Local residents in the Mexican village of Xico blocked roads for several days to prevent construction of a cellphone tower at the local pueblo of San Marcos. Following violent confrontations at the roadblocks between pro- and anti-antennae residents, Xico mayor Rogelio Soto Suárez called in elite anti-riot forces from the Veracruz state Auxiliary Police Institute (IPAX) to permit construction of the tower "by force." Activists say they petitioned town authorities to have the tower relocated further away from the pueblo and its schoolhouse, fearing the health impacts on their children. (Marcha news agency, Xalapa, June 16)

In the latest outrage on Mexico's grisly narco-wars, gunmen in Morelia, Michoacán, June 19 tossed a grenade at an ambulance and then opened its doors to kill a patient who had narrowly survived an earlier shooting, as paramedics ran for their lives. Vehicles carrying four masked gunmen cut off the ambulance around 2 AM. After the grenade blast set the ambulence on fire and the two paramedics fled, the gunmen opened the back doors and fired on the man and his wife, who was accompanying him. The 20-year-old woman is in serious condition at a local hospital, police said.

Mexican army troops captured 25 gunmen at a ranch in Chihuahua state June 13, who witnesses say had disguised themselves as soldiers. The troops also seized 29 automatic rifles during the raid at the pueblo of Nicolás Bravo, Madera municipality, in the Sierra Tarahumara. The National Defense Secretary (SEDENA) has mobilized 5,000 more troops to the Sierra's dope-growing "Triángulo Dorado" to hunt down opium and marijuana crops.

Authorities have arrested five suspects in the killing of a journalist in the northern Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila, the federal Prosecutor General's office announced June 12. Hooded gunmen abducted the journalist, Eliseo Barrón, 35, from his house on May 25, and his body was found the next day. He covered the police for the local newspaper La Opinión, and had written about a police corruption scandal shortly before he was killed. The Prosecutor General's office said the five men had been stopped by soldiers who found drugs and weapons in their car. One of the men, Israel Sánchez Jaimes, confessed to being part of the Zetas narco gang and said he killed Barrón after the group had abducted him. Mexico's drug war has made the country one of the most dangerous in the world for reoporters. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 27 reporters have been killed since 2000 and another eight are missing. (NYT, June 12)

First, the local police in Monterrey, Mexico's third largest city, lost their assault rifles after an armed confrontation with federal agents while protesting the arrest of city officers for suspected drug corruption. Now police in the city will be stripped of cellphones. The legislature in Nuevo León state, this week approved a bill banning city and state police from carrying personal cellphones while on duty in an effort to stop corrupt officers from communicating with narco gangs. Federal forces raided police stations this month in 18 towns in Nuevo León, detaining 78 officers suspected of working with narcos. The operation came after soldiers found lists of police names in the possession of suspected traffickers. (AP, June 10)

The legacy of Dr. Manuel Arroyo Galvan was remembered in a large rally and march held June 3 in Ciudad Juárez. The 44-year-old sociology and education professor for the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) was shot to death in broad daylight in a May 29 killing that outraged a city practically numbed by more than 2,200 murders during the last 17 months.

Baja California Prosecutor General Rommel Moreno Manjarrez has announced that Colombian specialists will provide anti-kidnapping training to state law enforcement officials. Members of the Colombian National Police were in Baja California this week to lay the groundwork for the training which will be offered to 35 personnel attached to the state prosecutor general's office. Officers selected for the training will be vetted by the Colombians, Moreno said.

On May 20 about 100 residents of seven rural communities in Cunduacán municipality in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco blocked access to the Madrefil-1 oil well to demand compensation for what they say is damage to their lands. Drilling on the well, which belongs to Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the government's giant oil monopoly, started at the beginning of the year. The campesinos say the work has already killed their crops and livestock and damaged their homes. "We asked the PEMEX engineers to take us into account, but they didn't pay any attention," one protester told the media.