Tension in Juarez

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The killing of a U.S. official on Mexican soil is a rare occurrence. So the shooting deaths of three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez on Saturday has clearly rattled authorities on both sides of the border. The victims were consular official Lesley Enriquez; her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, an El Paso sheriff’s detention officer; and Jorge Alberto Salcido, a Mexican citizen married to a Mexican working at the consulate. A narco gang in Juarez is suspected of orchestrating the deaths.

President Obama said he was ‘outraged’ by the attacks, and promised his government would help Mexico find those responsible. Mexican President Felipe Calderon arrived in Juarez on Tuesday morning on a previously scheduled trip that is now expected to be dominated by the topic of the consulate killings. As with two other recent trips Calderon has made to the beleaguered border city, the president arrives under heavy security and in the face of angry protests by residents.

Calderon is being accompanied on this trip by the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, who plans private meetings with the consular staff. The Times will have more on this story as it develops.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City