Gunmen fatally shot a high-ranking Mexican intelligence official as he drove to work at the federal Prosecutor General's office in Mexico City May 14. Jose Nemesio Lugo, who investigated drug trafficking and illegal migration, was shot several times. The assailants fled and no arrests were made. US Ambassador Tony Garza expressed his condolences and praised Lugo as "a principled and tireless crime fighter." Lugo last month was named general coordinator of the Prosecutor General's National Center of Planning, Analysis and Information for the Combat of Delinquency. Under former President Vicente Fox, Lugo was director of border operations for the federal Public Security Department. He also served as director of a Federal Preventative Police unit investigating trafficking of drugs, contraband, migrants and minors. (Notimex, AP, May 14)

Gamaliel López Candanosa and Gerardo Paredes Pérez, two journalists with Mexico's national network TV Azteca in Nuevo León, have been "disapeared" for the last four days, the network says in a May 14 statement. "The atmosphere of violence generated in recent months in the metropolitan area of Monterrey has provoked various speculations about their whereabouts, but nothing is confirmed," said TV Azteca's regional director Luis Padua at a press conference. "The only thing which is certain is that the reporters have not arrived at their houses or shown up at work." Gamaliel López generally covered urban development issues, but in July 2006 he was assigned to cover the finding in Monterrey of a severed human head with a threatening note from a narco gang. (Milenio, May 14)

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City writes for The Guardian, May 12:

Man in the mask returns to change world with new coalition and his own sexy novel
A bead of sweat is visible through the eyehole of his famous black balaclava. Latin America's most celebrated living rebel must be feeling the heat, but a glass of water would mean taking off the mask and that is out of the question. He makes do with a puff on his pipe, and a subject that is close to his heart.

"My new book's coming out in June," Subcomandante Marcos announces with relish during the first interview he has given to a British paper in years. "There's no politics in the text this time. Just sex. Pure pornography."

Two families who adhere to the indigenous organization Las Abejas have fled their homes in the hamlet of Tzanembolom, Chenalhó municipality, following threats from local followers of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state. The families, totalling 16 individuals, have taken refuge in the hamlet of Acteal—ironically, the scene of the Decmeber 1997 massacre in which 45 Las Abejas followers were killed by a PRI paramilitary group. The Tzanembolom Abejas were accused of breaking accords signed with the PRI-dominated community (presumably over land use), which they, in turn, say they had signed under coercion. (La Jornada, May 13)

Mexico's federal government has expropriated more than 14,000 hectares of the Lacandon Selva, the lowland rainforest region of southern Chiapas state. The expropriation, approved by the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT), came in response to a request by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas for a new protected area adjacent to the existing Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. The Agrarian Reform Secretary has been authorized to pay some 58 million pesos (about US$5 million) to compensate land-owners. (La Jornada, May 10)

The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón May 11 authorized the dispatch of federal army and police to the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. "This morning, I spoke with [Veracruz] Gov. Fidel Herrera," Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña told a news conference in Mexico City. "We agreed to take steps so federal forces can lend support to state authorities."

Veracruz state prosecutors have concluded that 73-year-old grandmother Ernestina Ascencio* wasn't raped or beaten by Mexican federal army soldiers but died of natural causes, spokesmen said at a news conference in the state capital, Xalapa. Juan Alatriste Gómez, a special prosecutor assigned to review the case, said there were no witnesses to the alleged crime and that an anal tear originally cited as evidence of an assault could have come from any number of "diverse reasons." State prosecutor Emetrio López, who filed the original charges against the soldiers, said he agreed with Alatriste's findings. The original investigators in the case have been suspended temporarily.

Eleven anti-Bush protetsers in the Yucatan city of Merida were released on bail of up to 20,000 pesos ($2,000) May 8. They had been arrested on charges of damaging the Municipal Palace and other violations during protests against George Bush's visit to the city on his Latin America tour March 13. The "altermundalistas" (other-worldists), as they have been dubbed by the Mexican press, signed a document dropping charges that they were tortured and maltreated before the Yucatan State Human Rights Commission as a condition of their release. Eight remain behind bars. (Diario de Yucatan, May 9; La Jornada, May 8)