Narco gangster reveals the underworld

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.

In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins.

In an in-person interview arranged by intermediaries on the condition that neither his name nor the location of his Texas visit be published, the trafficker also admitted to helping push cocaine worth $5 million to $10 million a month into the United States.

Law enforcement sources confirm he is a cartel operative but not a fugitive from pending charges.

His words are not those of a federal agent or drawn from a news conference or court papers.

Instead, he offers a voice from inside Mexico's mayhem — a mafioso who mingles among crime bosses and foot soldiers in a protracted war between drug cartels as well as against the government.

If what he says is true, gangsters who make commonplace beheadings, hangings and quartering bodies have managed an even crueler twist to their barbarity.

Members of the Zetas cartel, he says, have pushed passengers into an ancient Rome-like blood sport with a modern Mexico twist that they call, "Who is going to be the next hit man?"

"They cut guys to pieces," he said.

The victims are likely among the hundreds of people found in mass graves in recent months, he said.

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Mexicans protest drug war as more graves found

Thousands of Mexicans protested the country's raging drug war on Wednesday as dozens of bodies were found in graves near the country's border with the United States.

Demonstrators marched in cities across Mexico, holding signs condemning the wave of killing that has claimed more than 37,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched a military-led crackdown against drug cartels.

"We are fed up with this war that nobody asked for," said protester Leticia Ruiz in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where some businesses have closed because of gunbattles in the streets and rampant extortion by cartel members.

Although recent estimates suggest the violence may have peaked last summer, Mexicans are jarred by daily news stories of beheadings and executions as cartels war for control of cocaine smuggling routes. Most cocaine consumed in the United States goes through Mexico.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday they discovered 59 bodies in a series of graves in the northern state of Tamaulipas, not far from a ranch where 72 Central and South Americans were executed late last year by drug gangs preying on migrants traveling north through Mexico.

Authorities said one grave held 43 bodies, with the rest of the bodies spread among seven other graves.

Investigators believe the recently discovered victims may have been abducted from a bus on March 25, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

'NO MORE MURDERS'

Protest organizers said more than 10,000 people participated in the nationwide marches, but numbers could not be confirmed.

The bloodletting has hurt Calderon's conservative party and strained relations with the United States, which is providing Calderon with equipment and intelligence to fight drug gangs.

In Mexico City, several thousand protesters held signs saying: "No more murders" as they filed into the city's central plaza. Smaller protests were held in New York and Barcelona.

Body counts published by Mexican media indicate the death toll has fallen for two consecutive quarters for the first time since Calderon began his campaign.

The tallies point to about 3,220 murders in the first three months of 2011, down from 3,690 in the last quarter of 2010. The government has yet to publish an official estimate.

Demonstrators also marched through the northern business capital of Monterrey. But the impetus for the national protests came from the weekend getaway city of Cuernavaca.

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http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/idINIndia-56175720110407

World Mayor’s climate summit

On November 21, many of the world's mayors will gather in Mexico City for a summit on climate change. They include leaders from France, Germany, the United States and United Nations.

CNN viewers will have a rare opportunity, via iReport, to ask direct questions to this powerful group. This is your chance to ask local leaders about the role cities are playing in the struggle against climate change, how they plan to act, or what they're doing to make their cities more livable.

What would you like to ask the mayors at the summit about climate change? Record your question on video or submit a text question here. You ask the questions, we'll get you the answers.

The deadline to post questions is November 19.

The best questions will be asked at the conference, and the answers will be turned into highlights for CNN International TV and CNN.com/environment.