Each year, millions of dollars of Mexican drug money pass through the hands of American Drug Enforcement Administration officials. Undercover American narcotics agents launched the money laundering operation in order to trace the drug cartels. This is not the first instance of a U.S. governmental agency using illegal means to fight the war against drugs in Mexico. While the effectiveness of either program stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S. remains unclear, their impact on Mexican citizens is less ambiguous.

Since 2006, when President Felipe Calderón declared war on Mexico's drug cartels, 45,000 Mexicans across the republic have been disappeared, murdered, or mass-executed. Victims of this violence include journalists, over two thousand public officials, and bystanders. While drug-related activity was previously relegated to only a few Mexican states, the dramatic spread of violence — and its severity — is attributable to governmental policy north and south of the border.

In an exclusive story, The New York Times reports today that the United States has a network of highly placed informants in Mexican drug cartels, often operating without the knowledge of the Mexican government. The informants have been instrumental in capturing or killing a number of important traffickers. Eric Olson, senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, comments on what this revelation means for U.S.-Mexican relations.

Extortion has tripled in Mexico since 2004, and the latest victims are teachers in Acapulco, one of the country's biggest tourist spots. Gang members are plaguing teachers there with threats demanding they give over half their pay by October 1. Hundreds of schools have closed because of the threats, but thousands of teachers are not sitting quietly, and instead are taking to the streets in protest.

Mexico's War on Drugs, which President Felipe Calderón declared in January of 2007, has already resulted in the deaths of some 40,000 Mexicans, according to the Congressional Research Service. The epicenter of the violence is Ciudad Juárez, a city in northern Mexico less than five miles from El Paso, Texas. Last year, over 4,500 federal police began patrolling there, replacing army units that had been stationed there previously. Today, those police will leave the city.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' controversial Fast and Furious program took another hit yesterday as Kenneth E. Melson, the acting director of the program’s Phoenix office, stepped down along with the U.S. Attorney in Arizona, Dennis K. Burke. The two were implicated in an ongoing investigation into the undercover operation that allegedly allowed for thousands of guns to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Seventeen years after President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. and Mexico have finally reached an agreement allowing truckers from both countries unrestricted access to America and Mexico's highways. As soon as the first Mexican truck is allowed to enter the U.S., Mexico will drop tariffs on more than $2 billion of U.S. goods. Harley Helms, a long-haul trucker with Crete Carrier, joins the program with his reaction to the agreement.

An execution scheduled in Texas today is making international headlines. Should Humberto Leal Garcia, Jr. die at the hands of the state, the U.S.'s diplomatic relations with Mexico could be adversely impacted, and possibly may violate the U.S.'s compliance with the U.N.’s Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Garcia was convicted in 1994 of raping and killing a 16-year-old girl in Texas. He is a Mexican national and was not informed that he could access Mexican consular officials after his arrest. Garcia has been denied clemency from the state of Texas, but President Obama has asked that the Supreme Court weigh in on his case by today.

The United States may be behind the drug-related violence in Mexico, more than we think. According to a new Congressional report released yesterday, more than 70 percent of the guns detained in Mexico the past two years, originated in the U.S. On top of this, the ATF is under fire for reportedly supplying more than a 1,000 illegal firearms to gun traffickers in Mexico, in an operation called "Fast and Furious." They hoped selling the guns to "straw purchasers," would lead them to the crime organizations. Unfortunately, many of these guns were lost track of, and some were even tied to the shooting of an American border patrol officer. 

Thousands of Mexicans have gathered for a 900-mile march to protest against the drug cartels and the violence that has gripped the country. Their caravan started last weekend in Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city south of Mexico City. Mexican poet Javier Sicilia—whose son was killed by members of the Mexican drug cartel two months ago—is leading the march. It will conclude when the marchers cross the border from Ciadad-Juarez into El Paso, Texas.

Two months ago 24-year-old Juan Francisco, along with six others, was killed by members of a Mexican drug cartel. Francisco’s father is Mexican poet Javier Sicilia. Juan Francisco was just one of the estimated 34,000 people killed in Mexico in drug-related violence in the last four years. Now Sicilia is leading a 900 mile march across Mexico visiting cities where people have been affected by drug violence.  Irene Caselli, will join them, she's reporting this story for the BBC.

In the city of Monterrey in Northern Mexico, teacher Martha Rivera led her kindergarteners in song as a shootout took place in the streets outside the classroom. She videotaped the entire episode because she is on the school safety committee and felt the need to record it. Like other teachers, she had been trained for this type of event.

President Obama is headed to the border town of El Paso, Texas today and is scheduled to speak on the fate of the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. It has been more than ten months since Obama gave his first big policy speech on immigration at the American University in Washington, where he stressed an administrative policy of border control and easing immigration proceedings for legal immigrants. But the Latino community is waiting to hear whether recent behind-the-scenes meetings have led to a more encompassing framework for federal immigration reform — one of Obama's campaign promises back in 2008.

More protests are scheduled to take place in Mexico. People are extremely angry about the 40,000 people who have been killed in drug-related violence and peaceful cities have begun to be afflicted by the drug wars. There are calls for President Calderone to step down because of the violence. For more on the protests is Franc Contreras, a freelance journalist in Mexico City.

El Salvador is the last stop on President Obama's three-nation tour of Latin America. Mr. Obama's stops in Brazil and Chile were largely overshadowed by events in Libya, but his reasons for visiting the strategically important South American nations were clear: with their galloping economies, Brazil and Chile are emerging as power players in the region and in the world. However, his reasons for visiting El Salvador are less obvious.

Mexican president, Felipe Calderon and President Obama have agreed to allow Mexican truckers on American roads. How do American truckers feel about this latest move? Harley Helms is a long-haul trucker, currently on the road between Kansas City and St. Louis. He says that this change will have a detrimental effect on American drivers, who are already dealing with high fuel prices. He is also concerned that Mexican truckers will work for much lower wages. Harley estimates that he will lose 15-20 percent of his personal business.

At 82 years old, Carlos Fuentes has worn many hats. He was the Mexican ambassador to France in the late ‘70s, but his passion has always been writing.  As a contemporary of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Fuentes returns to magical realism in his latest novel, “Destiny and Desire,” in which he reflects on the state of modern Mexico and its endemic violence.

On this last day of 2010 we revisit the story taking place in Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico. It's a story that we've been sad to return to repeatedly, not just this last year, but over the last four years. Yesterday we heard reports of four more dead in the longstanding Mexican drug war between drug cartels and border troops. Gunmen believed to be linked to the cartels killed four police officers and a doctor in coordinated attacks around the nearby city of Monterrey.

Life-long resident Jesus Ochoa has fond memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas. But he isn't optimistic about 2011; he says living on the border with Mexico is an increasingly scary existence, and is upset at the failure of President Obama and Congress to pass the so called "Dream Act." Ochoa joins us to talk about his hometown and its continuing challenges in the new year.  

More and more guns used in drug-related crimes in Mexico are coming from U.S. dealers, according to a year-long investigation by The Washington Post. Many of the weapons are travelling south through the Texas city of Huston. But due to a law passed by Congress in 2003, the identities of the dealers selling the weapons are protected even as weapons they've sold show up at the scenes of violent crimes committed by drug cartels. For more on the story we're joined by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who co-wrote today's investigative piece, Jame Grimaldi.