Photo of the Day: Mexico's Peaceful Drug Warriors

It doesn't require a huge leap of the imagination to conclude that these cardboard figures, surrounding a plaque honoring murdered activist Marisela Escobedo, represent innocents killed during Mexico's long-running, catastrophic drug war.

Contrasted to the blood-red reality, the black figures are very understated. (Photo: Tomas Bravo/Reuters)

Crusading poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered by suspected cartel hitmen, is leading a procession of hundreds of Mexicans throughout the country in defiance of what amounts to a de facto civil war. Filling 13 buses and more than two dozen cars, the peace caravan will end on the U.S. border, at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent drug war city.

Marisela Escobedo was shot to death on December 16, 2010, while holding vigil in front of the governor's office, demanding to know who mutilated her teenage daughter Rubi's body and dumped it in a garbage bin.