video transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: The morning after lavish celebrations kicked off Mexico's Independence Day, President Felipe Calderon on Sunday showed off the country's military as armed forces continue to wage an increasingly tough war against the country's powerful drug traffickers. The country's armed elite converged on Mexico City's historic center to launch a display of might that included special troops gliding to the ground from helicopters above and hundreds of soldiers marching in formation complete with military pomp and pageantry. The military parade is a chance to honor Mexico's armed forces and a place where an international crowd stood among proud local spectators for a glimpse of the elaborate show. In the throes of a brutal cartel war, more than 55,000 people, including soldiers, have been killed in under six years. With Calderon's outgoing National Action Party (PAN) the chief architects of Mexico's unpopular military clampdown on cartels, the military spectacle seemed designed to reassure a nervous public about the government's ability to rein in spiraling violence. President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto will take power in December and has promised to rapidly reduce the murder rate.