On June 14, Jose Luis Soberanes Fernandez, president of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), confirmed that soldiers had raped at least two underage girls and possibly two others during an anti-drug operation in Caracuaro, Michoacan, from May 2 to May 4. Soberanes was unable to say whether the military would punish the soldiers. But he added that the "Secretariat of National Defense [SEDENA] can't be the judge and a party [in the case] at the same time." President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's campaign to use the military across the country to control organized crime has led to several abuses, including the June 1 shooting deaths of five members of an extended family—three of them children—by soldiers in Sinaloa state. "[W]hat happened in Sinaloa tells us that the army isn't prepared to take on the functions of the police," Soberanes told the press on June 14. (La Jornada, June 15)

The government of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca apologized for the first time June 15 for a police raid on striking teachers in the central plaza of the state capital one year ago that led to Mexico's worst political unrest in years. Oaxaca Government Secretary Manuel Garcia Corpus issued the statement on behalf of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose refusal to negotiate with the strikers sparked the crisis. "The government of Ulises Ruiz gives the people of Oaxaca a public apology for the events that arose after the 14th," Garcia Corpus told the government news agency Notimex, refering to the police raid of June 14, 2006. (AP, June 15)

In a "mega-march" extending more than 10 kilometers, thousands of teachers from the Section 22 union and their supporters in the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) marched through southern Mexico's Oaxaca City June 14 to mark the first anniversary of the clash between police and striking teachers that sparked months of political unrest.

From the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), June 13:

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shooting of a Mexican journalist who had received death threats in connection with his investigation of the slaying of a U.S. journalist during violent street protests last fall in the southern city of Oaxaca.

On June 1 a group of Mexican soldiers opened fire on an extended family riding in a van in Sinaloa de Leyva municipality, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. According to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), the soldiers fired when the driver of the van, Adan Abel Carrillo Esparza, failed to obey an order to halt at a roadblock. The barrage killed five family members: Griselda Galaviz Barraza, 25; Alicia Esparza Parra, 17; and Joniel, Griselda and Juana Esparza Galaviz, ages seven, four and two, respectively. The driver was wounded, along with Teresa Flores Carrillo Esparza, 16, and Jose Carrillo Esparza, five.

As of June 6 Mexican authorities had still not arrested four suspects in the May 15 murder of environmental activist Aldo Zamora, despite pressure from Greenpeace Mexico, human rights groups and federal legislators. Four assailants ambushed Zamora and his 16-year-old brother Misael Zamora around 6:30 pm as they were driving in Santa Lucia, Ocuilan municipality, in Mexico state, killing Aldo and wounding Misael. Misael was able to identify two of the killers as people who had been engaged in illegal woodcutting in the area.

Erick Sosa Villavicencio, a leader of the protest movement in Oaxaca, was freed at dawn on June 9 from the Federal Center of Social Readaption in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. The brother of Flavio Sosa Villavicencio, director of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), Erick was arrested last Nov. 28 and charged with "illegal deprivation of liberty." He was freed for lack of evidence. However, charges of violent robbery were not formally dropped, and he could still be detained again if authorities choose to reactivate the case against him. Insisting all the charges against him were "fabricated," Sosa said, "My only crime is being the brother of Flavio Sosa." His two brothers Flavio and Horacio remain at the Federal Center of Social Readaption in Altiplano, México state. (La Jornada, June 10)

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) in Chiapas reports that it has received a document prepared by the Mexican government for the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) concerning the November 13, 2006 slaying of four peasants at the jungle community of Viejo Velasco Suárez. The document acknowledges that some 300 Chiapas state police were mobilized to Viejo Velasco on the day of the massacre. While the document fails to make clear whether the troops were dispatched before or after the attack, Frayba says this corroborates the claims of witnesses that the killers—a band of 40 masked men in civilian clothes—were backed up by hundreds of uniformed men with high-caliber rifles, some also wearing masks, who followed close behind. (Frayba, June 5)