CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, (Reuters) – Thousands of  people dressed in white demanded soldiers leave Mexico’s most  violent city yesterday, accusing troops of provoking a surge in  drug-war killings and running protection rackets.

Around 5,000 people marched through Ciudad Juarez on the  U.S. border, many with white balloons and holding signs saying  “leave Juarez, soldiers and federal police.” It was a rare  protest in a city where most people are too frightened to speak  out, and a show of the depth of anger at the army’s failure to  stop drug murders.

Gruesome drug killings have surged in Ciudad Juarez since  President Felipe Calderon sent in 10,000 troops and federal  police to crush warring cartels in March, according to police  and media tallies.

After being received as heroes, the army has lost public  support as the city’s death tally from cartel violence has  risen to 2,400 so far this year, compared with 1,600 in all of  2008. Murders have reached a dozen a day and bullet-ridden  vehicles and bleeding bodies on busy streets are commonplace.  Businesses that fail to pay protection money to corrupt police  and cartels have been set on fire or their owners kidnapped,  tortured and killed.

“We are tired of living in hell. Things have only worsened  since the army arrived,” said a 53-year-old businessman at the  march, who declined to give his name.

“There’s evidence that soldiers and federal troops are  behind some of the extortions and kidnappings and they are  protecting the drug gangs, not the population,” said the man,  holding a sign saying “united for peace.”

The army was not immediately available for comment in  Ciudad Juarez on Sunday. But generals in Mexico City say only a  handful of troops and federal police have been corrupted by the  drug gangs and that the army sends in fresh, replacement troops  every few months to prevent soldiers being tainted.