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)

For the third time in less than a week, an industrial fire scarred the skies of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The April 7 fire at the MCS (ex-Zenith) plant near the city’s airport sent huge columns of black smoke climbing into the heavens and drifting across the borderland. The blaze spread to factories belonging to the Foxconn, Cormex and Dometic companies, temporarily idling about 1,000 workers. The disaster also caused delays and evacuations at the Ciudad Juárez airport.

Officials in Nuevo Laredo have destroyed more than 35 statues dedicated to a "Death Saint" popular with drug traffickers—prompting protests from followers of the "folk Catholic" cult, who charge religious discrimination and have demanded a meeting with President Felipe Calderón. The statues, most depicting a robed skeleton resembling the Grim Reaper, line roads and highways around the Mexican border city. More than 30 such shrines have been destroyed in the campaign launched this week by city police backed up by federal army troops.

Eleven people were found shot to death around Mexico April 4, some bearing signs of torture and left with threatening "narco-messages." Four of the victims were found in a car in Apatzingán, Michoacán, along with a message threatening the Zetas, the paramilitary arm of the Gulf Cartel. The message was signed "La Familia," Michoacán's reigning crime machine.