We can’t really say we expected this. Most people didn´t. John Paul II was so steadfast in his conviction that he would die being Pope, that everyone sort of expected Benedict XVI to do the same thing. After all, the last abdication of a pope was no less than six centuries ago. He didn’t, though, and today he announced he’ll abdicate on February 28. It hasn’t even been three hours and already people are speculating about who his succesor will be. So do we: why not elect a Mexican pope?

One thing that always occurs to me when I’m watching the news in Mexico, is the way Israel is being treated. Not that Mexican media are overly biased in favor of or against Israel, but the terminology used in their reports strikes me as odd.

Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City suggests civil disobedience, but fails to mention what he concretely means.

When Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal court in Houston Texas last week, it was not simply a matter of bringing a fugitive to imperfect justice. Unraveling a story of religious fanaticism in the Chihuahua desert requires going back to the mid-nineteenth century, and, with the peripheral involvement of Benito Juarez, Pancho Villa, Javier Sicilia and a possible candidate for President of the United States, raises questions of identity, tolerance and our response to violence.

Alberto Mena (Police professionalization in Mexico still pending) notes the uncoordinated and politicized attempts here in Mexico to overcome deficiencies in our law enforcement system, and he is right about the challenges. These challenges are not unique to Mexico.

While the sparks that lit the fire might be slightly different, recent uprisings by immigrants in France, workers and the middle-class in North Africa and the Middle-East, the unemployed (and under-employed) in Spain and Greece, by students in Britain last December and in Chile now, and again now in Britain, are, as Powers said, “depressingly familiar”.

When in 2004, it began to become clear that Andres Manuel López Obrador was a serious candidate for President, and it very much looked like he would be President, opponents were continually flummoxed in their attempts to discredit the populist Federal District governor.

Alfredo Gallegos Lara (61) is a catholic priest on the small town of Chucandiro, in Chucándiro, in Michoacán state. He's famed for his social work: he gathers funds to build roads, restores churches in disrepair and pressures politicians to bring healthcare services and educational facilities to his parishes.

Cuban author Eliseo Alberto de Diego died yesterday in Mexico City, at the age of 59. Nicknamed ‘Lichi’ by his friends, he died of complications after undergoing a kidney transplant on the 18th of July. He was being treated in Mexico City’s General Hospital.