Listen to CFR's Shannon K. O'Neil discuss the challenges of ongoing drug violence in Mexico as part of CFR's State and Local Officials Conference Call series.

Learn more about CFR's State and Local Officials Initiative.

In Ciudad Juarez, where three people with connections to the U.S. consulate were killed over the weekend, it's local gangs rather than drug cartels that are spreading violence, says CFR's Shannon O'Neil. To fight them, part of what's needed is better law and police enforcement and better education.

Session Three of a Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on Organized Crime in the Western Hemisphere: An Overlooked Threat? Subject: Regional and Multilateral Policy Responses. Held at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.

Session Two of a Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on Organized Crime in the Western Hemisphere: An Overlooked Threat? Subject: Local and National Policy Responses. Held at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.

Session One of a Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on Organized Crime in the Western Hemisphere: An Overlooked Threat? Subject: Organized Crime and Transnational Threats. Held at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.

The Afghan president is isolated and distrusted, and even if he is re-elected this month, that's not likely to change.

Hysteria over bloodshed in Mexico clouds the real challenge: the rising violence is a product of democratization -- and the only real solution is to continue strengthening Mexican democracy.

The Guatemalan president's alleged role in a recent murder there shows how Mexico's drug violence is infecting other parts of Latin America--and threatening to destabilize the entire region.

Joe Contreras, former Latin America bureau chief for Newsweek, says while Mexico and the United States step up engagement on battling drug traffickers, another priority--immigration reform--is unlikely to get top U.S. attention.

Matthew Levitt examines Hezbollah's increased role in illicit drug trafficking in Latin America in this article by Middle East Strategy at Harvard, a project of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies.

This article about La Familia, A Mexican syndicate and how it operates.

This editorial argues that "legalization is the least bad solution" to temper the effects of the drug trade on producer and consumer countries.

Brazen assassinations, kidnappings, and political intimidation by drug lords conjure up images of Colombia in the early 1990s. Yet today it is Mexico that is being engulfed by escalating violence, and U.S. gun laws, immigration rules, drug control and border policies all have exacerbated the problems.

We should focus instead on reducing harm to users and on tackling organized crime, authors Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria, and Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León argue.

A wide-ranging discussion with FBI Director Robert Mueller about the future of the organization he has tried to reshape since taking the helm in 2001. The event was moderated by Terence Moran of ABC's "Nightline."

Watch experts discuss U.S.-Mexico relations under the Obama administration, including ways to mitigate drug violence and improve immigration policy.

Listen to experts discuss U.S.-Mexico relations under the Obama administration, including ways to mitigate drug violence and improve immigration policy.

Jesus Rios and July Ray find that more Mexicans perceive gangs and drug trafficking in their neighborhoods.

At its third meeting, in Rio de Janeiro, a report was made public by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, exposing the impressions reached after nearly a year of research and  debates. In this report, the commission evaluates the impact of policies on the "war on drugs" and develops recommendations for more efficient, secure, and humane strategies.