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	150,000 march against crime in Mexico by Reuters Mexico   Aug 31, 2008   More than 150,000 Mexicans dressed in white marched to protest a wave of kidnappings and gruesome murders, putting pressure on President Felipe Calderon to meet his promises to crack down on crime.   Demonstrators filled the capital''s historic Zocalo Square, holding candles and pictures of kidnap victims and bearing signs that read, "Enough Is Enough".   People marched in cities throughout the country, including along the US-Mexico border where increasingly brazen drug gangs are battling each other for control of smuggling routes. More than 2,300 people have been killed in drug murders this year.   With a long history of violent crime, Mexicans were nevertheless outraged by the kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, whose body was found in a car trunk in Mexico City on August 1, even though his businessman father had paid a ransom.   "We are prisoners in our own homes," said Maricarmen Alcocer, 40, a housewife.   Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for abductions, along with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia.   Protester Manuel Ramirez, 50, who has not seen his daughter Monica since she was kidnapped in 2004, complained that criminals were becoming bolder.   "They are more bloodthirsty, they make their victims disappear, they mutilate them, they cut their ears off just as in the case of my daughter. We do not know where she is," Mr Ramirez said.   Kidnappings have jumped almost 40 per cent between 2004 and 2007, according to official statistics. Police say there were 751 kidnappings in Mexico last year, but independent crime research institute ICESI says the real number could be above 7,000.   Government officals held an emergency crime summit last week and vowed to stamp out abductions and violent crime.   Corrupt police   Most crimes in Mexico go unsolved, with corrupt police and justice officials often complicating investigations. Several policemen were arrested for Fernando Marti''s kidnapping.   Drug violence has also exploded in the past three years. Eleven headless bodies were dumped in a small town in the Yucatan peninsula on Thursday and another decapitated corpse was found nearby. Police suspect the victims were likely alive when their heads were cut off.   While much of the drug violence is between rival smugglers and does not affect ordinary Mexicans, kidnappings and robberies at gunpoint are common threats.   Protesters were angry at what they regard as ineffective Government action.   "The message is: Get to work or we''ll hold you accountable. We''re angry," said Eduardo Gallo, an accountant whose 25-year-old daughter was kidnapped in 2000 and murdered.   Hundreds of thousands of people held a similar anti-crime march in Mexico City in 2004.
	Argentine "dirty war" generals get life in prison by Reuters Argentina   August 29, 2008   Buenos Aires: An Argentine court sentenced two former generals to life in prison on Thursday over the disappearance of a provincial senator during the 1976-1983 "dirty war" dictatorship.   Human rights activists and relatives of the victim chanted "murderers" as the verdict was read out for Antonio Domingo Bussi, who was military governor of the northern province of Tucuman, and his superior, Luciano Benjamin Menendez.   Up to 30,000 people disappeared during Argentina''s dirty war in a state crackdown on leftist dissent. Hundreds of people were kidnapped and killed in Tucuman alone, rights groups say.   Bussi, 82, built a political career after democracy returned to Argentina in 1983. He was elected in 1995 as governor of Tucuman, a sugar- and citrus-growing province that is among the country''s poorest.   At his trial, Bussi denied participating in the disappearance of former provincial senator Guillermo Vargas Aignasse, seized in 1976.   Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the courtroom to hear the verdict. Scuffles broke out as some reacted angrily to the possibility the generals could serve the sentence at home or in a military facility instead of a prison.   The court is set to announce where they will serve their sentences next month.   Menendez, 80, was in charge of several provinces in the country, making him Bussi''s boss. In a separate ruling last month, he was given a life sentence in a prison for his role in the torture and killing of four leftists 31 years ago.   Under ex-President Nestor Kirchner, courts and Congress scrapped pardons for military personnel involved in human rights crimes during the dictatorship. Since then courts have tried and convicted several military leaders of rights crimes.   (Reporting by Cesar Illiano and Lucas Bergman; Writing by Helen Popper; Editing by Xavier Briand)
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