August 25,2008:  Drug gang related violence has left over 2,700 dead, so far, this year. But that's not the only crime bothering people. Kidnappings are up 9 percent over last year, and many affluent Mexicans, including many managers and professionals, are moving their families to the United States. The bodyguard business is booming, and anyone with money, and without personal security, is just asking to be snatched. The kidnapping threat ruins the lives of millions of Mexico's best educated and most successful citizens. They run the media, as well as all the other professions. These are people with clout, and they are leaning on the politicians to do something about kidnapping in particular, and crime in general. These are the Mexicans who can legally immigrate to many affluent nations that would be glad to have them. If the government doesn't act, the potential victims will.

August 23, 2008: The centerpiece of this week's special conference on crime, held in Mexico City, is the promise to continue to purge local, state, and national police forces of corrupt officers. One of the biggest sources of public discontent in Mexico is the knowledge that known criminals are protected by corrupt police officials. What's different now is that Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, is taking on the issue.

August 21, 2008: Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that he would launch an even harsher attack on crime in Mexico. Specifically, Calderon told senior Mexican government officials and police officers that Mexico needed "anti-abduction police units". He said Mexico is plagued by " a cancer of criminality." Kidnappings are a tool used by organized crime to intimidate officials and, yes, it's also a business.

August 20, 2008: Mexico's huge CEMEX cement conglomerate has refused to accept Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' terms for nationalizing cement assets in Venezuela. CEMEX has some significant investments in Venezuela.

August 19, 2008: The estimates vary, but 800 people may have been murdered in and around the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez since January 1, 2008. Juarez is directly across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The Mexican Army raided a house in the town of Tierra Blanca (Veracruz state). The soldiers found 25 "kidnapped" Central Americans who were being moved to the United States. The people freed were from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

August 18, 2008: 30 people were killed over the weekend in violence in Chihuahua state. News sources reported that 14 people were slain August 16 in an attack on a dance hall in Creel, Chihuahua. The attackers used automatic weapons (likely AK-47s).

August 14, 2008: The Mediation Commission, set up to facilitate negotiations between the Mexican government and the EPR (Peoples Revolutionary Army) said that the Mexican government had two Mexican Marxist guerrillas may have been "disappeared" by Mexican security forces. The two men, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo, are EPR "causes célèbre." The men disappeared in Oaxaca state.

August 13, 2008: Eight people were killed in a "gang hit" in Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua state). Armed gunmen (wearing body armor) entered a drug rehabilitation clinic, selected eight victims, and killed them. Mexican officials said the attack involved a "gangland feud." The Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels are locked in a battle for control of Juarez.

August 11, 2008: A US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) said that  90- 95 percent of the illegal weapons seized in Mexico come from the US. The "iron river flowing south" is a huge political issue in Mexico. The ATF has arrested "gun traffickers" in the US who have sold weapons to "straw buyers" (front men). The buyers connect to Mexican organized criminal gangs and drug cartels.

August 3, 2008: The US Border Patrol reported the four Mexican Army soldiers accidentally crossed the US-Mexico border and "briefly detained" a US Border Patrol officer. The USBP agent convinced the Mexican soldiers that they were on the wrong side of the border. The Mexicans decided he was right, released him, and moved across the border. The incident occurred in a remote location in Arizona.