On Oct. 23 Mexico's 128-member Senate voted almost unanimously to pass legislation that opponents say will open the way to the partial privatization of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the giant state-owned oil monopoly. The 500-member Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate's version without debate on Oct. 25. The Senate session was held in a downtown skyscraper to avoid protesters at the Senate building; some 1,200 agents from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) guarded the session, with federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna leading the force himself.

Mexican authorities say they have dealt a severe blow to the Tijuana Cartel with the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Félix, the last in a ruling clique of five brothers to be captured or killed by authorities in recent years. Arellano opened fire on soldiers and federal agents Oct. 25 as they raided a home in the upscale Tijuana suburb of Fraccionamiento Pedregal. After a shoot-out, Arellano—who had a $5 million US State Department price on his head—was subdued and flown to Mexico City. "He is pretty much the last major player of what was once the powerful Arellano Félix organization," said Eileen Zeidler of the San Diego DEA office. (San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 27)

The Mexican government has offered a $370,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers of Andres Dimitriadis, sub-prosecutor for organized crime with the Prosecutor General of Morelos. Dimitriadis was shot in his car with his two guards in the Morelos capital of Cuernavaca as he drove home late on Oct. 23. More than 100 rounds of ammunition were fired at the vehicle. The attack took place just 300 meters from the Cuernavaca federal police headquarters. (BBC News, Oct. 26; La Jornada, Oct. 25)

Supposed Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Jesús "El Rey" Zambada was among 16 arrested Oct. 22 after a street battle with police in which a grenade destroyed a car. Prosecutor General Eduardo Medina said Zambada's son and nephew, two federal police officers and one state police officer were also among those arrested. Zambada was identified as the brother of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who allegedly heads the cartel along with the wanted Joaquin "Shorty" Guzmán.

The main route for people trying to leave Cuba for the US is now through Mexico. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, 11,126 Cubans entered the US this way in 2007, while just 1,055 went directly to Florida. The immigrants usually pay $5,000-$10,000 for a trip in a high-speed fishing boat to Quintana Roo, Mexico, and then travel by land to the Texas border. The operations are generally run by Cuban Americans who have rented or stolen the boats from Florida. (AP, Oct. 19) Mexican police arrested two Cuban American smugglers in June; they reportedly said they were members of the Miami-based rightwing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF).

Twenty-one were killed and 12 injured Oct. 20 in a fight between inmates at a prison in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Tex. Tamaulipas state and Mexican federal police, supported by army troops, took control of the state prison, as anxious relatives of inmates gathered outside to demand information—at one point kicking the prison gates. Inmates used guns, knives and gasoline bombs in the battle before security forces stormed the prison. Reports indicated all of the dead were killed in the initial fighting between prisoners, as opposed to in the effort to re-take the facility—but didn't state this explicitly.

On Oct. 16 Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) arrested activist Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno for the shooting death of New York-based independent journalist Brad Will during a protest in the southern state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, 2006. Octavio Perez Perez was also arrested and charged with concealing the crime; Hugo Jafit Colmenares Leyva was arrested on the same charge on Oct. 17. Perez and Colmenares were released on Oct. 18 on bail of 25,000 pesos (about $1,925) apiece. All three of the arrested men are activists in the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), which along with the state local of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) spearheaded protests that shut down much of Oaxaca state for five months in 2006.

Several large operations by federal and local Mexican police from Oct. 7 to Oct. 9 broke up protests by striking teachers and their supporters in Morelos state, south of Mexico City, leaving dozens of people detained or injured. Morelos teachers have been on strike since Aug. 13 to protest the Alliance for Quality Education (ACE), a national plan promoted by Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and national teachers union head Elba Esther Gordillo Morales.