Obama visits Mexico

Schoolchildren wait for President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon to arrive at a welcoming ceremony in Mexico City.  (Matthew Cavanaugh / EPA)

Aboard Marine One, President Obama departs the White House in Washington on Thursday for a trip to Mexico. He’ll meet with Mexico President Felipe Calderon. Drugs, guns and immigration are on the agenda.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

President Barack Obama leaves the Oval Office to board Marine One. Obama will be in Mexico less than 24 hours before continuing Friday to Trinidad and Tobago for the fifth Summit of the Americas, a three-day meeting of the hemisphere’s 34 elected heads of state and government.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Workers prepare to hang Mexico and U.S. flags from streetlights along Mexico City’s main Reforma avenue in preparation for the visit of President Obama.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)

A woman dresses a mannequin with a T-shirt bearing an image of President Obama at a clothing store in Mexico City.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Claudio Cruz / Associated Press)

Alleged drug traffickers and items seized from them are displayed to the press in Tijuana, Mexico. The Obama administration has promised to put more agents along the border, step up southbound inspections, accelerate release of portions of the $1.4 billion in aid allotted under the so-called Merida Initiative and reexamine domestic drug-use policies.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Guillermo Arias / Associated Press)

Police officers search residents for drugs in the Zona Norte of Tijuana, Mexico.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Guillermo Arias / Associated Press)

Squads of Mexican police enter the scene where drug violence claimed the lives of five people, including three fellow officers.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A relative of a police officer gunned down in Culiacan weeps at the sight of the bullet-riddled police truck.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

In Tijuana, students on the way to school pass the site where a Mexican army soldier was killed in one episode of Mexico’s drug war.
Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

In Sonora, two men step through a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border fence. Jose Jesus Ramirez, left, and his friend Jose Hernandez point out to each other the positions of pole-mounted surveillance cameras. They decided not to risk dashing through the dry Colorado River bottom in the background until nighttime.

Mexico Under Seige >>>  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)