Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa has been trying to "repair" relations with Venezuela, according to an Oct. 27, 2008 US diplomatic cable obtained by the WikiLeaks group and posted by the Spanish daily El País on Dec. 18, but there are tensions because the two countries are both "looking to assert [their] leadership in the region, particularly in Central America."

Mexican human rights activist Marisela Escobedo Ortiz was buried in Ciudad Juárez in the northern state of Chihuahua on Dec. 18, two days after she was shot dead by an unidentified man as she was protesting in front of the main government office in the state capital, also named Chihuahua. Police provided security for the funeral, which was originally planned for Dec. 21 but was rescheduled after a group of at least 10 men burned down the lumberyard belonging to Escobedo's husband, José Monge Marroquín, earlier on Dec. 18 and kidnapped his brother.

Mexico has the highest rate of violent deaths for women among countries not at war, the regional director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Ana Güezmes, said in Mexico City on Nov. 23, citing a study of 135 countries by the Queen Sofia Center in Spain. A Mexican organization, the Origin Foundation, announced on the same day that between the ages of 15 and 44 Mexican women are in greater danger of rape or abuse at home than of cancer or accidents. "Every day six women die violently: four by homicide and two by suicide," the group said, "and 30-50% of abuse victims are under 15 years of age; 20% are under 10." (La Jornada, Mexico, Nov. 24)

Mexican president Felipe Calderón has been advising the US on how to fight the influence of leftist Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, according to a secret Oct. 23, 2009 US embassy cable that was made public by WikiLeaks on Dec. 2, 2010. During a meeting on Oct. 19, 2009 with US national intelligence director Dennis Blair, Calderón "emphasized that...Hugo Chávez is active everywhere, including Mexico," the embassy reported. "Calderon also commented that he is particularly concerned about Venezuela's relations with Iran, and that the Iranian embassy in Mexico is very active."

The US government hopes to develop a closer relationship with the Mexican military as a result of Mexico's "war on drugs" and international humanitarian operations, according to US diplomatic cables obtained by the WikiLeaks group and posted on Dec. 2 by the Spanish daily El País. The cables also show that US and Mexican officials know the "drug war" itself is going badly, despite their public expressions of optimism.

About 15,000 protesters from independent unions, campesino organizations and other grassroots groups blocked access to the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico City on Nov. 12 and 13 to demand a reduction of allocations for the security forces in next year's budget and an increase in the allocations for social development.

Mexican authorities fear retaliatory violence after the killing of Gulf Cartel kingpin Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén AKA "Tony Tormenta" in a three-hour shootout with soldiers in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, on Nov. 5. Three cartel gunmen, two members of the security forces and a journalist were also killed in the gun-battle. The federal army used 300 grenades in the battle, leaving several local buildings badly damaged. Local homes have since put up signs reading "Por favor—No lanzar granadas" (Please don't throw grenades). Municipal authorities report receiving telephone bomb threats aimed at Matamoros schools. (La Otra División del Norte blog, Matamoros, Nov. 13; AFP, Nov. 9)

On Oct. 30 Mexico's Public Security Secretariat (SSP) announced that it had put two federal police agents "at the disposal" of Public Ministry officials investigating the shooting of a college student the evening before near the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) campus in the northern state of Chihuahua. José Darío Alvarez Orrantía, a sociology student at UACJ, was hit in the abdomen as dozens of students marched in the 11th Walk Against Death in Ciudad Juárez, an opening event in a three-day conference treating the dramatic surge in violence in northern Mexico. Alvarez Orrantía was reported in stable condition at the city's General Hospital after emergency surgery the night of Oct. 29 that included the removal of about one-third of his intestine.