On Dec. 7, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would give landowners in South Texas 30 days to consent to letting federal officials survey their properties to determine whether they are suitable for a planned border fence. If the owners don't give permission, Chertoff said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will turn to the courts to gain temporary access. If the agency finds the land appropriate for fencing and landowners refuse to cooperate, the department will seek court action to confiscate the land. (Los Angeles Times, Brownsville Herald, Dec. 8) Chertoff said the DHS needs access to 225 miles of noncontiguous land, most of it in Texas and Arizona, in order to build 370 miles of border fencing by the end of 2008."The door is still open to talk, but it's not open for endless talk," Chertoff said. "We won't pay more than market price for the land," he added.

On Nov. 23 the workers at the Vaqueros Navarra jeans plant in Tehuacan, in the Mexican state of Puebla, voted to be represented by the September 19 Union, which is affiliated with the independent Authentic Labor Front (FAT). The vote was 263 for the September 19 Union, 187 for the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CROM) and just three for the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Campesinos (CROC). The CROM and the CROC are both connected to the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000 and continues to dominate politics in Puebla; the CROC was the officially recognized union at the plant before the vote.

Marking his first year in office, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said Dec. 1 that fighting the war on drugs and organized crime remain his highest priority. The speech came as the death toll in 2007 narco violence topped 2,000—making it the bloodiest year yet. "The biggest threat to Mexico's future is lack of public safety and organized crime," Calderón said in a speech at the National Palace. "But with one year in office, I am more convinced than ever that we are going to win this battle." Having started his first year by sending army troops into Baja California and Michoacán, Calderón marked its end by dispatching army special forces into Reynosa, Tamulipas, on the Texas border.

Three popular Mexican musicians met violent deaths in six days this week. José Luis Aquino Lavariega, 33, trumpet-player with the band Los Conde, was found Dec. 5 under a bridge in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, bound with a plastic bag over his head. On Dec. 3, the tortured body of Sergio Gomez, 34, singer for K-Paz de la Sierra, was found the night after he was abducted while leaving a stadium concert in Morelia, Michoacán. Zayda Peña, 28, singer for Zayda y Los Culpables, survived an attempt on her life only to be shot to death in the hospital in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Dec. 1. A friend and hotel manager were killed in the initial attempt Nov. 30. Eight popular musicians have been murdered this year in Mexico.

More than 100 of Mexico's elite Federal Preventative Police attacked student protesters from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Nov. 30. Fifty-six were detained, and two gravely injured. The students were staging a protest occupation of a toll booth at La Venta, outside Acapulco on the highway to Mexico City—the latest in a series of actions over school budgets and related demands. The students did not block cars, but attempted to collect the fares on the Autopista del Sol—a federal highway with some of the highest tolls in Mexico, despite its deteriorating condition. In a hearing Dec. 2 in Acapulco, 39 of the detainees were freed, and 17 held pending charges. (IMC Mexico, Dec. 2)

Federal judicial authorities in the State of Mexico have granted an amparo, or order of protection, to 27 residents of San Salvador Atenco village, giving immunity from arrest until charges against them are reviewed. The Ninth District court in Nezahualcóyotl found insufficient evidence for carrying out pending arrest orders for involvement in clashes with police at the conflicted village in May 2006. (La Jornada, Dec. 8) Two Atenco leaders, Felipe Álvarez Hernández and Ignacio del Valle Medina, were also cleared of charges of leading violent attacks on police in the disturbances. However, they remain incarcerated at Altiplano maximum security prison on charges of illegally detaining State of Mexico officials at the village a few weeks before the riots broke out. (La Jornada, Dec. 5)

Diego Arcos Meneses, arrested over a year ago in the massacre at the rainforest settlement of Viejo Velasco on what Amnesty International called "fabricated and deficient" evidence, was freed Dec. 4 by order of state authorities in Chiapas, Mexico. Amnesty hailed the dropping of charges against Arcos, but demanded both restitution to him and his family, as well as a renewed investigation to find those responsible for the attack, in which four were killed, another four abducted, and scores forced to flee. (Amnesty International, Dec. 6)

Land conflicts between communities loyal to the Zapatista rebel movement and the state's traditional political machine continue to generate violence in Chiapas, Mexico. The Zapatista Good Government Junta (JBG) Corazón del Arcoiris de la Esperanza announced that on Nov. 24, the community of Bolom Ajaw, Autonomous Municipality Olga Isabel, was attacked by members of the OPDDIC paramilitary group. The force of some 80 men armed with pistols, rifles, clubs and machetes arrived when the community's men were working in the fields, with only women, children and elders at home. They briefly held the community hostage, beating one ill resident unconscious with clubs. (La Jornada, Nov, 26)