Mexican journalist and asylum seeker Emilio Gutiérrez, along with a group of supporters, will lead a rally in Mesilla in support of the national marches calling for peace that will take place all across Mexico this week.
"We are going to join dozens of organizations in Mexico to demand the end of drug activity in Mexico," Gutiérrez said of the rally, which will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Starting Thursday, people across Mexico will march to demand an end to the bloodshed that has accompanied Mexican President Felipe Cal derón's strategy to dismantle drug cartels. At least 30,000 people have died since the beginning of Calderón's administration in late 2006. About 8,000 of the deaths have occurred in Juárez in the
MEXICO IN FOCUS
Analysis on news out of Mexico
past three years. The call to march was made by Mexican poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, whose son Juan Francisco, 24, was found dead in a car in late March in a Mexico state city, Cuernavaca. A message in the car was signed CDG, presumably initials of the Gulf drug cartel.
The slaying struck a chord in the Mexican people's psyche and has led to the most organized public effort to demand an end to drug-related violence.
Marches will start Thursday in Cuernavaca and end Sunday in Mexico City. A protest in Juárez is also scheduled at 4 p.m. Sunday at the mega-flag esplanade in Chamizal Park.
The Mesilla rally will be the first action organized by Amigos de Emilio, a small group that has come together to support Gutiérrez.