South of the Border, Down Mérida Way

The recent attack on our consulate employees and their families still casts a pall over the very subject of U.S.-Mexico relations. However, today the SecState is visiting our neighbor to the south for a meeting of the U.S.-Mexico High Level Consultative Group, and the State Department's Office of the Spokesman has been sending out a stream of press releases in support of the visit.

Here they are:

Secretary Clinton: Travel to Mexico, March 23, 2010

United States-Mexico Security Partnership: Progress and Impact

United States-Mexico Partnership: Anti-Arms Trafficking and Anti-Money Laundering

United States-Mexico Partnership: A New Border Vision

I just hope that, somewhere amid all the hundreds of millions of dollars in training and equipping, technical assistance, and professionalization of Mexican law enforcement agencies that make up the Mérida Initiative, there will be a little bit of justice for these three people.

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Update (7:40 PM): Two nameless Senior Administration Officials, who were evidently aboard the plane that was taking SecState Hillary Clinton to Mexico City, took time out from their busy schedules to give the press a background briefing. Note: Senior Administration Official Two refers to "Mexican DTOs" in his or her remarks, which I assume are Drug Trafficking Organizations.

Feds Round Up the Usual Suspects Looking for Leads in Murder of U.S. Consulate Employee

photo from Borderline Beat








From the El Paso Times:

"Basically, we're just shaking the tree to see what fruit comes out," said Special Agent James Bohn, a spokesman for the FBI in El Paso.

The FBI- and DEA-led Operation Knock Down interrogated 100 of the 700 known Barrio Azteca gang members investigators wanted to question, officials said. Some people were arrested because they had outstanding warrants.

-- snip --

Law enforcement officers are trying to generate leads on the deaths Saturday of Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, a U.S. citizen who worked for the U.S. Consulate in Juárez; her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 34, a detention officer for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office; and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, 37, of Juárez whose wife worked for the consulate.

-- snip --

Mexican officials have said they suspect that the Aztecas gang of Juárez might have been involved in the shootings.

The Aztecas is a brother organization to the El Paso-based Barrio Azteca gang. Both are allied with Vicente Carrillo Fuente's Juárez drug cartel.

Some further information is available from Borderline Beat.

U.S. Mission Mexico Flags at Half Staff

The U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez (photo from Reuters)






All U.S. Mission installations in Mexico flew their flags at half staff for three days, ending today, in mourning for Lesley Enriquez, the employee who was killed March 13th in Ciudad Juarez.