http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?secti ... id=3857295

Mexicans March Against Crime in Tijuana

January 29, 2006 - About 1,500 people dressed in white marched through this border city Sunday to pressure the government to crack down on violent crimes such as kidnappings and murders.

Releasing white balloons in the air, the demonstrators, many of whom were businessmen, said that Tijuana has become more dangerous in the last two years despite the 2004 election of Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon who campaigned with promises of cleaning up the crime-ridden streets.

"I can't understand why there are so many kidnappings," said Saul Salgado, whose brother-in- law was kidnapped last June and is still missing. "I came here to pressure the government to do its job."

Tijuana resident Silma Juncua, 22, said that her 29-year-old boyfriend Jose Fernandez was killed by robbers in December. She had planned to marry him this year.

"I came here to express my pain and my anger and, in a way, to remember him," Juncua said.

In a news conference following the march, Tijuana General Secretary Fernando Castro said the city government will investigate why there are so many kidnappings and take a close look at the police department.

"If we find out the police aren't doing their job, we will clean them out at all levels," said Castro, the mayor's chief aide.

The demonstration in Tijuana, across the U.S. border from San Diego, resembled a much larger march in Mexico City in 2004, when hundreds of thousands of people, many dressed in white, marched against crime.