The slaughter last month of at least 15 young people with no apparent criminal ties has galvanized the Mexican public in ways not seen here in more than three years of bloody drug warfare and has forced the government to enact long-resisted policy changes to combat violence.
Some in Mexico are wondering if this is their nation's tipping point, a moment when public outrage that has bubbled along finally overcame the fear and fatalism that until now largely silenced or intimidated Mexican society.
Led by parents of the victims in the Jan. 31 massacre, citizens of Ciudad Juarez have marched, protested, challenged Mexican President Felipe Calderon and demanded a new strategy for reducing the gruesome crimes that have made their city one of the world's deadliest.
