Thousands of Mexican army troops and federal police have been mobilized to the Texas border in a new offensive against the "Zetas," paramilitary wing of the powerful Gulf Cartel. Authorities pledge to hunt down the Zetas and raid their safe-houses. "Since the first of January we have changed our operations," said Patricio Patiño Arias, deputy minister for intelligence and strategy at Mexico's Public Security Ministry. "It's no longer just patrolling, but rather a direct fight, a direct fight against specific objects, against specific targets that has grown out of important intelligence work."

Police and striking miners clashed at Grupo Mexico's Cananea copper mine in Sonora state Jan. 11 after Mexico's Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) declared a five-month-long strike there "non-existent" (illegal) and announced a provisional suspension of the National Syndicate of Mine, Metal and Similar Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM). Police called in to break up a picket line at the mine gate fired tear gas at workers who were trying to block the entrance with heavy machinery. Company spokesman Juan Rebolledo told Reuters: "They threw machinery at the police and that is why the tear gas was fired." SNTMMSRM leader Napoleon Gomez, now in Canada to avoid corruption charges in Mexico, said that state and federal police were trying to occupy the mine. "They are violating both the constitution and labor law," Napoleon told Reuters.

On Jan. 7, some 100 campesinos successfully blocked the spraying of pesticides on soy fields in Ybypé community, Lima district, San Pedro department, Paraguay. Although riot police were mobilized to protect the fumigation tractors, the protesters convinced the officers of their right to resist the spraying, and the police refused to break up the blockade. A public campaign led by the Paraguayan Human Rights Committee (CODEHUPY) has led to popular support for the anti-pesticide movement in San Pedro department, where vast areas of land have come under the control of Brazilian soy-growers, and traditional small peasant holdings have been taken over. (Upside Down World, Jan. 10)

Wilber Funes

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Jan. 11:

FMLN mayor assassinated in Usulután
Wilber Moises Funes, mayor of Alegria, Usulután, was assassinated on January 9 while visiting community projects in the Las Casistas area of his municipality. A member of the FMLN opposition party, Funes was shot along with municipal staff member Zulma Rivera. Rivera was killed immediately, while Funes died in transit to a hospital in Santiago de Maria.

Iran is contesting Washington's version of the Jan. 5 incident in the Strait of Hormuz. From the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11:

Iran releases its own tape on Hormuz ship incident
BEIRUT -- Iran released a videotape Thursday to support its side of an ongoing propaganda battle with Washington over a weekend naval confrontation in the narrow waterway leading into the Persian Gulf.

Salvos of missiles fell on southern Israel Jan. 9 and Israeli aircraft hit a location in the north of Gaza Strip in response. Al-Quds Brigades, military wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the new missile strikes, saying they were "in retaliation for US President George W. Bush's visit to the region due later today." The National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also claimed a rocket strike on an Israeli military position in the eastern Gaza Strip. Al-Nasser Salah-Eddine, military arm of the Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine, said in a statement one of its fighters was killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a group of its militants near Beit Lahia in the northern Strip. The Israeli Army announced it was blocking all checkpoints around the strip and the West Bank as a security precaution ahead of Bush's visit. In a statement, Hamas said Bush's visit it "would be part of international schemes against the Palestinian cause." (KUNA, Jan. 8)

Protests have been announced in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, California and Puerto Rico against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over subpoenas issued to activists in a grand jury investigation of the Boricua Popular Army–Macheteros. The protests will be held Jan. 10 in Puerto Rico, and the following day in cities across the United States, calling for non-collaboration with the grand jury.

On Dec. 31, Latino groups in Oregon turned in over 5,000 petition signatures to the state's Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division in Salem, asking for a one-year delay in implementation of new rules that will require driver's license applicants to show proof of legal residence starting on Feb. 4.