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Mexico vows to step up crime fight after big march
31 Aug 2008 19:40:24 GMT
 Source: Reuters
MEXICO CITY, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon vowed on Sunday to step up a crackdown on crime, the day after more than 150,000 Mexicans marched to protest a wave of gruesome murders and kidnappings.

In Mexico City on Saturday, demonstrators filled the capital's historic Zocalo Square and thousands marched in other cities, including along the U.S.-Mexico border where increasingly brazen drug gangs are battling each other for control of smuggling routes.

"The federal government renews its commitment with its citizens and precisely will step up efforts to eradicate this evil," Calderon said in a nationally broadcast speech.

"It is urgent that all authorities and all people do their corresponding part to rid Mexico of crime," he said, without offering specifics.

More than 2,300 people have been killed in drug murders this year despite Calderon's battle against gangs. He has sent 25,000 troops and federal police against cartels since taking office in December 2006, but killings have increased.

Long used to violent crime, Mexicans were nevertheless outraged by the kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, whose body was found in a car trunk in Mexico City on Aug. 1, even though his businessman father had paid a ransom.

Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for abductions, along with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia.

Calderon, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard and state governors held an emergency crime summit last week and vowed to stamp out abductions and violent crime.

But the huge march put more pressure on Calderon for results. March organizers met with the president on Sunday to put forward their crime-busting proposals.

"Together, society and government, we can put an end to this cancer that damages and hurts our Mexico," Calderon said after the meeting. (Reporting by Chris Aspin; Editing by Peter Cooney)


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ATTENTION EDITORS - VISUALS COVERAGE OF SCENES OF DEATH AND INJURY Police investigators work at a crime scene where eleven beheaded bodies were dumped close to a graveyard outside the village ...


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