CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Thousands of people belonging to civil organizations and residents of Ciudad Juarez marched peacefully Saturday through this city to commemorate the slaying of 15 youths last Jan. 31 and to repudiate the presence of the Mexican army in the town.

The most numerous of the demonstrations, marching under the slogan “SOS Juarez – march of courage, pain and apology,” had some 3,000 participants, according to the organizers.

In this march, called by the Citizens’ Popular Front and the Resisste group, was Luz Maria Davila, a woman who lost two of her children in the massacre of 15 young people, and Gerardo Fernandez Noroña, lawmaker of the leftist Workers Party, or PT.

The protest march set out at 10:00 a.m. local time (1800 GMT) from the Benito Juarez monument downtown and headed for the Santa Fe Bridge, one of the international border crossings connecting this city with El Paso, Texas.

The legislator Fernandez Noroña asked that the army leave the city, considered the most violent in Mexico, in the belief that the troops treat the people in an “undeserved, violent, arrogant, unconstitutional and abusive” way.

“There is now more army in Juarez than ever, there are more federal police than ever...and today there is more crime than ever in Juarez,” the politician said.

Among the demonstrators’ banners were some demanding an end to violence, impunity and breaking the constitutional order. Others demanded justice for innocent families killed and still others slammed the alleged human-rights violations committed by the police and the military.

Protesters shouted slogans like “Ciudad Juarez is not a barracks. Army, get out of here,” against the military presence, which Mexican President Felipe Calderon has decided to maintain.

Marchers also demanded the resignations of Jose Reyes Baeza, governor of the state of Chihuahua where Ciudad Juarez is located, and of the local mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz.

Cipriano Jurado Herrera, representative of the Popular Front, said that the goal of the protest was to demonstrate against the violence that has plagued this border town over the last few years.

Also marching this morning, from the city’s airport to the downtown area, was the so-called “Walk in prayer for peace,” with some 250 taking part and organized by an Evangelical pastor.

“In the violent times in which we live, Juarez needs everyone,” one of them said.

The marches took place two days after the visit to the city of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who announced the launching of a new strategy against violence.

Calderon admitted that “the deployment and presence of the army and federal police are insufficient” in Ciudad Juarez to stop the violence and promised social initiatives that will “help diminish and prevent crime.”

The president returns to the city next Wednesday, Feb. 17.

Around 300 people have lost their lives in Ciudad Juarez to date in 2010, while in 2009 there were 2,635 homicides, and in 2008 there were slightly more than 1,600, in killings often related to organized crime.