Tragedy overshadows Independence Day holiday in Mexico

MORELIA, Michoacan -- Mexicans began their Independence Day celebrations under heavy police surveillance Tuesday and with a somber memorial for eight revelers killed last year in a grenade attack on the public by drug traffickers.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu placed flowers in the plaza in the colonial city of Morelia, where 106 people also were wounded in the first deliberate attack on civilians by cartels. Morelia is the state capital of President Felipe Calderon's home state of Michoacan, where La Familia drug gang is based.

The attack rocked the nation by targeting a tradition -- one that brings millions of Mexicans together in public plazas each year to celebrate the 1810 start of Mexico's 10-year war of independence from Spain.

The Guatemalan peace activist urged people to attend Tuesday night's festivities and not fall into "a culture of fear."

"We can't lose our right to be out on the streets," said Menchu, an Indian rights activist.

Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said this year's celebrations would be overshadowed by last year's killings.

Snipers took position on roofs of centuries-old buildings around Morelia's picturesque plaza Tuesday. The square was missing vendors who ordinarily hawk tamales, Mexican flags and noisemakers.

Last year, the attack came during the traditional "grito," or shout of independence shortly before midnight. Godoy had just finished yelling "Viva Mexico!" from a balcony, when two grenades exploded simultaneously in the crowd, blocks apart. He was unharmed.

The government arrested three men who said they belong to the Zetas, a group of hit men tied to the Gulf cartel. Relatives of the suspects say the men were kidnapped and tortured into confessing.

Godoy said he is leading the Tuesday-night festivities again.

Other cities took precautions as well. In Ciudad Juarez on the Texas border, Mexico's deadliest city, hundreds of police and soldiers patrolled near independence festivities and checked people randomly.

Mexico City police said more then 10,000 officers were being deployed at the main plaza, called the Zocalo, where Calderon was scheduled to mark the start of Independence Day by stepping out on a National Palace balcony and crying, "Viva Mexico!"

Mexico's Senate called for a minute of silence in honor of the victims' memory.

"On September 15, 2008 ... organized crime inaugurated a new era in the country's violence," said Sen. Jesus Garibay, adding that the attack "made the whole nation tremble."

The attack was seen as a defiant response to Calderon's crackdown on organized crime, launched in 2006 from Michoacan with the arrival of thousands of troops. Since then, the government has deployed more than 45,000 soldiers and federal police to drug hotspots.

Drug traffickers have responded fiercely, unleashing unprecedented violence with shootouts and gruesome decapitations. More than 13,500 people have been killed by drug violence in 31/2 years. The government says most of the dead are involved in drug trafficking.

Some civilians, including children, have been caught in crossfire, but the general public is rarely targeted.

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Olga R. Rodriguez reported from Mexico City.