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.
