Guatemalan troops: Guatemala said yesterday that it plans to send hundreds of troops, elite presidential guards and anti-drug police to its border with Mexico to stem drug violence.
Drug-war polls: Two polls last week said President Felipe Calderón was losing the fight against drug traffickers in the court of public opinion. Most Mexicans supported Calderón's taking on the traffickers, and his approval ratings surpass 60 percent. But more than half of those surveyed by the Reforma and El Universal newspapers said traffickers are outgunning the government.
Cocaine seizures: U.S. authorities seized a record 316 metric tons of cocaine last year, U.S. officials said Thursday as they credited Mexico's increasing cooperation with helping force drug traffickers to raise their prices and try new smuggling methods.
Plantronics plant: Telephone-headset and audio-products maker Plantronics opened a $4 million distribution center Friday in Tijuana, its fifth plant in the city, El Sol de Tijuana reported.
Sex offender captured: Police in Michoacan state captured a convicted U.S. sex offender on the FBI's list of 10 most wanted fugitives. Jon Savarino Schillaci, 36, a fugitive for nearly nine years, is accused of molesting a boy in a New Hampshire family with whom he corresponded while in a Texas prison.
PRI resurgence: The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, voted out in 2000 after 71 years in power, could retake the presidency in 2012 with a young governor as its new face, a poll published in El Universal showed. The PRI is the third-largest party in Congress behind Calderón's conservative National Action Party and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, yet it has retained a solid support base and governs about half of Mexico's states. The survey found that 42 percent would vote in the 2012 presidential election for Mexico state Gov. Enrique Peña, 41.
Nude bicyclists protest: Hundreds of naked cyclists rode through Mexico City yesterday to demand respect from the capital's drivers.
Car hits cyclists: A car plowed into a bike race between Playa Bagdad and Matamoros in Tamaulipas state last Sunday, killing Alejandro Alvarez, 37, a Brownsville, Texas, architect originally from Monterrey, Mexico. Police said Juan Campos, 28, of Brownsville was charged in the death.
Compiled from news reports by Foreign Editor David Gaddis Smith: (619) 293-2211; david.smith@uniontrib.com
