Critics of Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his so-called Drug War charge that the government is favoring the Sinaloa Cartel. "There are no important detentions of Sinaloa cartel members," Diego Osorno, an investigative journalist and the author of a book on the Sinaloa Cartel (El Cártel de Sinaloa: Una historia del uso político del narco, Grijalbo, México 2009), told AlJazeera. "But the government is hunting down [Sinaloa's] adversary groups [and] new players in the world of drug trafficking."

On Feb. 14 a group of Mexican unions announced their intention to hold a general strike in 25 of the country's 32 states on March 16 if the government attempts to remove striking workers from the giant Cananea copper mine in Sonora state. Some 1,400 workers in Section 65 of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM) have maintained a strike at the facility—which is owned by the powerful Grupo México—since July 30, 2007.

Hundreds of Ciudad Juárez residents held a "March of Anger" Feb. 13 against President Felipe Calderón's army crackdown that has failed to curb rampant gang killings in the border city. Marchers say the presence of 6,000 troops has only escalated violence in the city, which has seen more than 4,300 drug-related murders since troops were deployed two years ago. The march was led by mothers and family members of some of the 13 youths killed in a Jan. 31 massacre, as well as the mother of one of those charged in the crime. "The army's presence is anti-constitutional and violates citizens' rights," National Front Against Repression leader Javier Contreras told the march. "That's why we're asking them to withdraw." (Reuters, AFP, Feb. 14; El Economista, Mexico, Feb. 13)

Gunmen stormed into a nightclub Feb. 6 in the Mexican beach resort of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and opened fire on the crowded dance floor, leaving three dead—two waiters and a patron. They shot down three more at the door as they fled, killing a total of six. (Reuters, Feb. 6) That previous day in Apatzingán, Michoacán, police found the decapitated bodies of six men with their severed heads inside an SUV. (AP, Feb. 5)

On Feb. 1, the White House solicited Congress for the allocation of $410 million to Mexico and Central America for fiscal year 2011, starting Oct. 1. The money would be used to support counternarcotics efforts under the Merida Initiative. Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew said in a press conference that Mexico would receive $310 million dollars and Central America the rest. "We are working very closely with the Mexican government," he said, while also emphasizing efforts to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. The Merida Initiative's limited human rights conditions have been a controversial aspect of the program.

Sharp debate over the direction of Mexico's narco war has broken out in the wake of twin massacres in northern Mexico last weekend. As the death toll from the narco violence punctures past records, some political leaders propose drastic responses that could curb civil liberties.

In Mexico's first major demonstration of 2010, on Jan. 29 thousands of unionists and campesinos marched from the Angel of Independence in Mexico City to the city's main plaza, the Zócalo, continuing a tradition of annual protests against the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the federal government's neoliberal economic policies. The demonstration was focused on the high cost of living, and the demands included an emergency pay raise to counter the effects of the world economic crisis. Another goal was to show support for the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), whose 44,000 active members were laid off when President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa's administration suddenly liquidated the government-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC) the night of Oct. 10.

Ciudad Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz announced Jan. 31 that the city is calling on artists across Mexico to submit proposals for a monument to memorialize the city's murdered women. The monument will likely focus on the eight victims whose bodies were found in 2001 in a cotton field across from the Association of Maquiladoras. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Mexican government earlier this year to erect a monument to dignify the memory of the victims. (Las Cruces Sun-News, Jan. 31)