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.

I’ve lived in Mexico for five years, despite the fact that there’s no reason on Earth that I have to. I present this fact somewhat defensively because, as readers of my blog and this column may discern, I spend a great portion of my waking hours complaining about Mexico and Mexicans. This is often taking as hostility or disdain, but nothing could be farther from the truth. “Why don’t you go back to America?” is a frequent comment I get, usually offered as a suggestion rather than a question. Because I choose not to, dear commenter. I could move to the US with considerably greater ease than you could, but I don’t, because I love your country. If our situations were reversed, could you say the same? Really? You’re so sure?

Everybody loves a conspiracy, and Mexicans are no exception. So when José Francisco Blake Mora died in a helicopter crash last week, the rumor circus was in full swing minutes after the news broke. Not surprising, of course, as very few presidents have been as unlucky as Felipe Calderón, with no less than two of his Interior Secretaries dying in plane crashes in three years.

The facts simply don't matter. The drug war in Mexico has either failed or is being won, depending on what your gut tells you.

As the level of violence in Mexico has surged in recent years, so have has the number of extremely graphic pictures and videos showing violence too. Prominent blogs are increasingly showering the public with what is basically snuff become reality. The question now is: what is the added value of these images? Should the Internet community refrain from publishing them?

The Mexican army has been both welcome and unwelcome in the fight against organized crime. However, despite principal objections against soldiers entering the civil domain of law enforcement and thousands of accusations of human rights violations, Mexico's creeping militarization is as unavoidable as it is unwelcome.

In his fifth ‘Informe’, Mexico’s equivalent of the State of the Union, President Calderón announced the creation of a new Social Attorney’s Office for Attention to Victims of Violence (Procuraduría Social de Atención a Víctimas de la Violencia). Amongst its tasks will be finding disappeared people and assisting the victim’s families.

Every day lives are lost in Mexico due to drug violence. An estimated 40.000 people have died in the so-called war on drugs, with many collateral loss of life amongst it. Our legislators of all political color and flavor continue to debate on ‘high levels’ to ‘remediate’ the grave problem of insecurity on Mexico soil, but up to this day a real solution has nit been found.

In the wake of the horrendous attacks on the Casino Royale in Monterrey, last Thursday, Mexico is trying to cope with the scale of the violence and looking for answers to many questions. The most important of all: how do we end this? What do we need to do to stop the violence?

Right after the elections in Estado de México this summer, won by the PRI's Eruviel Ávila in a landslide, many analysts (both foreign and domestic) tried to place the results in a context. The main question: how come the PRI won by such a wide margin? Why were the PAN and the PRD unable to get even close to the PRI? And most importantly: what do the results mean for the upcoming presidential elections in 2012?

Last week I stated that it would be a bad idea for Javier Sicilia to become involved in politicts. In short: I argued that mr. Sicilia doesn't have a constituency and, through the invitation of congress to have him participate in talks over the new security law, he would involve himself exactly in the kind of actions a piece-activist shouldn't.

The PRI tries to coerce the federal government into paying more money to the states. But astronomical external debts on state level indicate that more handouts would be a very bad idea. Especially to those run by the PRI, who managed to increase their external debts in the last decade by double, sometimes triple figures.

Javier Sicilia and his movement walked away from talks with congress today, after the National Security Bill has been tentatively approved by the Chamber of Deputies. Now he has been invited to join directly in further negotiations about the law. But who does Mr. Sicilia represent?

Javier Sicilia's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity seems to achieve more than many would have hoped in advance. Much needs to be done, however, to maintain momentum. One of the dangers in his movement are followers with wishes contradictory to mr. Sicilia's own.