On May 21 Jose Leopoldo Gonzalez, secretary general of the Conference of Mexican Bishops (CEM), said the Catholic bishops had voted unanimously to call for the government to make former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) testify again about the killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six people in a bloody shootout at Guadalajara's airport on May 24, 1993. Gonzalez said Salinas' previous testimony, on Aug. 2, 2006, was "full of omissions."

Families are desperate a year after five workers and three pensioners from the Mexican state oil company Pemex disappeared, with federal authorities claiming no progress in the case. Mexico's opposition is pointing at the security forces. "No one seems to care about this case, least of all the Prosecutor General's Office, if in fact it was soldiers who took them," said Sen. Rosario Ibarra (Labor Party-PT), who chairs the Senate Human Rights Commission.

As part of an emergency appropriations bill, the Senate May 22 approved $350 million in drug war aid to Mexico, with an adittional $100 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Reducing the Bush administration's request for $500 million to Mexico and $50 million to Central America, the Senate also adopted language that would hold up a quarter of the funds until the State Department rules that Mexico is meeting human rights markers. The House approved $400 million for Mexico, with similar provisions. Differences need to be worked out in a joint conference. "Human rights abuses in the army are routinely investigated by the military itself, and that leads to impunity," said Tamara Taraciuk of Human Rights Watch. "The big issue is accountability." (NYT, May 23) The Senate bill also provides $165 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into 2009. (AP, May 23)

The Authentic Labor Front (FAT), an independent Mexican labor group, announced on May 13 that one of its affiliates is set to declare a strike at the Central de Abasto, Mexico City's huge wholesale food market, on May 30. For the past four years the affiliate—the Union of Workers of Commercial Buildings, Offices and Stores, and the Like and Related (STRACC)—has represented 41 workers who clean bathrooms in the flowers and vegetables area of the giant facility, which is operated by the Federal District (DF) government. The workers are mostly women, and several are older or have disabilities.

Ciudad Juárez Public Safety Director Guillermo Prieto submitted his resignation following a string of killings that included some of his top officers. AP May 18 cites a city spokesman saying Prieto would be replaced by a military officer on leave from the armed forces. The local El Diario cites Mayor José Reyes Ferriz saying the new police chief will be a retired military officer. Neither source named the new appointee.

President Bush's $163 billion Iraq war funding request collapsed in the House May 15. Republicans expected to provide the winning margin instead sat out the vote in protest of Democratic efforts to add money for the unemployed and an expansion of education benefits for soldiers. In the 149-141 tally, 132 Republicans abstained. (AP, May 16) Also included in the measure was $500 million as part of a multi-year commitment to Mexico, including about $204 million for the purchase of transport helicopters and surveillance aircraft. An additional $50 million was requested for Central American governments. In a burst of phone calls, Secretary Condoleezza Rice called about a half-dozen lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol the week before the vote to advocate the Mexican measure, and Bush spoke for it at a meeting with Republicans at the White House. (Politico, May 8)

Juan Antonio Román García, second highest ranking police commander in Ciudad Juárez, was killed May 10 when his car was sprayed with bullets outside his home. The attack came months after his name appeared at the top of a hit list left at a monument for fallen police officers. Two days earlier, Edgar Guzmán, 22-year-old she son of presumed Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was killed by a 40-man hit squad in Culiacán. Later that day, presumed Sinaloa Cartel gunmen murdered Edgar Eusebio Millán, a top commander of the Federal Preventive Police, at his home in Mexico City. Hours before Millán's funeral May 9, Esteban Robles, a senior Mexico City police detective, was gunned down in front of his apartment. Authorities say the Millán assassination was vengeance for the recent capture of Sinaloa Cartel kingin Alfredo "El Mochomo" Beltrán Leyva.

Federal agents raided a Phoenix gun store May 6 in the biggest weapons bust in years. Authorities said the store was a source for at least 650 high-powered weapons, including 250 AK-47 automatic weapons, smuggled to Mexican drug cartels. The raid on X-Caliber Guns followed an 11-month investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Agents seized 1,300 weapons, closed down the business, and arrested owner George Iknadosian and two others, Hugo Miguel Gamez and Cesar Boroguez-Gamez. The Gamez brothers are accused of setting up a network of "straw purchasers" to procure weapons for the cartels.