BUENAVENTURA, COLOMBIA: Captain Mario Rodríguez, Commander of the Colombian Coast Guard on the Pacific Ocean, is a man who is trying to push back a rising tide. For over 20 years he has worked to counter the steady advancement of the transportation technologies employed by Colombian traffickers to smuggle cocaine...

The hospitals of Ciudad Juárez bear the brunt of the deadly shootouts that rival criminal organizations unleash against one another throughout the city. "The authorities are failing us," an emergency room doctor at the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social told me. "When more soldiers arrived in March, the city did...

The Mexican army and federal police patrol the streets of Ciudad Juárez aboard Humvees and pick-up trucks, their automatic rifles menacingly pointed at the population. People have learned to give way to these security forces, but otherwise pay little attention to them. The city remains abuzz, congested with traffic, crowded...