Mexican police fail to stop protest for drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman

Police in northern Mexico detained about 100 people Sunday 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.

A march Wednesday demanding Guzman's release drew about 1,000 supporters into the streets of Culiacan, the capital of northern Sinaloa state, which is the home base of the Sinaloa Cartel purportedly led by 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!"

Disturbing the peace

Messages on social networking sites had urged people to gather at the shrine for a march in favour 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 for inhabitants.

About 20 police patrol vehicles were sent to the scene, but many of the demonstrators refused police orders to disperse. Daniel Gaxiola, spokesman for the Sinaloa state public safety department, said 40 people were detained then for disturbing the peace.

Later, several hundred people evaded the heavy police presence by splitting into groups and marching toward downtown as dozens were detained along the way.

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, where Guzman is from. The township is in the mountains near Culiacan. Some said they had been promised 700 pesos (about $53) for attending the protest, and some women and men could be seen at the end of the march writing down participants' names in notebooks.

Shots fired

As the disorganized march reached the centre 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, norteno 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 the Pacific Coast city of 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 U.S., where Guzman has been indicted in California, New York and other states.