More than 500 National Guard troops began patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border this week. They are part of Operation Copper Cactus; it began in California earlier this month. The Operation intends to bolster border patrol forces and will eventually cover New Mexico and Texas border areas as well where unpiloted aerial drones will begin patrolling the skies Wednesday.

The introduction of unpiloted surveillance aircraft into South Texas airspace means the multi-million dollar machines will patrol the entire length of the US/Mexico border.

Drones have been in use over some rural sections of the border since 2004, but the Federal Aviation Administration had been cautious to approve their use in the civilian airspace over the urbanized Texas border given their high accident rate in comparison to piloted aircraft. One of the most common technical failures of drones – which are operated remotely from the ground – is a loss of communication between pilot and aircraft.

The Congressional Budget Office found the use of drones has “resulted in fewer alien apprehensions per flight hour than the use of manned aircraft.”

While crashes in remote rural areas are expensive, a major malfunction in an urban area could also potentially cause harm to local residents and property. Each Predator B drone costs 4.5 million dollars. The Customs and Border Protection Inspector General reports the cost of operating a drone is more than double that of a piloted aircraft.

The official who opened the investigation into the massacre of 72 Central and South Americans in northern Mexico has been found dead. Mexican marines found the investigator’s body dumped along a highway in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. A second body encountered at the scene is thought to be that of a municipal police official linked to the same case. The state’s attorney general reported the two as missing late Thursday.

The investigator’s disappearance and death illustrates why many high-level crimes in Mexico go unpunished. Cartel-related violence in Tamaulipas also frequently goes unreported for fear of retaliation. Early this morning, a car bomb exploded outside of the Ciudad Victoria office of the national broadcaster, Televisa, which has been covering the massacre.

Testimony by the massacre’s sole survivor indicates the murdered migrants had been kidnapped en route to the US by organized criminals. An average of more than 1600 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico each month according to data published by the country’s National Human Rights Commission.

Mexican authorities found the seventy-two bodies after a 19-year old Ecuadorian man who survived the massacre found his way to a regional military base. The teen – who was shot in the face – says he was able to escape because the gunmen believed he was dead. The victims, which include 14 women, are thought to be migrants from Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, and El Salvador who were on their way to the United States. Consular officials from the respective countries are in the region to begin the work of identifying the bodies.

The sole survivor of the massacre says the perpetrators were organized criminals who were holding the migrants hostage. The former armed-wing of the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas, branched into migrant smuggling, kidnapping, and human trafficking a few years ago and have a significant presence in the state of Tamaulipas, where the murders occurred.

Violence against migrants crossing though Mexico is routine. Hundreds of Central Americans have

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in Mexican territory in the past decade and are presumed dead.

If all of the 72 victims were killed in a single event, as survivor testimony suggests, it will qualify as Mexico’s largest massacre in more than 40 years.

Three people died and another 2 were injured over the weekend when gunmen in Oaxaca’s indigenous Triqui region opened fire on a truck carrying organizers of a caravan bound for Mexico City. The victims were all members of an indigenous autonomy movement that makes up 1 of 3 factions vying for control of the town of San Juan Copala.

The purpose of the caravan was two-fold; to draw attention to the town’s humanitarian crisis and to provide safe passage for women seeking to leave the conflict zone. Safety concerns sparked by the ambush forced the cancellation of the caravan.

Two other humanitarian caravans have tried unsuccessfully to reach San Juan Copala in the past 4 months. Paramilitaries supposedly linked to the state’s ruling party have been blocking vehicular access to the town since November.

The high court ruling to uphold Mexico City’s adoption law comes just 2 weeks after the justices upheld a law allowing same sex couples to marry…and to have those marriages recognized nationwide. One of the justices said that refusing adoption rights to same sex couples would be tantamount to constitutionalized discrimination.

The challenges against Mexico City’s marriage and adoption codes were brought by the federal government. The ruling party of President Felipe Calderon, the PAN, is often in ideological alignment with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church. Mexico City is a stronghold of the left-leaning PRD party and has passed a number of reforms that run contrary to conservative Catholic doctrine.

The Mexican capitol began to recognize marriage and adoption by same sex couples earlier this year. Mexico City has the country’s most lenient divorce laws and is one of the few places in Latin America where a woman can obtain a legal and on-demand first trimester abortion.