Thousands of Mexicans rally against drug violence

May 9, 2011, 1:49 GMT

Mexico City - Tens of thousands of protesters marched in silence to Mexico City's main square Sunday, demanding an end to drug-related violence.

The rally's organizer, poet Javier Sicilia, demanded in a speech the resignation of Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna and urged the protesters to embrace a so-called 'citizens' pact against violence.'

The protesters had begun their main march on the capital four days ago in the city of Cuernavaca, 80 kilometres south of Mexico City.

Sicila, whose own son was killed in March, deplored the government's failure to contain the violence in its campaign against drug traffickers. Since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, some 35,000 people were killed in drug-related violence.

Sicila criticized Mexico's political class, accusing them of corruption and links to drug crime. The parties had to rid themselves of those within their ranks who were involved in the crimes or the people could no longer accept their elected leaders, he told the at least 90,000 protesters on Zocalo Square.

'We want to state that we no longer accept an election before political parties do not clean their ranks of those that under the guise of the law, are in collusion with crime and have handcuffed and co-opted the state,' he said.

'The corruption at the heart and the root of the institutions has overtaken us,' Sicila said. Without politicians cleaning up their act, 'citizens have to ask which cartel and which de-facto power faction to vote for in the next elections.'

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