Mexican Leader Meets Organizers of Massive Anti-Crime March

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon met Sunday with organizers of a massive protest that drew hundreds of thousands of Mexicans into the streets of the capital to demand action against a wave of kidnappings and drug violence.

Wearing white and carrying candles, marchers filled the Zocalo, one of the world's largest city squares, in a demonstration mirrored in cities across the country. Organizers called it the largest protest in Mexican history.

The movement has been fueled by a string of high-profile kidnappings, including the abduction and killing of the 14-year-old son of a prominent businessman — a crime that prosecutors later said involved corrupt police officers.

Calderon, who has deployed more than 40,000 soldiers against drug cartels since taking office in 2006, pledged a package of anti-kidnapping measures, including a national police reform and longer sentences.

More than 2,700 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico this year, as cartels fight the army and each other for smuggling routes into the United States.

Critics say the marches, though heartfelt, paper over the deeper problem: a police force riddled with corruption and a judicial system in which the vast majority of crimes are never punished.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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