Thousands of Mexicans march to basilica to pray for peaceful election

Published: 2006-06-26

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Thousands of Catholics marched through Mexico City to the nation's biggest shrine and prayed that the July 2 presidential election does not turn violent. "We're gathered to pray for peace and unity," Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera said after leading the June 24 procession, which ended at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With the two main presidential candidates -- Andres Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party and Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party -- in a dead heat, political analysts warned that the loser might organize massive street protests. In recent weeks, a strike by a teachers' union traditionally allied with the former ruling party has degenerated into violence in the southern state of Oaxaca, and a string of drug gang murders has put states on Mexico's Pacific coast on edge. The weekend of June 24-25, 11 people were murdered in the resort city of Acapulco. Among the dead were four police officers, one of whom was beheaded.

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