MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderon faced one of his biggest challenges Saturday as Mexicans poured into the streets nationwide for mass protests against the tide of killings, kidnappings and shootouts sweeping the country.

Demonstrators hold candles at the main Zocalo square in Mexico City during a protest against the tide of killings, kidnappings and shootouts sweeping the country, Saturday. (The Associated Press)

More than 13 anti-crime groups planned for tens of thousands of people to join evening marches in all 32 Mexican states, urging people to walk in silence with candles or lanterns.

Demonstrators hold candles at the main Zocalo square in Mexico City during a protest against the tide of killings, kidnappings and shootouts sweeping the country, Saturday. (The Associated Press)

In Mexico City, dozens gathered hours early at the Angel of Independence monument, dressed in white and carrying matching balloons despite a downpour. Hundreds of police lined the march route to the main Zocalo square, while vendors sold white flags with a picture of a dove in the middle.

The first to show up was the family of Monica Alejandrina Ramirez, 24, who was kidnapped on her way to her university in 2004 and has not been heard from since.

Her sister, mother and grandmother stood silently for hours beneath the monument, holding up banners with her picture. Some colleagues of her mother, a circus performer, painted their faces white and wore clown wigs to help draw attention.

“The most frustrating thing has been the indolence of many of the authorities, their insensitivity,” said her father, Manuel Ramirez Juarez, a family doctor. “I have often asked myself, why? Why me? Why my daughter?”

Calderon raised hopes when he made fighting crime a priority after taking office in 2006, deploying more than 25,000 soldiers and federal police to wrest territory from powerful drug cartels that smuggle the vast majority of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States.

Despite the arrest of top drug kingpins, little has improved on the ground. Homicides have surged as drug cartels battle each other for control of trafficking routes and stage vicious attacks against police nearly each day. In the gang-plagued border state of Chihuahua alone, there have been more than 800 killings this year, double the number during the same period last year.

Last week, a dozen headless bodies were found in the Yucatan Peninsula, home to the beach resort, Cancun. Federal lawmakers responded by calling Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna to testify before Congress on Wednesday.

Reported kidnappings are up 9 percent, averaging 65 a day. Many more go unreported because victims fear police involvement.