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Mexico City –  Javier Sicilia, a Mexican poet who has ceased writing verse after the brutal murder of his son and organized large-scale rallies for peace, is holding a public sit-in to demand justice while speaking out about the problems of a country he says is "out of control."

"Deep down, the president knows he's made a mistake, but he's being terribly obstinate. Sending the army into the streets was foolishness," he told Efe in an interview, referring to the war on drug trafficking that Felipe Calderon launched after taking office in December 2006.

One of the more than 35,000 people killed since then is the poet's son, Juan Francisco, who was found slain on March 28 near the central city of Cuernavaca along with six other young men in a massacre that bore the hallmarks of organized crime.

"Every dead person has the same dignity as my son," Sicilia said shortly before resuming his sit-in protest in Cuernavaca's main square to demand justice not only for Juan Francisco but for all Mexicans.

Mexico, the poet says, is swimming in an immense sea of impunity in which the police and army routinely criminalize victims, associate them with the cartels and shrug off killings as routine settlings of scores among gangsters.

Sicilia spearheaded rallies that drew thousands of angry demonstrators into the streets on Wednesday in more than half of Mexico's 31 states.

The poet said he is well aware of the societal conditions that lead cartel gunmen into a life of crime: "many of these assassins are kids who became corrupted because there aren't really any social or employment policies."

He also has only disdain for the country's drug lords - the heads of the seven most powerful cartels whose ruthless, honorless turf wars have left Mexico shattered.

Sicilia says ordinary people are the ones trapped between the drug barons with their commandos carrying jewel-encrusted weapons and what he calls the "military stubborness" of Calderon, who has deployed some 60,000 army soldiers and police nationwide as part of his all-out offensive on the cartels.

"The strategy needs to be reconsidered. Unfortunately, the president has come out and said he's staying the course. He told me personally," said Sicilia, who advocates legalizing drugs and treating addiction as a public health problem.

The poet also laid bare the hypocrisy of both Mexico and the United States.

He says the former denies the evidence and tries to minimize the violent crime problem both domestically and abroad while the latter adds fuel to the fire by letting weapons get in the hands of Mexican criminals and not breaking the links in the chain north of the border.

Although he says he is "very fatigued," Sicilia pledged not to move from Cuernavaca's main square - except at night for security reasons - until Wednesday, April 13, the deadline he has given Morelos state authorities for finding those responsible for his son's death.

"There've been few advances. As far as I know the killers have already been located. Arrest warrants have been issued but it's still not clear what happened," he said.

Sicilia said he hopes he isn't presented with "little criminal scapegoats" as often happens in many high-profile cases, but above all he does not want the country to go back to its former state of "submission, negligence."

The poet also said he is determined not to write a single line of verse for the time being and instead prefers to make himself heard with his silence: "I'm in the silence of Holy Saturday while waiting for this nation's resurrection."