MEXICO CITY - THE first in a wave of mass protests against escalating murders and violent crime began on Saturday in southern and central Mexico, with several thousand on the streets in silent marches.
Mexicans in some 70 towns and cities were to join the mass action, organised by businesses and citizens groups, with a main protest to set off at 6 pm (7am Singapore time) down the capital's main Reforma avenue.
Heads of two sisters found
MEXICO CITY - THE severed heads of two sisters were discovered dumped on a path in Mexico's northern Durango state on Saturday, the local prosecutor's office said, making a total of 18 decapitations countrywide in the past three days.
The discovery came as Mexicans began mass protests against escalating violence, with some 2,700 deaths in gangland-style killings reported so far this year, according to national media.
Violence has risen throughout the country since President Felipe Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, launched a crackdown on drug trafficking and related attacks that included deploying more than 36,000 soldiers across the country.
The Reforma daily said on Saturday that this week had been the most violent since Calderon launched his offensive, with 167 murders, including 24 police officers killed and 21 decapitated bodies found.
Some 2,700 people have died so far this year in gangland-style killings - more than in all of 2007 - according to national media, and Mexico has overtaken Colombia and Iraq with its kidnapping record.
Children dressed in white and carrying white balloons led one of the first protests against the rising crime, gathering more than 3,000 people in the central city of Pachuca, capital of Hidalgo state, early Saturday.
Some wore pictures of children who had been kidnapped on their shirts and others carried banners reading 'That's enough!", 'We want to live in peace!'.
On the southern border with Guatemala, around 200 business owners, farmers, and families dressed in white and wearing black bows marched in silence through the city of Tapachula.
The protests come amid daily reports of murders and massacres, particularly in the northern Chihuahua state where drug cartels are fighting a turf war for control of key drug routes to the United States.
Violence has also stretched to areas previously untouched by bloody attacks.
The recent high-profile kidnapping and assassination of 14-year-old Fernando Marti on his way to school in Mexico City - a crime in which police were involved - unleashed the latest wave of public anger over insecurity and systemic corruption.
'We want to feel safe in the Mexico of the future,' said a document calling for the mass marches, named 'Iluminemos Mexico' or 'Let's Illuminate Mexico'.
Organisers hope to bring tens or hundreds of thousands to the streets, as in the past.
A massive rise in the number of kidnappings in 1997 and a high-profile case in 2004 both inspired tens of thousands to demonstrate, forcing the government to carry out police purges and reforms.
Afterwards, both times, the official kidnapping rate dropped for a while, before rising again.
Official figures suggest 323 kidnappings were carried out in Mexico in the first half of 2008, while one rights group reported 400 kidnappings so far this year, compared with 438 for the whole of last year.
Organisers called for politicians and officials to stay away from the protests due to their track records on crime.
Mexican leaders last week signed a national security pact, the latest such effort in recent years, with a promise to fight insecurity and police corruption. -- AFP
