More than 85,000 people, according to an estimate of city officials, marched silently Sunday in Mexico City against the violence unleashed by drug traffickers and the military response of the state, culminating in a march of four days left Thursday for Cuernavaca 90 km south of the Mexican capital.
The march "for peace, security and justice" was launched at the initiative of the poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in March.At the head of a crowd carrying a silent sea of white balloons bearing the names of victims of violence, Javier Sicilia entered in the late afternoon on the Zocalo, the huge central square of Mexico, while only were heard the bells of the cathedral.
Protesters call for end to violence by drug traffickers and the rapid withdrawal of the 50,000 soldiers who have to confront the drug cartels since December 2006, the date of arrival in power of President Felipe Calderon.
According to official figures, this offensive has killed 34,600 between December 2006 and December 2010.According to estimates by the press, more than 3,000 additional people have died since early 2011.
"We want to give the faces, names, dates, each of these 40,000 victims has left behind this deadly strategy," told AFP Javier Sicilia from the event.
"National security is not only letting the troops on the street is a lot of other things," he said."We have to sit around a table and think about strategy, because what has been done so far has been a mistake."
The march had started on Thursday in the city of Cuernavaca, 90 km south of the Mexican capital - where last March 28, were found dead in a car and a son of Javier Sicilia, Juan Francisco, and six other people showing signs of torture. The killings were attributed by the government to a cartel of drug traffickers.
This is the second protest called by Javier Sicilia since the death of his son.The next initiative will be the signing of a pact in June for the national dignity, in Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico, the city hardest hit by violence, with more than 3,000 deaths in 2010.
Leading the demonstration, carrying the flag of Mexico, also appeared Sunday Julian LeBaron, leader of a Mormon community in the state of Chihuahua (northern), whose son was murdered after being abducted."I'm here to be remembered for an end to impunity."
Behind him, holding his arms, marched Javier Sicilia and other relatives of victims with dozens of posters bearing the pictures of men and women dead or missing in the past four years.
Practicing Catholic, the poet had begun the day from the campus by a group prayer with other supporters. On the way, joined the procession Solalinde Father Alejandro, an advocate for immigrants from Central and South America who pass through Mexico to reach the United States.In August 2010, 72 immigrants from these regions had been murdered in a town north of the country by the cartel Zetas, a gang formed by former military elite of the Mexican army.
