MEXICO PEACE TOUR: HEADING INTO ZETAS 'TERRITORY'

Renowned poet Javier Sicilia has begun a citizen's protest against
Mexico's war against drugs that will visit flashpoints across the
country. Our correspondent is in the caravan, talking to residents
along the way.

The Caravan for Peace heads into Monterrey " en route to its final
destination, Ciudad Juarez" and the streets are deserted.

It is late at night and Monterrey empties out around 7p.m., now that
crime has spiked.

You can't fault residents for shuttering their windows and closing
doors, since the city, the industrial hub of the country, has become
another flashpoint in Mexico's fight against drug cartels.

But Julian LeBaron, who is a leader in this antiviolence march, tells
a small crowd that it is indifference that is keeping people away.

"Every day it seems more clear to me that Mexicans are deeply
ignorant and very poor," he says. "That is why there are not 100
million people in this square, holding hands, to speak up against the
death of another 40,000 people."

The movement, represented by the slogan "We have had it up to
here," is calling on Mexican President Felipe Calderon to end his
so-called war on drugs, which has claimed over 35,000 lives since
December of 2006.

"Where is everyone else?" asks Mr. LeBaron. "Working? In school? In
front of their TV sets?"

"All those who are not here [must] have something that matters to
them more than life," he adds.

Yet the few residents who did show up to march say it is fear, not a
lack of care, that keep so many from speaking out. "There is no more
normality in Monterrey," says one man, who prefers not to give his
name. "In Monterrey we can't even hold private parties, because
suddenly the bad guys can show up and attack us. I say 'the bad guys'
because we don't want to name names to avoid problems."

"Not everyone dares to take to the streets. People are incredibly
afraid to come out and show their disgust toward what's happening,"
he adds. "This is a society broken by fear, not by indifference."

This kind of fear is not exaggerated.

Each place the caravan stops seems to be the site of horrible
violence. As it leaves Monterrey on Wednesday morning, a teenager is
found dangling from an overpass " still alive " with a shotgun wound.
Two other people are found dead around him.

At least 21 bodies are found strewn in the streets outside of
Morelia, one of the first stops of the caravan. And its next stop is
Torreon, where a day earlier gangs attack a rehabilitation center,
four hours away, leaving 13 dead.

Worried journalists ask Javier Sicilia, the renowned poet who is the
leader of the caravan, whether it would be safer to avoid stopping
there. "We're not going to suspend the march, it is the state that
has to show that it can protect its citizens," says Mr. Sicilia.

It often does not feel that way, though, especially here in the
north. On the way to Torreon, the caravan drives past a large Z
carved on the side of a mountain, a sign that this territory belongs
to the powerful Zeta drug cartel.

But Sicilia, who launched the trek over the weekend in Cuernavaca,
where his son was killed in March, says it should belong to Mexico.
This is one of the main messages he would like to impart to the
country as his caravan heads toward Ciudad Juarez, the nation's most
dangerous city. "This is a way to tell citizens, authorities, and
criminals that this is our territory," he says.