On Sept. 16, some 25,000 gathered at Mexico City's main plaza, the Zócalo, where President Felipe Calderón delivered the traditional grito—three shouts of "Viva Mexico!"—to celebrate the 1810 uprising that resulted a decade later in independence from Spain. But bicentennial celebrations were canceled in several municipalities across the country for fear of violence, as narco gangs escalate their brutal internecine warfare. "This is not a time to celebrate, but to lament," said Victor Quintana, a federal lawmaker (PRD) in Chihuahua state. (Reuters, The Telegraph, Sept. 16)

Members of the Mexican political parties PRI, PRD and PVEM (Green Party) attacked 170 Zapatista supporters and expelled them from their homes in the Tzeltal community of San Marcos Avilés, in the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, in retaliation for the construction of an autonomous school in the early morning hours of Sept. 9.

In what was probably Mexico's biggest jailbreak ever Sept. 10, 89 prisoners—66 facing or convicted of federal charges, mostly related to drugs and firearms—used ladders to scale the 20-foot walls of the Execution and Sanction Center (CEDES) in the border city of Reynosa in conflicted Tamaulipas state. Two guards at the facility disappeared along with them, and are assumed to have been in on the scheme. Tamaulipas' new public safety secretary, José Garza García, said 44 guards and employees of the prison are under investigation. Military sources said the Gulf Cartel is suspected of involvement. So far this year, 201 inmates have escaped from prisons in Tamaulipas. In April, armed men who arrived in 10 cars stormed another Reynosa prison and exchanged gunfire with guards, freeing 13 inmates. (AP, La Jornada, Sept. 11; EuropaPress, Sept. 10)

At least three people suffered serious injuries and 26 were arrested when fighting broke out between striking miners and others at the giant Cananea copper mine in the northern Mexican state of Sonora on Sept. 8. One of the injured, apparently a strikebreaker, was shot in the head but survived, despite initial reports that he had died.

President Barack Obama is backtracking from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement comparing Mexico and Colombia. "Mexico is a large and progressive democracy with a growing economy," Obama said in a Sept. 9 interview with La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles. "As a result, you can’t compare what is happening in Mexico with what happened in Colombia 20 years ago."

On Sept. 3 Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez, governor of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, announced that soon after Sept. 7 the state government would release seven women who had been jailed under Article 156, which establishes a 25-35 year prison sentence for "homicide in the case of close relatives." Six of the women, campesinas from Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende municipalities, said they lost their babies in involuntary miscarriages; all but one have spent at least three years in prison. Gov. Oliva, of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), said he thought there was a seventh prisoner who would be released, but he didn't know her name.

In a report issued Sept. 3, the US State Department determined that Mexico can receive $36 million in backed-up drug war aid under the Merida Initiative—but that $26 million, or 15% of an upcoming $175 million allocation, should be withheld for failure to meet human rights standards. The report especially cited the failure to try soldiers accused of abuses in civilian courts. It is the first time the State Department has called for withholding 15%, as permitted by the Merida Initiative's founding legislation, although the Department's backlog in approving previously allocated funds under the $1.3 billion program is responsible for the delay in releasing the $36 million. The Mexican government, in a statement, called the State Department findings an affront to its sovereignty: "The Merida Initiative is based on shared responsibility, mutual trust and respect for each country's jurisdiction."

Violence continues to escalate in the conflicted northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. On Sept. 3, at least 25 were killed as soldiers stormed a training camp allegedly set up by Los Zetas in Ciudad Mier. It is still unclear if there were soldiers among the dead. That same day, another five presumed Zetas were killed in a highway shoot-out with soldiers in neighboring Nuevo León state. (AlJazeera, AP, Sept. 3) On Aug. 28, three grenade attacks on military and police checkpoints in the cities of Reynosa and Tampico left a total of 25 wounded—three gravely, including two members of the Tampico police force. The attacks in Reynosa prompted the closure of the Hidalgo Bridge that links the border town with McAllen, Tex. A grenade attack was also reported in Monterrey, capital of Nuevo León. (Crónica de Hoy, Aug. 30; La Jornada, Aug. 29)