Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will represent the main leftist party in Mexico’s 2012 presidential election, after claiming for years he was robbed of the 2006 presidency.

The charismatic 58-year-old former mayor of Mexico City was selected in a polling process Tuesday by two analysis firms, using the opinions of 6,000 Mexicans on the best candidate for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

An internet assault inspired by Anonymous, the hacking activist network that promised to expose collaborators with the Zeta drug cartel, has targeted a former senior law enforcement officer from the southern Mexican state of Tabasco.

Hackers blocked a website dedicated to promoting Gustavo Rosario, the former Tabasco attorney-general, with the words ”Gustavo Rosario is a Zeta” signed by Anonymous Mexico.

Grupo Mexico was ordered to pay $1.263 billion to Southern Copper Corp (SCCO.N), which it controlled when Southern Copper overpaid for another Grupo Mexico company in 2004.

Grupo Mexico proposed in 2004 that Southern Peru Copper Corp, as it was then known, buy another Grupo Mexico mining company, Minerva Mexico. A deal was completed in 2005 for $3.75 billion, paid in Southern Copper stock.

Southern Copper shareholders sued, and Delaware’s Chancery Court agreed that Minerva was vastly overvalued in the deal.

Officials in Mexico’s resort-laden Pacific Coast began evacuating low-lying areas on Tuesday as hotels and communities ramped up emergency preparations ahead of Hurricane Jova’s anticipated arrival.

The Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds near 185 km/h is expected to strike the coastline Tuesday afternoon or evening, causing high waves and serious flooding in the area south of Puerto Vallarta known as Barra de Navidad.

Mexico’s navy announced Tuesday that marines found nine escaped inmates apparently working for the Zetas drug cartel at a camp believed to be operated by the group near the Gulf port city of Veracruz.

Navy officials said the fugitives had apparently been sprung from prison to work for the Zetas.

The detentions resulted from a series of raids conducted last week that also netted 18 local police officers who also allegedly worked for the Zetas.

The Mexican army captured a key figure in the cult-like Knights Templar drug cartel that is sowing violence in western Mexico, a top officer announced Tuesday.

Saul Solis Solis, 49, a former police chief and one-time congressional candidate, was captured without incident Monday in the cartel’s home state of Michoacan, Brig. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas told reporters during a presentation of Solis.

Solis is considered one of the principal lieutenants in the Knights Templar, which split late last year from La Familia, a pseudo-religious drug gang known as a major trafficker of methamphetamine.

Mexican authorities said Tuesday they were seeking seven more suspects in an arson attack on a Monterrey casino that left 52 dead last week, after five alleged drug gang members were detained in the case.

Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Adrian de la Garza told a news conference that up to 12 people were involved in the daytime assault on the Casino Royale last Thursday.

Authorities said the five detained, who were presented to the media Tuesday, had admitted involvement in the attack and belonged to the Zetas drug gang.

Mexican fugitives can no longer take refuge in Costa Rica and vice versa, thanks to a new extradition treaty signed by presidenta Laura Chinchilla and her Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón.

The treaty is one of the commitments made yesterday on security issues, More >

Mexico City has marked its 1,000th same-sex marriage since lawmakers in the capital approved such unions in March 2010.

The city government says in a statement that about 6 percent of those getting married in same-sex weddings in the city are foreigners.

Officials had predicted an influx in tourism when they enacted the first law in Latin America explicitly allowing same-sex…