The protest marches, set to start at 2200 GMT, were organized following the murder of a well-known author's son along with four close friends, and two others, on March 28.
Javier Sicilia, a poet and columnist for the daily La Jornada and the weekly Proceso -- two of the country's leading publications -- called for the protests following the killing of his son Juan Francisco, 24, near Cuernavaca, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Mexico City.
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Sicilia met Wednesday with President Felipe Calderon for an update on the probe into his son's death.
"We are sick and tired of you politicians... because in your struggle for power you have torn asunder the fabric of the nation," Sicilia wrote in an open letter out Monday.
"You have been incapable of creating the consensus that the nation needs to find unity," he wrote.
Sicilia suggested in a subsequent interview that the government should negotiate a truce with the country's drug cartels.
The writer will lead the march in Cuernavaca, capital of Morelos state. Protesters are also scheduled to march in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and other cities.
In his open letter Sicilia derided Calderon's massive anti-drug sweep, launched in late 2006, as a "poorly designed, poorly managed, and poorly led" affair that "has left the country in a state of emergency."
