The U.S. has announced plans to give direct aid, including police training, to local and state-level authorities in Mexico.
Migrant deaths have dropped 38 percent on the Arizona border in the last 10 months compared to the same period last year, while a report hails a rise in security along the frontier with Mexico.
Mexico's Navy reports that three marines and a naval cadet have gone missing, and authorities suspect that the Zetas gang is responsible.
Mexico's President Felipe Calderon defended his use of the army to combat organized crime in the country, saying that any increase in violence would only encourage him to deploy more federal forces.
The leader of the FARC rebel group has released a video calling for peace negotiations with the Colombian government.
Mexico's Federal Police have reported successes in their struggle against the emerging Caballeros Templarios drug gang, including the arrest of a key financial operative.
According to Colombia's Attorney General, corruption costs the country $4.2 billion dollars a year, and just seven percent of all cases are under investigation.
An official affirmed that individuals with arrest warrants greatly outnumber police in Paraguay, an uneasy sign of the country's lack of resources in the fight against insecurity.
Less than a week after approving a border security plan with Colombia, Brazil signaled that it would like to extend the security initiative to another partner in the region, Peru.
So far this year Venezuelan authorities have dismantled 17 cocaine laboratories in the western states of Tachira and Zula, Defense Minister Tarek El Aissami said Wednesday.
