MEXICO CITY - Mexicans angered by the human toll in five years of gangland warfare are trying to spur an international human rights investigation into roles played by President Felipe Calderon, other senior officials and crime lords such as Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Though others have tried in vain to end the bloodshed with prayers, protests and peace marches, a gathering of left-leaning intellectuals, journalists and human rights activists allege "Mexico is living a state of emergency and suffering the most dramatic humanitarian crisis in its recent history."

Blaming both sides

They hope to persuade the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court to investigate both government and gangsters, saying, "The situation can be equally blamed on the actions of criminals within and outside the government."

Some legal experts give the effort little chance of being taken up by the court's prosecutors, or winning if it is. Mexican officials quickly rejected both the government's culpability and the court's jurisdiction.

"In our country, society is not the victim of an authoritarian government or of systematic abuses by the armed forces," Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

'Stop these abuses'

Though it first erupted in 2004, underworld warfare escalated when Calderon deployed the armed forces against the gangs upon taking office in December 2006.

Gunfights, assassinations and torture-murders have killed more than 40,000 people since.

Those preparing the November petition to the court prosecutor accuse Calderon and other officials of, among other things, being in direct command of soldiers and other federal forces who have abused civilians and of failing to prosecute those crimes.

They also charge that Guzman, Mexico's best-known gang boss, and other gangsters have recruited children as both gunmen and lookouts.

Some 1,300 minors have been killed in the violence.

"The primary objective is to stop these abuses," said Netzai Sandoval, a human rights lawyer who is spearheading the effort, which has collected 20,000 citizens' signatures. "These are crimes against humanity and war crimes."

The International Criminal Court was created in 2002 to deal with egregious human rights abuses and crimes not prosecuted by national governments.

Under a treaty signed by Mexico and most other countries, the court's prosecutors' office can investigate cases brought to it either by participating governments or the United Nations.

Only seven cases so far

Prosecutors also can initiate investigations based on complaints brought by outside parties, such as those of the Mexican group.

But the court has taken up only seven cases since its founding, all of them involving massacres and other human rights atrocities in Africa.

dudley.althaus@chron.com