As violent and desperate as the situation has become in some parts of Mexico, a few days ago I received a Facebook invitation from a friend of mine (Kenya Bello, whom I would like to thank) in order to protest Wednesday against Calderon’s strategy in the fight against crime and drug trafficking.
“35000 MORTS” More than 35000 people have died in drug-related violence since the government launched an offensive against cartels in late 2006. Border cities like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana have been the hardest hit by drug violence. Ça suffit.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in over twenty cities across Mexico on Wednesday. At the same time, another demonstration took place in Place du Trocadéro, in Paris. We were very few, but the Mexican community living in this city wanted to show their support to their fellow countrymen. Wednesdays protest marches were spread in part by the killing of Juan Francisco Sicilia Ortega on March 28th, son of Mexican poet and novelist Javier Sicilia. His called for the demonstrations inspired Mexicans to speak out. These demonstrations were organized and publicized by the people through social networks and with no help from the media.
The straw that broke the camel’s back:
On Friday April 1st, authorities in northern Mexico say (announced) they found nearly sixty bodies buried in mass graves. The government in the State of Tamaulipas says it’s investigating whether the remains are those of bus passengers kidnapped two weeks ago by suspected drug gangs. Police found eight graves in total with one containing forty-three bodies. The bodies were discovered in the same town in which seventy-two central and south-American migrants were found dead in August after drug gangs killed them for refusing to work with them.
As it was to be expected, Javier Sicilia’s letter and the discovery of the bodies in San Fernando were followed by protest marches across Mexico, and let’s dare to say “worldwide”, condemning the crime gangs and the inability of politicians to stem the violence. Thousands of people gathered mainly in Mexico City and Cuernavaca chanting “No more blood” and “Not one more”. In Paris, I repeat, we were just a few but very united and clear about what we want.
What do you think about the way the Mexican government has gone about tackling this problem? Is it doing the right thing? As for me, I’m tired of this idiotic violence.
Se destetó Teté 
It’s really sad what’s going on in Mexico right now. I wish the US legalized some drugs in order to help Mexico better figt against drug related violence.
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Que porqueria de pais. Me arrepiento enormemente de haber votado por Felipe Calderon. Ahora lo que les interesa a los politicos es quedar bien para el 2012.
Estoy seguro que la protesta va a tener un alcance muy limitado en la esfera politica, osea que como quien dice, les va a valer madre.
Sigamos manifestandonos a ver quien se cansa primero. Que los «de afuera» vean la porqueria de democracia en la que vivimos. No es posible que se sigan enviando comunicados al extranjero diciendo que en México todo va bien y que sigue siendo seguro para la inversion. Y los pueblos fantasmas?
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Estoy de acuerdo en que los intereses que estan detras de esta guerra estan generando mas recursos que el propio narcotrafico (quien es el que beneficia con la compra de armamento?). Lamentablemente, en Mexico, la gente vive bajo una paranoia y un miedo constante que les imposibilita re-accionar ante el incompetente gobierno.
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Safety prevents many children from even receiving an education in Ciudad Juárez. Even if the streets were safe many families could not afford the costs for education that is not free for that region of Mexico. All of this this makes entering the drug trade an attractive option to earn a lot of money fast for pre-teens without an education.
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Although there have been other protests in Juárez and other cities, I believe it is time to come together in solidarity and organize a national strike movement. This will create further pressure because protest marches achieve very little.
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The state’s failure to provide public safety forces organizations out onto the streets and to take up the demands of the relatives of those massacred [on January 31]. We need to stand up for our rights and defeat the fear that has paralyzed a large swathe of society…[T]he protesters held three minutes of silence and, in a symbolic gesture representing hundreds of executions, threw themselves on the floor to remember the thousands killed. The fallen are the result of a senseless war declared by an illegitimate government [a reference to the contested 2006 general election].
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Silence is complicity with organized crime
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It is one of the first occasions that Mexicans, in their thousands and simultaneously around the country, have taken to the streets to protest against the violence of the so-called «drugs war
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