Our March issue featured the story "Plan Juárez: Echoes of Chiapas on Mexico's Northern Border" from Frontera NorteSur news service, noting how Mexican President Felipe Calderón's militarized response to the escalating violence on the Rio Grande mirrors the counterinsurgency against the Zapatistas a decade ago. Our Exit Poll was: "If violence continues to escalate in northern Mexico, will the US intervene militarily? Will it happen this year?" We received the following responses:

Colombia's Sen. Piedad Córdoba, flown by a Brazilian helicopter, arrived March 27 in the central city of Villavicencio to oversee the release of two hostages held by the FARC. Brazil is providing logistical support for the operation. Córdoba, the Brazilian team, the bishop of the city of Magangué, members of Colombians for Peace, and members of the International Red Cross are scheduled to leave Villavicencio to pick up one of the two hostages this weekend.

With Colombia's Constitutional Court still reviewing a December measure recriminalizing "personal quantities" of drugs, President Alvaro Uribe March 22 announced that pending a decision on the penalty for possession, police will for now only be permitted to confiscate drugs rather than make an arrest. The recriminalization move was predictably hailed by Colombia's National Police, with public security director Gen. Orlando Paez Baron stressing the importance of the "fight against micro-traffickers." (Colombia Reports, March 22)

At least six people were killed and 20 others injured when a car bomb exploded outside the mayor's office in the Colombian Pacific port city of Buenaventura March 25. Gen. Freddy Padilla, the head of Colombia's armed forces, blamed the country's guerillas. "Surely this was the FARC," he said. President Alvaro Uribe announced a $150,000 reward for information leading to those responsible. (AlJazeera, March 25)

Saudi Arabia announced the arrest March 25 of more than 100 in a supposed al-Qaeda plot to target the kingdom's oil infrastructure. One cell consisted of 101, and two smaller cells were made up of six men each, the Interior Ministry said. The large cell comprised 47 Saudis and 51 Yemenis, as well as a Somali, a Bangladeshi and an Eritrean, according to the statement read on state television. The two smaller groups were made up of 11 Saudis and a Yemeni, who security officials described as being a prominent member of al-Qaeda.

A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 24 denied a Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee's habeas corpus petition on its merits, allowing the US government to prolong the detention indefinitely. Detainee Makhtar Yahia Naji al Warafi was captured during the 2001-2002 US campaign in Afghanistan and maintains that he was only a medical clinic worker at the time. The US alleges that Pentagon intelligence demonstrates Warafi was a trained jihadist. The order by judge Royce Lamberth cites a classified memorandum containing details of the reasoning, which was filed with the court security officer.

From Amnesty International, March 23:

Amnesty International on Tuesday urged authorities in El Salvador to repeal an amnesty law that protects those responsible for thousands of killings and disappearances during the country's 12-year armed conflict, including the killing of Catholic priest Monsignor Romero on 24 March 1980.

Top leaders from the US and Mexico agreed to emphasize intelligence coordination in the next $331 million phase of the Merida Initiative following discussions in Mexico City on March 23. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Government Secretary Fernando Francisco Gómez-Mont hosted the meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, and National Intelligence director Dennis C. Blair.