Thousands march in Mexico City to demand end to drug violence

Thousands of people marched through Mexico City on Sunday to demand an end to the drug violence that is sweeping the nation. Led by poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was killed by suspected traffickers, demonstrators from across the country made a four-day trek to gather in the capital's main Zócalo square. Many of them wore t-shirts that read "enough bloodshed."

Sicilia demanded the resignation of President Felipe Calderón's public-safety secretary, Genaro García Luna, for failing to curb the violence that has left more than 30,000 people dead since the current administration took office in 2006 and declared war on the drug cartels. The poet's son was killed in nearby Cuernavaca on March 28 along with six others.

The march was held on the same day Mexican marines said they had killed 12 suspected members of the Zeta drug cartel when they discovered them in a camp at a lake near the US-Mexico border in Tamaulipas state. A soldier was also killed in the shootout.

Also on Sunday, the body of the last of the 14 miners who died trapped in a mine near the northern Mexican city of Salinas was recovered, Labor Secretary Javier Lozano reported.

"Mission accomplished," Lozano wrote on his Twitter account.

The accident took place on May 3 in the border state of Coahuila, on a small farm that operated a mine without an official permit. Authorities said that an accumulation of gases caused an explosion, which led to a landslide that trapped 14 miners and seriously wounded a 15-year-old.

The small, hazardous mine, one of the many homemade ventures in northern Mexico known as pocitos, had only been operating for 18 days and its owners had not informed the authorities of its existence.

The incident led many to recall the Pasta de Conchos tragedy when 65 workers were buried alive in February 2006, and whose bodies were never recovered. The accident, which also occurred in Coahuila state, was the biggest of its kind in modern Mexico.

Farm safety regulations have been debated since then, but no new legislation has materialized. Social sectors and labor unions have strongly criticized the current legislation for its precarious security measures.

Lozano this week criticized Coahuila state authorities for allowing the operation of these small mines, some of which don't have permits and where miners often work under poor conditions. The state government of Coahuila, through a decentralized organization, buys the mines' production, thereby guaranteeing their existence. Coal is one of the the most important industries in Coahuila state.