IN EL PASO, MEXICAN VIOLENCE IS NEVER FAR

Texas Residents Press for Measures to Reduce Homicides in Sister City
of Ciudad Juarez, Where Two Americans Were Killed Saturday

EL PASO, Texas - Only one person has been murdered here this year.
Across the Mexican border in Ciudad Juarez, more than 500 have been
killed. Against that backdrop, El Paso residents welcomed the pledge
this week by President Barack Obama to help solve the fatal shooting
of two Americans in Juarez. But some city leaders say the federal
government must increase attention to their violence-prone neighbor.

El Paso residents Lesley Enriquez, a worker at the U.S. consulate in
Juarez who was four months pregnant, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs,
were slain Saturday by people believed to be connected to Mexican drug cartels.

Jorge Alberto Salcido, a Mexican citizen who was also married to a
consulate worker, was killed the same day. No arrests have been made
in the case. El Paso and Juarez, which are separated by the Rio
Grande River, used to operate essentially as one community, with many
of their residents shuttling back and forth.

But the violence is hurting businesses on the Mexican side of the
border and causing anguish among El Paso residents, many of whom hail
from Juarez or have relatives there. "I don't go there anymore," said
Claudia Paz, an El Paso programmer and developer, who still has
family in Juarez and was a friend of Ms. Enriquez and Mr. Redelfs.
Some, like Jose Manuel Porras, whose mother lives and works in
Juarez, say they can't avoid the visits, but they cross the border
with trepidation. After witnessing an execution in Juarez, the
28-year-old moved in with his father, an American citizen residing in El Paso.

So far, such scenes of violence have mostly taken place on the
Mexican side, with some 4,800 people killed in Juarez in the past
couple of years. Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso councilman, said Tuesday
that "Obama and [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton are outraged,
which is good, because we want them to focus their attention on this
crisis and on a resolution to this." He added, "But you wonder why
almost 5,000 people had to die in this border community for them to
finally notice and commit to doing something."

U.S. State Department officials said Tuesday there were no quick
fixes to the border violence, adding that they were working very
closely with the Mexican government to improve security. "You're
talking about violence fueled by drug use that produces vast sums of
money," said a spokesman. "That produces significant capabilities
that could rival the strength of any army."

The consulate-related murders prompted Texas Gov. Rick Perry to
activate on Tuesday a state contingency plan that increases
surveillance along the border to fend off any potential spillover
violence from Mexico.

El Paso's close-up view of drug violence along the border has caused
local officials to try to force the federal government to step up its
efforts against the violence, even if some of the city's measures
have been little noticed or have proved impractical. The El Paso City
Council passed a resolution in February urging President Obama and
Mexican President Felipe Calderon to meet at the border and come up
with a joint strategy "to bring an immediate end to the drug violence
in our community."

They also called for an evaluation of current federal drug policy,
and for more economic and social aid to Mexico to reduce the pool of
potential recruits for drug dealers. However, a request for the
legalization of marijuana, which some supporters hope would tamp
demand for Mexican drugs, was withdrawn from the resolution because
it lacked enough votes. Mexicans, and some Americans, have criticized
the U.S. government for not doing more to slow demand for drugs on
U.S. soil. It is the demand for drugs, and their illegality, that
creates huge profits that attract Mexicans into the drug business.

The U.S. has also struggled to slow the flow of guns and money from
the U.S. to Mexico that helps keep the drug business going.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, from El Paso, who opposed the
resolution to legalize marijuana, called the $1.4 billion that the
U.S. has pledged Mexico for drug-cartel-fighting purposes "an
embarrassment," in light of the significantly larger amounts the U.S.
government has spent in Iraq. However, Mr. Reyes said, there are
practical issues to consider when thinking about reformulating U.S.
drug policy, including the fact that Mexico is a sovereign country.
"Any assistance that we give them, they have to ask for," he said,
adding that the U.S. has been providing various forms of aid to
President Calderon, ranging from intelligence and training to
helicopters. Despite recent efforts on both sides of the border,
there are few signs that the violence is waning.

Some 117 people were killed in drug-related violence across Mexico in
the three-day period from Saturday to Monday. Still, many El Paso
residents continue to commute to Mexico for work every day, because
they need the job or they refuse to be shut out by fear. Mark Earley,
the chief financial officer of a company that helps manufacturers do
business in Juarez, crosses the border two or three times a week for
work. Mr. Earley says he drives his wife's Chevy Malibu instead of
his own Suburban to avoid drawing attention to himself.