New Mexico Mercury

Albuquerque Protesters Occupy Old Route 66

Albuquerque joined cities across the nation in protesting the events in Ferguson, Missouri, while calling attention to local police issues. 

Albuquerque: Model or Placebo for Policing Reform?

With the consent decree hashed out between APD and the Department of Justice, opinions vary as to whether it's enough to enact real change. 

Missouri, New Mexico and the World Spotlight

Resistance movements, particularly in Ferguson and Albuquerque, have sparked a national dialogue on police violence and corruption.   

Blowback Summer

Events in Ferguson and Albuquerque highlight the emergence of a police industrial complex and a Pentagon pipeline of military arms to local police forces.

Texans, New Mexicans Team Up for a Sustainable Economy

On a blazing July day, the temperature in El Paso’s Union Plaza District was almost as hot as the brassy sounds of the local musical group Riboflavin that entertained the crowd at the Downtown Art and Farmers Market (DAFM) with bursts of jazzy R&B. 

A great portion of the fresh produce sold at the El Paso market is actually grown just across the state line in southern New Mexico’s Dona Ana County. While the legal battle between Texas and New Mexico over use of Rio Grande water has been in the news as of late, the DAFM is an instance of cooperation between Tejanos and Nuevomexicanos in harnessing land and water for mutual benefit...

Fracking Fights Loom Large in Mexico

Mexico is emerging as the next big battleground in conflicts over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the method of extracting natural gas is commonly known.

While Mexican lawmakers consider regulatory legislation to put into practice the 2013 energy reform that opened up their county’s oil and gas reserves to private investors,  anti-fracking forces are mobilizing for a moratorium or an outright ban of the controversial practice from the Mexican Congress...

Immigrants or Refugees?

In the media barrage over the “flood” of Central American children arriving along the United States’ southern border, the refuge-seekers have been typically labeled as “illegal immigrants” by many media outlets.  

But Central American migrant advocates have a diametrically opposed take on the crisis, contending that the children on the U.S. border should be considered not as immigrants but refugees meriting international treatment standards, which does not generally include detaining children, according to Human Rights Watch...

El Grito de Roosevelt Park

Slightly more than three months after the police shooting of homeless camper James Boyd catapulted Albuquerque into the international spotlight, activists returned to the streets to advance their movement against police brutality.

Juarez Valley Strives for Recovery

Travelers headed south of Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico might have noticed a full, flowing Rio Grande in recent days. The coveted water was on its way to Mexico where, under a binational 1906 treaty, the U.S. is annually obligated to deliver 74 million cubic meters of the liquid. Once past the border, the water is used for irrigating farmland in the Juarez Valley of Chihuahua state, which encompasses the municipalities of Praxedis C. Guerrero, Guadalupe Distrito Bravos and Juarez.

Long known for its fertile farmland as well as contraband corridors, the Juarez Valley was one of the hardest hit areas in the so-called Narco-War, especially between 2008 and 2010 when thousands of residents fled their homes and abandoned farm land...

Albuquerque Protesters Jailed

The latest protests over APD police shootings resulted in 13 arrests and the cancellation of Monday night's City Council meeting.