Killing of Americans pressures Mexico in drug war

NO EVIDENCE CONSULATE TARGETED

An FBI official in El Paso said there was still no evidence the consular killings were drug-related. "There is no information that indicates that the victims were directly targeted due to their employment at the consulate," said FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons.

Deeply concerned about the violence, Washington is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help train Mexican police and provide helicopters and equipment to fight drug gangs.

But across Mexico, drug violence is at its worst level ever. Nearly 19,000 people have been killed since Calderon came to power in 2006, and many U.S. students have heeded warnings not to cross the border this year for their annual "spring break" vacation.

Mexican anti-drug officials defend the army-backed strategy and told Reuters that the focus remained on using the 8,000 troops and federal police on the streets of Ciudad Juarez to crush drug cartels. Calderon is expected to meet the U.S. consul in Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday and try to reassure local residents he is fighting the violence, but little more.

Bloodshed has exploded in Ciudad Juarez in recent months as the head of the Juarez cartel, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, fights off an offensive by Mexico's No. 1 fugitive drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Calderon's main tactic so far has been to announce more investment in schools, hospitals, drug rehabilitation clinics and projects to regenerate the desert city. The conservative, who has made two hurried visits to Ciudad Juarez since the teenagers' murders in January, says he aims to entice youths away from the drug trade with jobs and education.

But many are sceptical as the murders continue, including the massacre of six people as they attended a funeral last week. "Ciudad Juarez is now a naked city without protection," said Arizona-based drug trade expert and author Charles Bowden, who has sources close to the Juarez cartel.

(Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Monterrey and Michael O'Boyle in Mexico City; editing by Anthony Boadle)