announce a “zero tolerance” policy against illegal logging, and pledged to mobilize army troops to protected areas. (Scientific American, Feb. 26) The… Read moreMexico: Calderon sends army against illegal logging
Women from the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) blocked roads at various locations across Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, in protest of the "anti-national and pro-imperialist" government of President Felipe Calderon. They also demanded lower electricity rates. Traffic… Read moreWomen block roads in Chiapas
In recognition of International Mother Language Day, lawmakers in southern Mexico’s Chiapas state proposed Feb. 21 a reform to the state constitution recognizing the existence of the indigenous tongues of Jacalteco, Chuj and Kanjobal, which are threatened with extinction. Articel… Read moreMexico: call to save threatened indigenous languages
