The family of New York IMC reporter Brad Will, killed Oct. 27, 2006—presumably at the hands of municipal police in Santa Lucía del Camino, Oaxaca—called upon Mexico's Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) to follow the "logical" line of investigation and abandon ongoing probes of popular activists in Oaxaca. "This crime was one of the most photographed in history, yet they continue with this hypothesis while those responsible remain free," Brad's father Howard Will told the Mexico City daily La Jornada. He called upon Mexican federal authorities to undertake a "serious and objective" investigation, because that pursued by Oaxaca state authorities is totally "prejudiced." (Re-translated from Spanish translation.) (La Jornada, Feb. 29)

David VenegasAfter nearly 11 months in prison, David Venegas Reyes, a leader of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), was released from Santa María Ixcotel penitentiary, following the issuing of a judicial order (amparo) protecting him from further prosecution, citing insufficient evidence. The charges have not been formally dropped. (La Jornada, March 6) Vengas Reyes received threats on his life and those of his family while in detention last year. (Venegas Reyes letter, May 2, 2007, online at Casa de Paz, Chiapas)

The Chontal Maya community of Villa Vicente Guerrero, in Centla municipality of Mexico's oil-rich Gulf Coast state of Tabasco, has declared itself an "autonomous municipality" in a letter to the Sixth Commission, civil wing of the Zapatista rebel movement in neighboring Chiapas state to the south. The declaration said Vicente Guerrero, in remote swamplands of the Rio Grijalva delta, is withdrawing from all government institutions in response "abandonment" by the official authorities despite "the extraction of millions of barrels of petroleum and natural gas" on local lands. The community also cited human rights abuses, including the arrest of seven residents by federal police in connection with a supposed attempt to illegally detain government functionaries. The statement said the seven were "brutally tortured." (La Jornada, March 3)

The brothers Antonio and Mariano Pucuj were sentenced to 26 years in prison late last month for their participation in the December 1997 massacre of 45 Tzotzil indigenous people at Acteal hamlet in Mexico's southern Chiapas state. They were also ordered to pay more than $70,000 in compensation to the victims' families. The Pucuj brothers are said to be appealing the decision. Officials say the killings were motivated by a land dispute between two Tzotzil communities. But victims' families say the perpetrators were provided weapons and paramilitary training from the government. Last year, courts sentenced 34 men to 26 years each for the killings. (AP, Feb. 27)

Fourteen Toztzil and Tzeltal Maya prisoners at Social Readaption Center Number 14, known as El Amate, in Cintalapa, Chiapas, went on hunger strike Feb. 28, in protest of harsh conditions and to demand recognition as political prisoners. Eight are followers of the Zapatista rebels' "Other Campaign" political initiative. Most have been imprisoned five years, in connection with the Tres Cruces case involving land conflicts in the highland village of San Juan Chamula, which is ruled by notorious political bosses known as the caciques. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center has issued an urgent statement expressing concern for the men's health. (La Jornada, Feb. 29) On March 3, nine indigenous prisoners being held in the highland city of San Cristóbal de las Casas announced they were joining in a solidarity hunger strike with the Cintalapa 14. (La Jornada, March 4)

A tense strike and occupation at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in the southeast of Mexico City entered its 31st day March 2—despite the picket line being attacked by hostile students. Students—themselves divided by pro-strike and anti-strike factions—have also interrupted negotiations between union leaders and the university authorities. The most recent round of negotiations was abandoned Feb. 28, when there were clashes following the forced entrance of a group of students into the meeting room, supposedly attempting to submit a document about the strike to the UAM secretary general.

Lawmakers in Mexico's lower-house Chamber of Deputies Feb. 26 removed a draconian measure from their plan to reform the country's judicial system that would have given police the power to enter homes without first obtaining a warrant in emergencies and in cases of hot pursuit. Human rights groups had strongly opposed the measure, and the press labeled the proposed measure the "Gestapo law." The last-minute change delays passage of the constitutional reform that is meant to speed up trials that can now last years and to better prepare the state to battle narcotics traffickers. "In this country, no one is satisfied with our justice system," said César Camacho Quiroz, a legislator with the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who opposed the expanded police powers.

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)