Survivors and their supporters gathered in the mountain hamlet of Acteal in southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state Dec. 22 to mark the tenth anniversary of the massacre of 45 unarmed Tzotzil Maya peasants by a paramilitary group linked to the ruling political machine. Las Abejas (The Bees), the Maya Catholic pacifist group targeted in the attack, said in a statement: "The massacre plan was designed by ex-president Ernesto Zedillo; by the ex-general Enrique Cervantes, ex-secretary of National Defense; [and] by Julio César Ruiz Ferro, ex-governor of Chiapas." The statement charged that "the Mexican state" was responsible for the massacre through both "action and omission."

On the evening of Dec. 12 Melanie del Carmen Salgado Lopez was assaulted by an unknown man near the entrance of her home in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City). He pushed her against the wall, grabbed her by her hair and hit her head against the wall, giving her a cut on the face. "Don't be a jerk," he warned her. Salgado Lopez is a student at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a member of the Cerezo Committee Mexico, which works for the legal defense of the brothers Alejandro, Antonio and Hector Cerezo Contreras and for other cases of suspected human rights abuses.

On Dec. 10 some 400 police broke up a demonstration by the unemployed in Mexico's southern state of Tabasco. Some 300 people were blocking an avenue in Villahermosa to demand benefits that PRI governor Andres Granier Melo had promised to those who lost their jobs because of severe flooding in the state in October and November. Payments had started on Nov. 30, but they were suspended on Dec. 9 and 10, supposedly for technical reasons. Five people were reportedly arrested in the incident, which Gov. Granier Melo blamed on "agitators who are trying to disturb the peace." (LJ, Dec. 11)

Some 1,000 members of the Federation of Socialist Campesino Students of Mexico (FECSM) blocked the Sun Highway in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero for more than an hour on Dec. 11 to protest plans by state education secretary Jose Luis Gonzalez de la Vega to assign teachers based on an exam administered by the National Evaluation Center. Students from Guerrero teaching colleges and their supporters have been demonstrating since Nov. 14 around demands for 75 additional teaching positions for teaching college alumni and for retention of the degree in primary education.

The White House is hoping Congress will pass the Bush administration's request for an initial $550 million for narcotics enforcement in Mexico and Central America before the fast-approaching holiday recess. The proposed aid package, known as the "Merida Initiative," has been hailed by the Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón as "a new paradigm" of bilateral cooperation in the war on drugs and terrorism. Some 40% of the $550 million is slated to pay for eight new helicopters and two new airplanes for Mexico. The funds are attached to a $50 billion supplemental military funding package the administration is seeking to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

Mexican army troops detained the supposed leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Dec. 12. Forces of the Eighth Military Zone claimed Marco Antonio Ramírez del Río, alias "Tony La Palma," is successor to Luis Reyes Enríquez, known as "El Rex" or "Z-12," the cartel boss detained in June. Also detained were Darío Tristán Méndez, "El Dari," and Mario Rafael Morales Agis, "El Ratón." Antonio Contreras Navarro, "El Gallo," reportedly killed himself rather than surrender. Soldiers seized a kilogram of cocaine, two pistols and two assault rifles—an AR-15 and an AK-47. (El Universal, Dec. 12) Troops in three hummers sealed off Tampico neighborhoods in the hunt for "La Palma." (Milenio, Dec. 11)

"We are doing everything we can to stop drugs crossing to the United States but given this is a transnational business by definition it requires the United States do its part and that essentially means the flow of arms to Mexico," said Mexican Prosecutor General Eduardo Medina Mora Dec. 10. "We have done our part, we hope the United States will do its part." Speaking in Mexico City, Medina said some $10 billion in drug cash flows south each year, and that gun stores on the north side of the border sell twice as much as outlets elsewhere in the US. "There's a very large flow of money from the United States to Mexico which has no other explanation than drug trafficking," he said. "The US government has a very important job to do."

Hundreds of people protested the planned border fence in McAllen, TX, Dec. 11, as a federally sponsored "open house" for public comment on a draft study of the project opened. The meeting was the first of three to hear public input on the Environmental Impact Statement for proposed fencing that would span 70 miles of the Rio Grande Valley. Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said city leaders were to meet with Homeland Security officials to discuss his alternative plan for a "virtual fence." Angry citizens heckled Homeland Security presenters at the town meeting. "I'm making my comment," yelled Ruben Solis, who held a "No Border Wall" sign, after being shut up by facilitators. (AP, Dec. 12)