In a "megamarcha" against the dropping of trade barriers under the terms of NAFTA, thousands of small farmers filled the streets of Mexico City's historic district Jan. 31. A caravan of 100 tractors that traveled 2,000 kilometers from Ciudad Juarez was joined by caravans from Querétaro, Pachuca, Toluca and Cuernavaca, organized by the National Association of Campesino Enterprises (ANEC). Marchers demanded the renegotiation of NAFTA, under the slogan "Without corn there is no country, and not without beans either" (Sin maíz no hay país y sin frijol tampoco). (El Financiero, Feb. 1; Cronica de Hoy, Jan. 30)

Mexico's federal Public Security Secretariat (SSP) announced the detention of 13 "delinquents" at Rancho San Isidro, in San Andrés Larráinzar, a highland municipality in conflicted Chiapas state Jan. 30. The SSP said 45 stolen vehicles were confiscated, as well as two firearms and an "arsenal" of ten home-made bombs. (La Jornada, Jan. 31) Meanwhile, the Good Government Junta "Corazón Céntrico de los Zapatistas delante del Mundo," governing body of the Zapatista rebels for the Highland region, issued a statement protesting deprivation of water to Zapatista followers in Zinacantán municipality. Citing lack of action by the state or federal governments, the statement said Zapatista authorities would "directly resolve" the problem and restore water to Sokón hamlet. It blamed the caciques (political bosses) of Nachig hamlet for diverting the water, calling them "priístas-perredistas"—meaning they have collaborated with both parties that have held power in the state and municipality, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). (La Jornada, Jan. 28)

On Jan. 25, seven adherents of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) from the central Mexican village of San Salvador Atenco were liberated from the Mexico State prison at Molino de Flores, after a federal judge cleared them of charges of kidnapping and attacking communications infrastructure. They had been in prison since their arrest in violent confrontations with the police in May 2006. (La Jornada, Jan. 26) Charges were also dropped against 53 other FPDT followers who had been freed on bail. (Uno Mas Uno, Jan. 25) A collective of "Zapatista lawyers" announced plans to bring criminal charges against Judge Jaime Maldonado, for having "arbitrarily" ordered the 164 FPDT followers imprisoned. (La Jornada, Jan. 27)

Hundreds of Mexican campesinos, accompanied by 40 tractors, marched in Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua, on Jan. 18 to launch the "Chamizal to the Zocalo" caravan, a 2,000-km ride to protest the elimination of tariffs on staples under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Organized by the Francisco Villa Campesino Resistance Movement, the caravan's route goes from El Chamizal Park, Juarez—at the border with El Paso, Texas—to Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo, where the protesters are to join a Jan. 31 demonstration against NAFTA planned by a broad range of groups.

Thousands of members of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM) participated in an eight-hour national strike on Jan. 16 in support of workers at Grupo Mexico's giant copper mine at Cananea, in the northwestern state of Sonora. Police and soldiers had forcibly removed strikers from the mine on Jan. 12, one day after the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) ruled that the miners' five-month-old strike over safety conditions was illegal under Mexican labor law. The union won a temporary injunction on Jan. 12 allowing the strike to continue, but unofficial sources reported that the Sixth District Labor Court would probably terminate the injunction. Grupo Mexico insisted that at least 400 of the 1,300 workers had returned to the mine.

Mexican federal police backed up by the army's elite Airborne Special Forces Group (GAFES) detained at least six municipal police in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, in a surprise pre-dawn raid on their headquarters Jan. 19. Nuevo Laredo mayor Ramón Garza Barrios did not challenge the arrests, saying he would defer to federal authorities until more information is available. (El Universal, Jan. 19)

Tijuana Cartel gunmen and fought a three-hour battle with Mexican federal police and army troops in the border city Jan. 17, using machine guns and grenades and firing on a helicopter. One gunman was killed and four police officers were wounded in the fight; one officer died in the hospital the next day. Authorities later found six more bodies in the house where the gunmen made their stand, believed to be local kidnapping victims.

Local Oaxaca activist Simon Sedillo in a Jan. 15 report that appears on the Enemigo Comun blog:

On January 15th, 2007, before the beginning of a youth march for the liberation of political prisoners, Urban Paramilitaries (porros) initiated a series of provocations to defame the social movement. Known urban paramilitaries (identified as "Aladin" and "Crusty") have occupied and burned at least two buses to provoke violence before the march, and other urban paramilitaries have begun to open fire at UABJO (Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca). Students are being forced out of classrooms and clashes have ensued.