From Mexico's El Universal, Nov. 7 via Chiapas95:

GENEVA - The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), embroiled in a conflict with the Attorney General's Office (PGR), will present a report before the UN human rights officials on Wednesday saying that torture in Mexico has increased 300 percent during the current administration.

Amnesty International has officially called upon the Mexican government to release the names of those detained by federal police in Oaxaca, and the charges they face. The arrested now number above 80. Many are being held incommunicado and there are growing reports of human rights abuses. (El Universal, Nov. 7)

From the AP, Nov. 7:

Hundreds protest border fence in Mexico

CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico -- The mayor of a Mexican city on the Texas border led about 400 people on a 55-mile march Tuesday to protest U.S. plans for new border fence.

How ironic. We noted in August that ex-Israeli security chief Uza Dayan was warning the US against emulating Israeli strategies in securing the Mexican border. Now it appears that Elbit Systems, an Israeli firm which is building the "Aparthied Wall" in occupied Palestine, has been awarded a contract, along with Boeing, to build the wall on the Mexican border. From Israel21C, Oct. 15:

There have now been 84 "arbitrary detentions" by the Mexican federal police in Oaxaca, according to the Miguel Augustin Pro-Juarez Human Rights Center (PRODH), which has dispatched a team of investigators to the besieged city. The group also reports 59 "disappearances," in which the whereabouts of the detained is unknown, since the city was occupied by 4,000 Federal Preventative Police on Oct. 29. (La Jornada, Nov. 5)

Bombs exploded at three high-profile targets in Mexico City early on the morning of Nov. 6, causing property damage but no injuries. A door was damaged and windows blown out at the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE), a body which had angered leftists in September for ruling that conservative candidate Felipe Calderon won July's disputed presidential race. Glass and ceiling panels covered the floor of an annex building at the headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), now embroiled in a bitter conflict in the state of Oaxaca. An explosion also tore apart the metal and glass facade of a branch of Canada's Scotiabank. A fourth bomb at another bank failed to detonate. (Reuters, Nov. 6)

Under the slogan "the struggle of Oaxaca is the struggle of Puebla," representatives of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) met with local activists in the capital of neighboring Puebla state Nov. 3. Leaders of the Frente Civico Poblano (Pueblan Civic Front), the Movimiento Cholulteca Unido (United Cholutecan Movement), the Asociacion de Comerciantes 28 de Octubre (October 28 Merchants Association) and other groups pledged to join under the umbrella of a "Popular Assembly of the State of Puebla," to unite social, labor and human rights struggles in their own state. They said the new organization would have up to 40,000 members from its inception. The participating groups have been holding large demonstrations in solidarity with Oaxaca over the past weeks. (APRO, Nov. 3 via Chiapas95)

From Reporters Without Borders, Nov. 3 via Chiapas95:

While noting that two of Indymedia cameraman Brad Will's alleged killers were arrested and taken before a judge yesterday in Oaxaca, Reporters Without Borders today condemned the shortcomings in the investigation into his fatal shooting and the fact that three others allegedly involved have been able to escape.