IN JUAREZ, SILENT MARCH TO PROTEST 4,000 KILLINGS

A coalition of Juarez community organizations is calling on residents
to join a silent march Sunday to protest the continuing violence.

The coalition that represents more than 100 groups said it laments the
more than 4,000 deaths that have occurred in the city since Mexico's
president declared war against the drug cartels. The group compared
the violence in the border city to conditions that existed during the
1910 Mexican Revolution.

Jovenes por Juarez (Youths for Juarez), which is coordinating the
protest, said it's ironic the murders took place after thousands of
soldiers and federal agents were deployed to the border to help stem
the violence.

"Hundreds of innocent people are murdered due to the government's
inability to control and stop the organized crime," according to the
coalition's statement. "The only comparable violence in the Juarez-El
Paso region occurred during the 1910 Mexican Revolution."

Juarez played a key role in the revolution, which lasted 10 years and
killed more than 2 million people in Mexico.

The Autonomous University of Juarez, or UACJ, has urged Mexico's
federal authorities to come to Juarez to find out firsthand what is
happening.

On Tuesday, Juan Antonio Chavez Morales, 20, a UACJ medical student
and a Red Cross paramedic, was shot to death by hit men who first
threatened him in a bar and forced him to kneel.

University officials complained that Chihuahua state authorities
linked that and most murders to organized crime.

If the state attorney general's office knows that organized criminals
are behind the murders, then they should charge and arrest them
instead of prejudging the victims, Jorge Quintana Silveyra, the UACJ
president, said in a statement.

For safety reasons, Sunday's march coordinators asked the news media
not to identify them by name. During the recent wave of violence,
unidentified people have killed or threatened prominent activists and
their relatives.

On Nov. 28, gunmen murdered Jesus Alfredo Santos Portillo, son-in-law
of Marisela Ortiz, of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May our
Daughters Return Home), and Flor Alicia Gomez Lopez, niece of Alma
Gomez Caballero, of Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters).

Both organizations, which received threats in the past, are vocal
advocates for the families of murdered women in Chihuahua state.

Authorities said Gomez Lopez, 23, a rural community teacher, was
abducted and killed in Tomochi, Chihuahua, and Santos Portillo, 27, a
UACJ student, was shot to death in Juarez by hit men pursuing another
target.

"Juarez is a city that is dying, but its citizens will not let it
happen, and we will do anything to save our city," said Jose
Contreras, a member of an organization that plans to participate in
Sunday's march. He is not a coordinator of the march and did not mind
being identified.

The coalition said the silent protest would begin at noon Sunday at
the Mega Bandera site in Chamizal Park and end at the city government
office complex near the Stanton Street bridge.