In a communique made public on Feb. 21, Mexico's rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) denied any connection to the Jan. 30 shooting death of police director Alejandro Barrita Ortiz, a bodyguard and two civilians in the southern state of Oaxaca. Barrita Ortiz headed a police unit that guards banks and other businesses; the government blames his death on criminals. The communique said he was involved in the May 2007 disappearance of two EPR leaders, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez, but charged that he was murdered because he had become "inconvenient for the government of [Oaxaca governor] Ulises Ruiz [Ortiz]." (La Jornada, Feb. 22)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Feb. 25

See our last posts on Mexico, Oaxaca, the narco wars and the guerilla movement.