US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her Canadian and Mexican counterparts Peter MacKay and Patricia Espinosa in Ottawa Feb. 23 for a summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Initiative (NASPI, or ASPAN by its Spanish acronym),… Read moreNAFTA security summit held in Ottawa
Thousands of Mexican miners held a one-day strike Feb. 19, marking the one-year anniversary of the underground blast that killed 65 at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in northern Coahuila state. Relatives of the victims celebrated a Mass and… Read moreMexico: strike and scandal on anniversary of mine disaster
We have noted repteated claims and denials that veterans of the feared Guatemalan counter-insurgency troops known as the Kaibiles are active in Chiapas and collaborating with Mexico’s narco-mafias. But these Kaibiles, caught in the new Chiapas immigration sweeps, seem to… Read moreGuatemalan commandos arrested in Chiapas migration sweep?
Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced Feb. 18 that he is dispatching some 3,300 army troops and federal police to combat narco-traffickers in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, two states that border Texas. Nuevo Leon capital Monterrey and the Tamaulipas border town… Read moreCalderón sends troops to border states —but narco-mafia rules
The evangelical Journal Chretién features a commentary Feb. 12 on religious violence in Mexico’s conflicted southern state of Chiapas which is rife with dangerous distortions, and smacks of a propaganda job against the Zapatista rebels. Although writer Aloys Evina begins… Read moreChiapas: evangelicals exploit religious violence for propaganda against EZLN
In a new communique, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) denounces Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s escalated campiagn against narco-trafficking as a “farce” and a “mere pretext to augment the already disproportionate militarization of rural Chiapas.” The communique, signed by Subcommander… Read moreChiapas: Zapatistas protest narco-militarization
From El Universal, Feb. 7: The Supreme Court voted 7-4 Tuesday to launch an investigation into state and federal police conduct during the arrests last May of some 240 men, women and children in the State of Mexico town of… Read moreMexico: supreme court rules for Atenco inquiry
An international commission of human rights observers announced Jan. 21 that at least 23 people were killed and a number of cases of physical abuse and sexual assaults against women were recorded during the months-long conflict in the southern Mexican… Read moreOaxaca: government disputes rights report; police block religious gathering
In his first published interview with the foreign press since he became Mexico’s president last month, Felipe Calderon told the Financial Times: “The United States is jointly responsible for what is happening to us… [I]n that joint responsibility the U.S…. Read moreMexico: Calderon appeals for more Drug War aid; Chiapas in crosshairs
Francisco Lopez Barcenas writes for La Jornada, Jan. 10, via Chiapas95: On January 1 of this year, Oaxaca woke up with one more municipality, that of San Juan Copala, created by Triqui communities who officially belong to the Mixtec municipalities… Read moreOaxaca: “autonomous municipality” declared; Ruiz wants federal police back
From La Jornada, Dec. 28 via Chiapas95: The nation’s top electoral court ruled Wednesday that irregularities preceding the Oct. 15 gubernatorial election in Tabasco were not serious enough to affect the outcome. The unanimous decision cleared the way for Andres… Read moreMexico: court rules for PRI in contested Tabasco election
The bishops of San Cristobal de las Casas, Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel (titular), Enrique Diaz Diaz (auxiliary) and Samuel Ruiz Garcia (emeritus) officiated at a mass in the Chiapas Highland village of Chenalho Dec. 22 in memory of the victims of… Read moreChiapas: Acteal massacre commemorated
