During his January 14 inauguration, Otto Pérez Molina pledged to fight criminality in Guatemala and asked for regional cooperation, particularly from Washington.

"We are next to the largest illegal drug market in the world," said Mexican President Felipe Calderón during  AS/COA's 41st Annual Washington Conference of the Americas on May 11.

After the killing of Alfonso Cano, Timochenko takes over the FARC even as the group is in decline.

Nancy Brune explores the emerging drug trafficking ties between West Africa and Brazil in an article from the Fall 2011 issue of Americas Quarterly, which hits newsstands November 9.

"The FARC still has the capacity to kill; but its capacity to achieve anything of its supposed political agenda has ended," write AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini and Ryan Berger in an op-ed for CNN Global Public Square.

The Colombian military delivered a harsh blow to the FARC with the November 4 assassination of the guerrilla group's leader, Alfonso Cano. What does Cano's death mean for the future of the FARC?

"It’s a mark of utter failure by Guatemala’s institutions that people are seriously talking about bringing the military back," says AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.