Calderon’s plan to “rescue” city

JUAREZ -- Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Tuesday offered his plan to "rescue" and "rebuild" the city, which has been plagued by 4,700 slayings since 2008.
His plan would attack poverty, improves education, health facilities and offers financial assistance to families in an effort to combat organized crime and the drug war that has turned Juárez into the most dangerous city in Mexico.
During his speech to several hundred people, Calderón mentioned the slayings Saturday of three people connected to the U.S. consulate.
He called their slayings "resentful, inadmissible and profoundly deplorable."
"Yes, my friends, the situation of violence and insecurity in Ciudad Juárez has to change. And to make those changes, among other things, is to fortify the mechanisms of justice and security, and also, change the social conditions of poverty and marginalization that exist and that are fertile ground for the crime and violence," he said.
On Saturday, gunmen killed Lesley A. Enriquez, 34, a U.S. citizen who worked for the U.S. consulate in Juárez; her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 36, 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.
The three had left a birthday party attended by other employees of the U.S. consulate in Juárez in two cars when they were attacked.
Calderón spoke to Mexican state and city officials at the Camino Real Hotel at 4 p.m.
Before Calderón's arrival at the hotel, protesters confronted federal police dressed in riot gear on the Pan American Highway and demanded Calderón's resignation.
David Bravo, 20, was one of about 25 protesters who gathered on the south side of the highway and wore masks and bandannas over their faces.
Bravo, a student at the Institute of Biomedical Science in Juárez, said he wanted to know what Calderón planned to do about the escalation of cartel crime in Juárez.
He said he has learned to adjust to the presence of the cartels by being constantly aware of his surrounding and suppressing his fear.
"I want to know what he plans to do and why he was done nothing," Bravo said. "I'm tired of being afraid."
This is Calderón's third trip to Juárez in about a month.
He visited the city on Feb. 11, after 15 people were killed at a party, and then again on Feb. 17 to send specially trained federal police to investigate alleged kidnappings and extortions.
In his plan to fight the violence, Calderón said, he plans to build nine new medical facilities and four new high schools in Juárez.
He also said programs he instituted to provide impoverished families with financial assistance have been successful in the city. He did not say how much it all would cost.
Juárez's problems are not self-made but rather a by product of drug trafficking in Mexico and weapons trafficking in the U.S., Calderón said.
To win the battle against organized crime, the two countries need to share information, intelligence and politics in order to combat a phenomenon that affects both countries and generates a "grave threat" to people on each side of the border, he said.
Calderón's plan was received favorably, but some officials had reservations.
José Reyes Ferriz, mayor of Juárez, said that although he wants to see his city heal, become stronger and retake its place "as the land of opportunity and generosity," he didn't want a handout.
"Today, the crisis has us as a community asking for support, but we don't extend our hand asking for charity," he said. "We appeal to that human right, that is opportunity, to let opportunity guide us in rebuilding the Juárez we all love."