Thirty-two cities in Mexico and more than 10 abroad will hold demonstrations this afternoon to condemn the violence that has claimed the lives of some 36,000 people. Many predict today’s marches will be the largest organized public outcry to date against the militarized Drug War President Felipe Calderon launched in late 2006.

The marches come at the behest of well-known writer, Javier Sicilia, whose son and close friends were found dead last week. In a press conference in the city of Cuernavaca, Sicilia slammed the government for its Drug War polices and criticized the drug cartels for abandoning the codes that, in the past, made civilians off-limits to attacks. Sicilia called on people to attend in large numbers to overcome fear and create a safe space for dissent against the Drug War. Marches will take place in some of the hardest-hit cities in the north – including Ciudad Juarez, Reynosa, and Monterrey.

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Members for the Reyes Salazar family moved their protest to Mexico City on Monday, February 23rd. Marisela Reyes lifted her 14 day hunger strike on Tuesday. That same day, the family delivered an open letter to Chihuahua state governor César Duarte listing their demands. The following is a translation of the original source document posted at http://jzmov.com/porlavida/?p=310

Hon. César Duarte Jáquez

Governor of the state of Chihuahua

P R E S E N T

As you surely are informed, from February 7th to the present, the Reyes Salazar family has suffered the absence of 3 of its members: María Magdalena Reyes Salazar, Elías Reyes Salazar and his wife Luisa Ornelas Soto, who were kidnapped by a heavily armed commando of 6 masked men – an event which occurred in the town of El Millón in the Juárez Valley.

You will also remember that in the early days of 2010, human rights defender and social activist Josefina Reyes Salazar was assassinated by a paramilitary commando. Rubén Reyes Salazar was killed in August of the same year. Julio César, Josefina’s son, died the same way in 2008. On top of this, the family has suffered two arsons caused by unidentified men.

These events are within the context of a growing wave of repression and systematic aggression against activists and human rights defenders in Ciudad Juárez and in Chihuahua in general. The cruelty and spite with which the family has been attacked verges on the absurd.

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