Mexico May 15 called upon the US to prevent weapons from landing in the hands of drug gangs that increasingly use them to kill soldiers and police. "The firepower we are seeing here has to do with a lack of control on that side of the border," Assistant Secretary of Public Safety Patricio Patiño told the Associated Press. Patiño said that earlier that day, federal agents arrested two gunmen carrying assault rifles and half a dozen hand grenades in the city of Morelia, Michoacán—apparently on their way to carry out a hit. The escalating attacks on security forces come in response to a "radical change" in Mexico's law enforcement strategy, Patiño said, noting that Mexico is now going after the cartels' entire structures rather than just leaders. (Press TV, Iran; AP, May 16)

Sonora state police killed 15 in a fierce gunbattle just south of the Arizona border May 16 after tracking into the hills a group of heavily-armed gunmen who earlier that day killed five municipal police in Cananea. Three Cananea residents who had been aducted were freed. Police seized 15 assault rifles following the hours-long shoot-out near the village of Arizpe. Meanwhile in Coahuila, four men in the black unforms and insignia of the Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI) kidnapped the state‘s chief anti-kidnapping investigator, Ruiz Arevalo, in Torreon. (El Universal, El Tiempo, AP, May 16)

The First Summit of Latin Americans Migrant Communities concluded May 14 with a "Declaration of Morelia," named for the city where the meeting was held in Michoacan, Mexico. The declaration called for modifying national and international laws on immigration, calling them obsolete and unjust. (Agencia Causar via MiMorelia, May 14) Representatives of NGOs from throughout Latin America, as well as the US, Europe and Africa attended. Michoacan Gov. Lázaro Cárdenas Batel and US Rep. José Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois were also in attendance. (Quadratín via MiMorelia, May 14)

Gunmen fatally shot a high-ranking Mexican intelligence official as he drove to work at the federal Prosecutor General's office in Mexico City May 14. Jose Nemesio Lugo, who investigated drug trafficking and illegal migration, was shot several times. The assailants fled and no arrests were made. US Ambassador Tony Garza expressed his condolences and praised Lugo as "a principled and tireless crime fighter." Lugo last month was named general coordinator of the Prosecutor General's National Center of Planning, Analysis and Information for the Combat of Delinquency. Under former President Vicente Fox, Lugo was director of border operations for the federal Public Security Department. He also served as director of a Federal Preventative Police unit investigating trafficking of drugs, contraband, migrants and minors. (Notimex, AP, May 14)

Gamaliel López Candanosa and Gerardo Paredes Pérez, two journalists with Mexico's national network TV Azteca in Nuevo León, have been "disapeared" for the last four days, the network says in a May 14 statement. "The atmosphere of violence generated in recent months in the metropolitan area of Monterrey has provoked various speculations about their whereabouts, but nothing is confirmed," said TV Azteca's regional director Luis Padua at a press conference. "The only thing which is certain is that the reporters have not arrived at their houses or shown up at work." Gamaliel López generally covered urban development issues, but in July 2006 he was assigned to cover the finding in Monterrey of a severed human head with a threatening note from a narco gang. (Milenio, May 14)

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City writes for The Guardian, May 12:

Man in the mask returns to change world with new coalition and his own sexy novel
A bead of sweat is visible through the eyehole of his famous black balaclava. Latin America's most celebrated living rebel must be feeling the heat, but a glass of water would mean taking off the mask and that is out of the question. He makes do with a puff on his pipe, and a subject that is close to his heart.

"My new book's coming out in June," Subcomandante Marcos announces with relish during the first interview he has given to a British paper in years. "There's no politics in the text this time. Just sex. Pure pornography."

Two families who adhere to the indigenous organization Las Abejas have fled their homes in the hamlet of Tzanembolom, Chenalhó municipality, following threats from local followers of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state. The families, totalling 16 individuals, have taken refuge in the hamlet of Acteal—ironically, the scene of the Decmeber 1997 massacre in which 45 Las Abejas followers were killed by a PRI paramilitary group. The Tzanembolom Abejas were accused of breaking accords signed with the PRI-dominated community (presumably over land use), which they, in turn, say they had signed under coercion. (La Jornada, May 13)

Mexico's federal government has expropriated more than 14,000 hectares of the Lacandon Selva, the lowland rainforest region of southern Chiapas state. The expropriation, approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), came in response to a request by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas for a new protected area adjacent to the existing Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. The Agrarian Reform Secretary has been authorized to pay some 58 million pesos (about US$5 million) to compensate land-owners. (La Jornada, May 10)