Some 1,000 members of the Federation of Socialist Campesino Students of Mexico (FECSM) blocked the Sun Highway in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero for more than an hour on Dec. 11 to protest plans by state education secretary Jose Luis Gonzalez de la Vega to assign teachers based on an exam administered by the National Evaluation Center. Students from Guerrero teaching colleges and their supporters have been demonstrating since Nov. 14 around demands for 75 additional teaching positions for teaching college alumni and for retention of the degree in primary education.

The White House is hoping Congress will pass the Bush administration's request for an initial $550 million for narcotics enforcement in Mexico and Central America before the fast-approaching holiday recess. The proposed aid package, known as the "Merida Initiative," has been hailed by the Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón as "a new paradigm" of bilateral cooperation in the war on drugs and terrorism. Some 40% of the $550 million is slated to pay for eight new helicopters and two new airplanes for Mexico. The funds are attached to a $50 billion supplemental military funding package the administration is seeking to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

Mexican army troops detained the supposed leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Dec. 12. Forces of the Eighth Military Zone claimed Marco Antonio Ramírez del Río, alias "Tony La Palma," is successor to Luis Reyes Enríquez, known as "El Rex" or "Z-12," the cartel boss detained in June. Also detained were Darío Tristán Méndez, "El Dari," and Mario Rafael Morales Agis, "El Ratón." Antonio Contreras Navarro, "El Gallo," reportedly killed himself rather than surrender. Soldiers seized a kilogram of cocaine, two pistols and two assault rifles—an AR-15 and an AK-47. (El Universal, Dec. 12) Troops in three hummers sealed off Tampico neighborhoods in the hunt for "La Palma." (Milenio, Dec. 11)

"We are doing everything we can to stop drugs crossing to the United States but given this is a transnational business by definition it requires the United States do its part and that essentially means the flow of arms to Mexico," said Mexican Prosecutor General Eduardo Medina Mora Dec. 10. "We have done our part, we hope the United States will do its part." Speaking in Mexico City, Medina said some $10 billion in drug cash flows south each year, and that gun stores on the north side of the border sell twice as much as outlets elsewhere in the US. "There's a very large flow of money from the United States to Mexico which has no other explanation than drug trafficking," he said. "The US government has a very important job to do."

Hundreds of people protested the planned border fence in McAllen, TX, Dec. 11, as a federally sponsored "open house" for public comment on a draft study of the project opened. The meeting was the first of three to hear public input on the Environmental Impact Statement for proposed fencing that would span 70 miles of the Rio Grande Valley. Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said city leaders were to meet with Homeland Security officials to discuss his alternative plan for a "virtual fence." Angry citizens heckled Homeland Security presenters at the town meeting. "I'm making my comment," yelled Ruben Solis, who held a "No Border Wall" sign, after being shut up by facilitators. (AP, Dec. 12)

On Dec. 7, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would give landowners in South Texas 30 days to consent to letting federal officials survey their properties to determine whether they are suitable for a planned border fence. If the owners don't give permission, Chertoff said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will turn to the courts to gain temporary access. If the agency finds the land appropriate for fencing and landowners refuse to cooperate, the department will seek court action to confiscate the land. (Los Angeles Times, Brownsville Herald, Dec. 8) Chertoff said the DHS needs access to 225 miles of noncontiguous land, most of it in Texas and Arizona, in order to build 370 miles of border fencing by the end of 2008."The door is still open to talk, but it's not open for endless talk," Chertoff said. "We won't pay more than market price for the land," he added.

On Nov. 23 the workers at the Vaqueros Navarra jeans plant in Tehuacan, in the Mexican state of Puebla, voted to be represented by the September 19 Union, which is affiliated with the independent Authentic Labor Front (FAT). The vote was 263 for the September 19 Union, 187 for the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CROM) and just three for the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Campesinos (CROC). The CROM and the CROC are both connected to the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000 and continues to dominate politics in Puebla; the CROC was the officially recognized union at the plant before the vote.

Marking his first year in office, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said Dec. 1 that fighting the war on drugs and organized crime remain his highest priority. The speech came as the death toll in 2007 narco violence topped 2,000—making it the bloodiest year yet. "The biggest threat to Mexico's future is lack of public safety and organized crime," Calderón said in a speech at the National Palace. "But with one year in office, I am more convinced than ever that we are going to win this battle." Having started his first year by sending army troops into Baja California and Michoacán, Calderón marked its end by dispatching army special forces into Reynosa, Tamulipas, on the Texas border.