Disaffected members of the Piedras Negras police force in the Mexican border state of Coahuila returned to work April 22, after staging an overnight work stoppage. Some 50 officers assigned to the graveyard shift conducted the protest to express opposition to the new policies of a retired colonel, Arturo Navarro López, who assumed command of the police department two weeks ago.

Isaac Manuel Godoy Castro, a mid-level operative of the Tijuana Cartel wanted in the US, was arrested by Mexican army troops in Tijuana April 24. His face appeared on a wanted poster released Jan. 11 by the DEA that showed the Tijuana Cartel's leaders. Six other suspected members of the cell led by Godoy were also arrested. (EFE, April 24)

Eight Mexican federal officers—including two from the elite Federal Investigation Agency (AFI)—were killed April 18 in an attack on a police convoy transporting Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Jerónimo Gámez AKA "El Primo" (The Cousin) to a prison in western Nayarit state. The shoot-out occurred on the Tepic-Guadalajara highway, as Gámez was being transfered from Mexico City to the top-security Federal Center of Social Readaptation (CEFERESO), known as El Rincón. The ambush by a team armed with AK-47s was evidently an attempt to free Gámez, who was arrested Jan. 29 in Naucalpan, Mexico state.

On the eve of his Mexico trip, President Barack Obama moved to impose financial penalties on members of three Mexican drug cartels, officially designating the organizations as "kingpins." The president has the power to identify drug traffickers and their businesses for penalties under the 1999 Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The White House identified three more Mexican drug operations that will carry the kingpin designation: the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana. The move allows for US assets of the organizations to be frozen. (NYT, April 16)

Protesters gathered outside the Hotel Presidente Intercontinental in the swank Mexico City district of Polanco as US President Barack Obama arrived April 14 to deliver a letter demanding rights for immigrants in the United States. The letter calls for far-reaching immigration reform, an end to raids and deportation of undocumented migrants, and a halt to the border wall. It rejects a "bracero" or guest worker program, and also calls for a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mexican lawmakers opened a debate this week on the legalization of marijuana as part of a possible strategy to tackle the country's powerful drug cartels. Javier González Garza, leader of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) bloc in Congress, has come out in support of the proposed legalization measure, and said cannabis must be considered apart from drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Mexico's ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhan, speaking to Bob Schieffer of CBS' "Face the Nation" April 12, once again called the norteamericanos to task for allowing a highly unregulated gun trade which is fueling armed violence south of the border. Transcript from CQ Politics:

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in El Paso deported former Gulf Cartel kingpin José Manuel Garza Rendón back to Mexico, handing him to Mexican federal authorities across the international bridge with Ciudad Juárez April 10. Garza Rendón had already served a nine-year term in a US federal prison in West Texas for conspiracy to distribute marijuana. He has been wanted in Mexico since 2002 on charges of organized crime, attempted murder and possession of firearms that can be legally used exclusively by the Mexican army. (Reuters, April 11)