Visitors are flocking to the cathedral of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southernmost state of Chiapas to pay their respects to Samuel Ruiz, the man who presided over the local diocese for 40 years. The retired bishop died from heart complications yesterday in a Mexico City hospital at the age of 86.

Over the course of his career, Ruiz won international recognition and numerous awards for his work with the state’s indigenous poor, but he is best known for mediating peace talks between the Mexican government and the Zapatista rebels in the mid 1990s.

Ruiz was a practitioner of Liberation Theology, a school of religious thought that gained popularity among Latin America’s left-leaning clerics in the 1960s and ultimately caused friction with the largely conservative Vatican hierarchy. While his views received criticism from the Mestizo oligarchy in San Cristobal, the bishop earned the respect and admiration of the area’s indigenous majority. Ruiz is often referred to by the title “Tatik”, which means “father” in the local Tzotzil language.

Bishop Emeritus Samuel Ruiz will be buried tomorrow in the grounds of the San Cristobal de las Casas cathedral in accordance with his final wishes.

A 16 year-old girl was found dead in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico Tuesday with marks of sexual abuse. She’s the latest victim in a long-running string of unsolved rape-murders. The murder follows demonstrations last weekend to protest the climate of impunity surrounding hundreds of cases of murdered women. While these so-called “femicides” have been occurring in the state of Chihuahua since the mid ’90s, what sparked this weekend’s demonstrations were the recent murders of 2 women who were known for their activism on femicide cases.

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Activists held marches and vigils in at least 5 Mexican cities to call for justice in the cases of Marisela Escobedo, Susana Chávez, and hundreds of other women who have been murdered in Mexico.

Before Ciudad Juárez gained the reputation as the murder capitol of the world, it was infamous for its femicide cases. The rapes and murders of young women went unpunished in the border city across from El Paso, Texas…and spread to the state capitol of Chihuahua City. For Norma Ledezma, whose 16 year-old daughter was killed in 2002, there’s a reason the murders have not only continued, but increased:

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Zapotec class in San Pablo Macuiltianguis, Oaxaca

The Mexican state of Oaxaca is home to 16 different native languages, making it the most linguistically diverse state in Mexico. But many of these languages are fading out as new generations grow up learning and speaking only Spanish. Although attempts to reverse language loss can be an uphill battle, reporter Shannon Young visits one village tackling that challenge – attempting to re-learn their ancestors’ words.

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San Pablo Macuiltianguis is a small Zapotec town in the northern mountains of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Like in many towns in this region, the basketball court is the heart of the village.

[Zapotec language drills]

Overlooking the basketball court, on the second floor of the town hall building, around 20 boys and girls are reciting words in Zapotec – a language that most residents under the age of 35 do not speak.

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Transcript of an audio report produced for January 7, 2011 broadcast of Free Speech Radio News

Around 30 Mexican human rights defenders and dozens of Central American migrants planned to board the train known as “The Beast” in the town of Arriaga, Chiapas as part of a caravan to call public attention to the dangers migrants face in southern Mexico. Their destination is Chahuites – a town located across the Oaxaca state line – which has become the scene of a number of crimes targeting migrants who use the train system to move north.

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A group kidnapping of more than 40 migrants last month once again put Chahuites in the national spotlight. Migrants arriving at a migrant shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca reported that in the early hours of December 16th, they encountered two groups of armed men along the way.

This man, who made it to the Ixtepec shelter the day after the attack, described the incident in video testimony:

WITNESS: “The train left Arriaga around 8pm. Shortly afterwards, we passed a bridge where immigration agents had set up a check point. Almost everyone scattered. Immigration grabbed some while others escaped and were able to get back on the train. Later, about 20 minutes before reaching a town, the train stopped. I saw how about a dozen guys came running out from a stable. I thought they were coyotes coming to look for customers. But no, they were thieves. They started shooting, people started crying and screaming. Another guy got hit with a machete.

More than 40 people remain missing from the December 16th incident. The armed men who attacked the train are suspected to have ties to the Zetas drug cartel, a criminal organization that has turned kidnapping into a multi-million dollar industry.

Father Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest who runs the migrant shelter in Ixtepec, helped to organize today’s caravan.

(Father Solalinde speaks, reporter translates)

He says the caravan aims not only to make visible the dangers and risks migrants face along the way, but also to encourage the citizenry to seek ways to reverse the situation. The priest says he wants to see the area’s migration route transform from a “humanitarian tragedy” zone to a place of peace and respect for migrants’ rights.

Among the members of the caravan en route to Chahuites is Elvira Arellano – who has continued her immigration rights activism in Mexico after her high-profile deportation from the United States a few years ago.

At deadline the train, which was scheduled to leave Arriage this morning, had not arrived. Caravan members said they would continue to Chahuites on foot.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission – or CNDH – documented more than 200 group kidnappings of migrants in 2010 with an average of 50 migrants kidnapped each day. The riskiest routes are in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Tamaulipas.

Mexico has reached a double digit death toll for journalists for the second consecutive year. Not only has 2010 surpassed 2009 in reporter murders, but Mexico has tied with Pakistan for the dubious title of world’s deadliest country for journalists.

Different press freedom organizations register different death tolls. Switzerland’s Press Emblem Campaign documents 14, France’s Reporters Without Borders registers 7, 8, and 11 depending on the post, and the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists lists only 3.

Comparing notes with the laudable documentation conducted by Mexico’s Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), it seems the figure published by the Press Emblem Campaign is the most accurate. However, I switched out one of the deaths listed by PEC for another.

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