The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico for 70 years until 2000, was expected to reap gains in the July 4 gubernatorial races, with voters disillusioned by escalating narco-violence under the hardline policies of President Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN). In fact, the PRI won nine of the 12 states that elected new governors—including Zacatecas, Tlaxcala and Aguascalientes, three states where it had been out of power for 12 years. The PRI also won municipal races in the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. But it lost three states where it had governed for generations—Sinaloa, Oaxaca and Puebla. In each of these three, the PRI lost to candidates fielded by an alliance of the conservative PAN and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). (Latin America News Dispatch, July 6; WSJ, July 6)

Francisco Chávez Abarca, a Salvadoran national wanted on terrorism charges in Cuba, was arrested by Venezuelan authorities July 1 when he landed at the Caracas airport under a false passport. Under interrogation, he confessed to having been contracted by Luis Posada Carriles to carry out destabilizing acts in Venezuela in the lead-up to the September national assembly elections. After questioning by the Venezuelan police, he was extradited to Cuba.

On July 11, tens of thousands gathered to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica of nearly 8,000 captive Muslim men by Bosnian Serb rebel forces—the bloodiest episode of the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia, recognized by the international community as an act of genocide. A special ceremony at Potocari cemetery outside the eastern Bosnian town included internment of the remains of 775 recently identified victims, joining the 3,749 already there. Notably, the ceremony was attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as Charles English, US ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). (AFP, July 10; BNO News, July 7) In a sign of hope, Serbian citizens in Belgrade erected a makeshift memorial to the Srebrenica victims, made of old shoes stuffed with personal messages. (RFE/RL, July 10) But, despite official and spontaneous commemorations, the accused military author of the massacre remains at large, whereabouts ostensibly unknown.

A few years ago it was only voices such as Scott Ritter and the ever-dependable Counterpunch that employed right-wing nationalist rhetoric about how the United States has surrendered its sovereignty to Israel, complete with sentimental invocation of the sullying of Old Glory. Liberals at places like the New Republic warned that the radical right was reviving propaganda about a "Zionist Occupation Government" (ZOG). But now it is Dana Milbank in the Washington Post July 7, commenting on Obama's meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, who mainstreams such odious verbiage:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced July 6 that several Israeli soldiers will face disciplinary action for their role in the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. The announcement was made following an independent Israeli investigation into the conflict, as well as the allegations contained in the Goldstone report.

A Syrian military court July 4 sentenced lawyer and activist Haitham Maleh to three years in prison for campaigning against the emergency rule under which Syria has been governed since 1963. Defense lawyers for Maleh said he was charged with "weakening national morale." The 78-year old former judge was put on trial in October 2009 sparking criticism from the US government and several human rights groups.

On June 30 Haitian president René Préval rejected changes US senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the leading minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed for presidential and legislative elections that are now scheduled for Nov. 28. In a report earlier in the month, Lugar called for international "partners" to help restructure the eight-member Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and for candidates from the Lavalas Family (FL) party of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004) to be allowed to run. The legislative elections were scheduled for Feb. 28 but had to be postponed because of a massive earthquake on Jan. 12. The elections are expected to cost $29.6 million, with the Haitian government providing $7 million and international donors supplying the rest.

Dozens of demonstrators were injured at Puerto Rico's Capitol building June 30 when riot police used batons and tear gas to keep hundreds of students and their supporters from entering a session of the Legislature that was to vote on unpopular budget cuts and a measure to end student assemblies. Senate president Thomas Rivera Schatz had apparently closed the public galleries before the vote, and the next day a police agent reportedly testified that the police violence had been planned in advance.