Police fail to quell support for drug lord

Police in northern Mexico detained about 100 people in a failed attempt to stop a second demonstration in less than a week to voice support for captured drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

In the rally Sunday afternoon, a crowd of about 150 people gathered at a shrine to Jesus Malverde, a folk saint viewed as the patron or protector of people involved in the drug trade. Some shouted "Long live Chapo!"

Messages on social networking sites had urged people to gather at the shrine for a march in favor of Guzman, who is alleged to be the hemisphere's most powerful drug lord and who some local residents say provided jobs, money and security.

About 20 police vehicles were at the scene, but many of the demonstrators refused orders to disperse.  

Culiacan judge Gabriel Pena Gonzalez said more than 100 people in total had been brought in on disturbing-the-peace and other charges by late Sunday.

Some of the marchers were from Badiriguato, Guzman's hometown in the mountains near Culiacan. Some said they had been promised 700 pesos, or about $53 for attending the protest. Women and men could be seen at the end of the march writing the names of participants in notebooks.

As the march reached the center of Culiacan, shots rang out and protesters scattered. It was unclear who fired the shots, but Francisco Cuamea, editor of the Noroeste newspaper in Culiacan, said two of the paper's photographers were roughed up by police when they tried to photograph shell casings left behind.

In Wednesday's march, norteño musicians played trumpets while high school students in uniforms held up signs reading "We want Chapo free" and "We love Chapo."

After that march, authorities said they would not seek to limit freedom of expression, but would not tolerate marches that disturbed the peace or provided support or justification for criminals.

Guzman was arrested Feb. 22 in Mazatlan. Mexican federal judges have said he will have to stand trial on separate drug-trafficking and organized-crime charges in Mexico. The Attorney General's Office said he also faces organized-crime charges in six other cases in four Mexican states and in Mexico City.

Guzman, who escaped from a western Mexico prison in 2001, is to remain in Mexico's highest-security prison. The government has said he will not soon be extradited to the United States, where Guzman has been indicted in California, New York and other states.

The Associated Press