She specializes in U.S. homeland security issues and recently wrote the report "Security in Mexico, Implications for U.S. Policy Options," which was delivered to the U.S. Department of State.

People who are not intertwined with day-to-day developments in D.C. cannot see that the U.S. is working to send billions of dollars to Mexico to help solve its drug cartel problem, Schaefer said. They also are not aware that Mexico remains a top priority for the Obama administration. She said members of Congress are keenly aware of the violence because the Mexican cartels operate throughout the U.S., not just along the border.

"If you are going to solve the problem by rooting out corruption and reforming institutions in Mexico, these are long-term endeavors, not short-term, and that is what people want," Schaefer said. "The concern is that right now officials on both sides of the border are under extreme pressure to fix this problem today. That is not possible."

The pressure to find a solution to Juárez's violence escalated last week after two U.S. citizens were ambushed for unknown reasons in El Paso's sister city.

Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, who worked for the U.S. Consulate in Juárez, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, were shot to death on the afternoon of March 13 as they were driving back to El Paso from a children's party in Juárez. Arthur Redelfs worked for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

The couple's funeral was Saturday.

A third person, Mexican citizen Jorge Alberto Ceniceros Salcido, who also had ties to the U.S. Consulate, was killed at the same time in a different part of Juárez. He had also just left the same consulate-related party Enriquez and Redelfs had attended.

No arrests have been made in the case, and law enforcement officials on both sides of the border say they still do not have a motive.

The killings quickly escalated into an international incident. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón condemned the killings, as did U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The homicides made national news.

That renewed national attention falsely led some to think that Congress had forgotten about the violence in Mexico, Schaefer said.

"The violence might have gone off the public's radar and the media's radar," Schaefer said, "but it has not left the policymaker's radar, and this administration has said helping Mexico is one of the top priorities."

To reinforce the United States' position on Mexico, Clinton announced last week that she and several other Cabinet-level officials will travel to Mexico on Tuesday to meet with Calderón. Among those joining her will be Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet A. Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.

The White House also announced last week that in May, Calderón will have an official visit with Obama at the White House. Among the topics of discussion at their dinner will be the economy, immigration and the security of both countries.

Those meetings, as well as the recent 14th Annual Border Issues Conference in D.C., are aimed at gathering information that will be used to shape the next phase of the Merida Initiative, which allows the U.S. to give money to Mexico to help the country rid itself of the cartels.

As part of the initiative, the U.S. sent $1.4 billion to Mexico and other Central American countries to help them reform their legal and judicial systems.

Congress is now working on the second phase of the initiative, which calls for providing Mexico with up to $10 billion over three years. Another bill working its way through Congress would provide $1 billion to U.S. cities along the Mexican border. That money would be used to help border cities such as El Paso improve the infrastructure at ports of entry so commerce, trade and everyday commuters can cross the border more quickly.

Part of the money in the second phase of the Merida Initiative would be used to help Juárez and other Mexican cities along the U.S. border implement the same improvements at ports to allow people and goods to move across the border more quickly, but in a secure way.

Some of the money sent by the U.S. to Mexico will be used to help Mexico reform its law enforcement agencies.

The current agreement between the United States and Mexico combats the cartels in four ways. It is expected that the new phase of the Merida Initiative, which may be renamed, will be built on the same framework.

This includes a main goal of decreasing the influence of cartels in Mexico by decreasing drug use in Mexico and lessening the cartels' abilities to corrupt the country's local, state and national leaders. It also aims to address the drug demand in the United States, and to build Mexico's institutional capacity by retraining the law enforcement agencies, vetting the new officers and reforming the judicial system.

In addition, it aims to transform cities along the U.S.-Mexico border to allow for increased trade and commerce, while at the same time helping tourists and everyday commuters travel between the countries without compromising security.

"We are doing as much as we can within the parameters allowed considering Mexico is a sovereign nation and assistance we provide has to be requested by President Calderón," said U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.

Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said the command to help Mexico issued by Obama when he took office in 2009 has not changed. Those who do not work in D.C. might have forgotten that two years ago, Congress had more than 15 hearings concerning Mexico and its violence.

The hearings have stopped, Selee said, but the work at agencies such as the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have not. Selee recently spent several days in El Paso and Juárez as part of his public policy research.

"The national attention is there and things are getting done to help end the violence," Selee said. "People along the border might see things differently than people in D.C., but a lot is being done to help Mexico."

However, Selee also said that Capitol Hill officials need to realize that what is happening in Juárez is worse than anything occurring anywhere else in Mexico. And while the national policies being adopted by the U.S. to help Mexico will stop the violence in the long run, they do nothing for the immediate problem in Juárez.

"Juárez right now is in the emergency room, while the rest of Mexico is on a regular hospital floor," he said. "Juárez needs three doctors tending to it right now, working to keep the city alive, while the rest of the country can be viewed as a patient who only needs monitoring and a doctor's visit once every three days."

In the past 27 months, more than 4,700 people have been killed in Juárez. It is estimated that more than 110,000 houses have been abandoned, 75,000 people have lost their jobs and more than 10,000 businesses have closed.

"What's happening in Juárez does call for a different response," Selee said.

**Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at rbracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6142.