When Enrique Peña Nieto meets on January 6 with Barack Obama, the Mexican president should, as a minimum, be able to count on empathy from the U.S. president. But Vanda Felbab-Brown also argues that White House empathy with Peña Nieto’s plight needs to be translated into a joint emphasis on adjusting and improving ineffective anti-crime policies in order to reduce violence and lessen corruption.