Thousands of Mexican Catholics marched on Sunday in support of one of the country's leading clerics who has been accused of laundering money on behalf of drug gangs.
About 5,000 protesters, most dressed in white, marched toward the center of the western city of Guadalajara to back Cardinal Juan Sandoval, under investigation by the attorney-general's office on suspicion of laundering money for traffickers.
They carried Mexican flags and banners reading "We Believe In You" in the biggest march organized by the church in the city, Mexico's second largest, for more than 70 years.
The cardinal denies the accusations which he says are intended to deflect attention from claims he has made that former politicians were behind the 1993 killing of his predecessor, Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas.
A government inquiry concluded that Posadas was caught in the cross-fire of a shootout between rival cocaine cartels.
Investigators have said top officials in the government of former President Carlos Salinas, who ruled Mexico from 1988-94, may have ordered the churchman's killing because he knew about links between senior politicians and drug trafficking and prostitution.