Federal, state, and local law enforcement in California, Minnesota, and Maryland arrested 50 people Feb. 25 who the US Justice Department claims are operatives of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and related criminal enterprises. Authorities also confiscated $59 million in drug money, 12,000 kilos of cocaine, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.3 million Ecstasy pills and more than 160 weapons. The Justice Department said federal agents arrested more than 750 alleged cartel operatives in the last 21 months as a part of the same investigation, "Operation Xcellerator." Attorney General Eric Holder, making the announcement, said: "We can provide our communities the safety and the security that they deserve only by confronting these dangerous cartels head-on, without reservation. We can do that and we will do that. These cartels will be destroyed." (KDBC, El Paso, Phoenix Business Journal, Feb. 25)

On Feb. 16 some 150 people greeted the brothers Antonio and Héctor Cerezo Contreras as they left a medium security prison in Morelos state, close to Mexico City. The Cerezos were arrested in 2001 along with their brother Alejandro after three small bombs exploded at Mexico City banks. Many people believe the arrests were connected to reports that their parents, Francisco Cerezo Quiroz and Emilia Contreras, are leaders in the rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). The brothers were never charged in the bombing but convicted of weapons and explosives possession. Alejandro was released in February 2005 after a court overturned his conviction.

Some 500,000 Mexican bus and truck drivers and owners held a one-day strike on Feb. 16, slowing freight deliveries and forcing many passengers to find alternative transportation in 17 of the country's 32 entities (31 states and the Federal District). The strike was called by the Alliance of Multimodal Transport, recently formed by about 200 transport associations. The alliance is demanding that the federal government freeze diesel fuel prices at 6.31 pesos (about $0.43) a liter; the fuel is distributed by the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) oil company.

Gunmen in a car fired on the three-car motorcade of José Reyes Baeza Terrazas, governor of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, as it stopped at an intersection in the state capital, Chihuahua City, late Feb. 22. Baeza insisted he wasn't the target, saying the gunmen fired at guards who were trailing him at a distance of several meters. A bodyguard died in the shootout; two other bodyguards and an assailant were wounded. "There was never direct aggression against the governor," Baeza told reporters. He declined to suggest a possible motive. The Prosecutor General of Republic is investigating the incident. (LAT, Feb. 24; El Universal, Feb. 23)

The police chief in Mexico's violence-torn Ciudad Juárez quit Feb. 20 after several officers were slain this week and hand-painted posters left in prominent places in the city pledged an officer would be killed every 48 hours until he resigned. Roberto Orduña Cruz, the city's public safety secretary, said he didn't want to risk more lives. "Respect for the life that these brave officers risk every day on the streets for Juarez residents obliges me to offer my permanent resignation," Orduña said.

In a wave of coordinated demonstrations against the use of the army in northern Mexico's crackdown on the warring drug cartels, hundreds of protesters on Feb. 17 blocked the international bridges over the Rio Grande at Ciudad Juárez, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, as well as blocking streets and government buildings in in the northern industrial city of Monterrey and roads in the Gulf state of Veracruz. The cities were paralyzed for hours, and riot police used water cannons to disperse the protesters in Monterrey, where streets were blocked for a sixth day running by marchers chanting "Soldiers, get out!" Protesters accused the army of arbitrary arrests and human rights abuses. But Nuevo León Gov. Natividad González Parás (PRI) charged that protesters were recruited and paid by the Gulf Cartel. (AP, El Universal, Feb. 17)

A team of gunmen in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco opened fire on the home of a state police officer and his extended family Feb. 14, killing 12 people, including a 2-year-old and five other children. The killing of police officer Carlos Reyes López and his family came days after police in Tabasco captured four accused narco-gunmen and left one suspect dead. However, state authorities are saying a family feud may be behind the attack. The victims included Reyes López's mother, wife, two children, and nephews. Also killed was a fruit vendor who had stopped at the home in the Monte Largo community of Macuspana municipality, west of Villahermosa. No arrests were reported. (LAT, AFP, La Jornada, El Universal, Feb. 16)

Soldiers in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua chased and killed 14 armed men who had kidnapped nine people and killed six of them Feb. 10. One soldier was killed by the kidnappers, bringing the death toll to 21. The gunmen took the hostages from the ranching town of Villa Ahumada and drove them to an isolated farm where six were killed, said Enrique Torres, a spokesman for Conjunto Chihuahua, federal government's multi-agency anti-drug operation in the state. A military convoy caught up with the kidnappers about 80 miles south of El Paso, killed seven of them and freed the remaining three hostages. Soldiers then pursued the other seven gunmen through heavy snow and killed them in a shootout. Three more apparent members of the gang were killed by soldiers in a mopping-up operation in Villa Ahumada Feb. 13. Assault rifles, fragmentation grenades and military uniforms and helmets were seized in the operation. (La Jornada, Mexico City, KVIA, El Paso, Feb. 13; NYT, Feb. 11)