Weekly Report - 18 March 2010 (WR-10-11)

The callous murder, apparently by gangsters, of three people connected to the US consulate in Ciudad Juárez, including two US nationals, as they left a children's party where a lot of the guests' parents worked at the consulate, has forced the US government to step up its interest in what is happening on the Mexican side of the border. This interest will come to a head on 23 March when a high-powered team of top US security policymakers, led by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, visits Mexico to discuss progress on the Iniciativa Mérida, the counter-drugs plan launched by President George W. Bush in October 2007.