In the early morning of Aug. 15 a group of about 40 dissident unionists occupied the Mexico City headquarters of the Union of Petroleum Workers of the Mexican Republic (STPRM) to protest the recent reelection of Carlos Romero Deschamps, who has headed the union for 17 years. Dissident leader Omar Toledo Aburto gave a press conference in Romero Deschamps' luxurious office, announcing that he would be the "interim national leader of the more than 97,000 petroleum workers while elections take place." Two hours after the sit-in began, about 50 supporters of Romero Deschamps arrived wielding metal pipes and carrying pistols in their belts. They retook the office, beat the dissidents and confiscated their documents and cellphones. (La Jornada, Aug. 16)

The Mexican Government Secretary (Segob) announced that the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) is pursuing an investigation "without any limits" into the "forced disappearance" of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Alberto Cruz, presumed militants of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). Segob also called upon the EPR and the government-appointed Mediation Commission to work to establish conditions for a peace dialogue. (El Financiero, Aug. 14) But the Mediation Commission announced it is temporarily suspending its activities, citing lack of good will on the part of the government. The Commission said the admission of the "forced disappearance" was a "positive" move, but insufficient. At a press conference, Commission member Carlos Montemayor protested lack of access to PGR files on the case. (Milenio, Aug. 14)

Drug-related murders in Mexico have already exceeded last year's total despite the deployment of 30,000 troops to tackle the issue. The Mexican newspaper El Universal said (Aug. 16) 2,682 people across Mexico had been killed since the start of this year, compared to 2,673 in 2007. More than one-third of this year's drug-related killings occurred in Chihuahua. The state has seen 1,026 deaths since January, including 780 in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, where 2,500 soldiers have been deployed to combat narco gangs. (BBC, Aug. 17) At least 10 people were killed, including a four-year-old boy, in a shoot-out Aug. 16 in the Chihuahua mountain town of Creel. The fighting began when men armed with AK-47s opened fire from trucks on a group leaving a dance hall. (El Universal, Aug. 17)

José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a prosecutor who oversaw Mexico's extradition of drug traffickers, resigned Aug. 4—the second senior crime fighter to quit in a week. Santiago was Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor for two decades before taking his current position as sub-prosecutor for international affairs in the office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR). Noé Ramírez resigned late last week as chief of the Special Sub-Prosecutor for Investigating Organized Delinquency (SIEDO), as part of a law enforcement shake-up by President Felipe Calderón. A US State Department statement welcomed the reorganization as part of the Mérida Initiative. (AP, El Informador, Mexico, Aug. 5; Milenio, Mexico, Aug. 3)

Some 1.8 million Mexicans voted overwhelmingly in an unofficial, non-binding referendum on July 27 to reject President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa's proposals to allow more involvement in the state oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), by local and foreign private companies. The vote was held in the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and nine states; similar unofficial votes are planned for the remaining 23 states on Aug. 10 and Aug. 24.

On July 27 voters in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and nine states were scheduled to vote in a non-binding referendum on President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa's proposals to allow more involvement the state oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), by local and foreign private companies. Voters were to answer yes or no to two questions: "1) Currently the exploitation, transport, distribution and refining of hydrocarbons are exclusively activities of the government. Do you agree or not that private companies should now be able to participate in these activities? 2) In general, do you agree or not that the initiatives currently being debated in Congress relating to energy reform should be approved?"

Excavations at the ex-military barracks at the Mexican village of Atoyac, Guerrero state, to discover the remains of an estimated 470 "dirty war" victims, are expected to conclude this week. Overseen by Argentine anthropologist Claudia Bisso, the excavations were undertaken by the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) following a years of pressure from the local Association of the Families of the Detained, Disappeared and Victims of Human Rights Violations (AFADEM). AFADEM vice president Tita Radilla Martínez said other sites are being identified where excavations will be demanded. She also called for former military leaders to appear in court to reveal the whereabouts of mass graves. "If Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro is called to testify, surely he could say where the bodies of our relatives are." (La Jornada Guerrero, July 20; La Jornada, BBC, July 19)

Police officials in Mexico say drug traffickers have built makeshift car bombs to attack police officers, troops and rivals. Soldiers found two car bombs in a safe house in Culiacán, Sinaloa, July 14. One vehicle was packed with cans of gasoline and another stuffed with gas canisters, and both wired to be detonated by cellphones. (Reuters, July 17) On July 17, Mexican naval troops seized a makeshift 33-foot submarine 125 miles off Oaxaca that turned out to be carrying tons of cocaine. The crew had left the Colombian port of Buenaventura seven days earlier. (LAT, July 18)