November 30 2011 – Miss Bala, a Mexican movie that is a current Oscar hopeful and inspired by true events, follows beauty queen Laura Guerrero in her violent downward spiral into the hands of organized crime. Filmed, produced and edited for AFP by Deborah Bonello.

This report was produced for Time Magazine by Deborah Bonello.

Watch the video on Time’s website here.

Camera Assistant was Myles Estey - you can see his website here.

You can read the report by Human Rights Watch on their website here.

Photo: Laura Garcia and her family outside the club from where her brother Francis disappeared on March 1st 2010. The family believe Francis was taken by the Mexican military. Credit: Myles Estey.

October 14 2011- The Mexican government has launched a military crackdown in the state of Veracruz following more than 80 killings in the tourist port in the last few weeks. Despite the military’s poor human rights record, local residents say they will seek safety where they can find it.

You can also see the dispatch here on AFP’s YouTube channel in English and in Spanish.

Guatemala is to hold a presidential election in September, and the issues confronting candidates are enormous. Extreme poverty, child malnutrition and corruption continue to be huge challenges. But narco-trafficking groups and organized crime are threatening to become the country’s new bosses.

If you can’t watch the video above, watch it here on AFP’s YouTube channel.

Multinational-run factories employing tens of thousands are doing brisk business in Ciudad Juarez, even as local businesses in the Mexican border town wither, devastated by the high murder rate and extortion by drug gangs.

You can watch it here if the embedded video won’t work…..

This video was produced for AFP. You can also see it here on AFP’s YouTube channel.

Daniel Dominguez, one of the hard-worked crime reporters on El Diario, the biggest newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, was kind enough to let me spend the day with him last week. Here’s the report I produced for AFP, which you can also see here on YouTube. The same video is also embedded below, in case of geographical restrictions on the above.

Mexico’s march for peace, led by Catholic poet Javier Sicilia, crossed over from Ciudad Juarez – the violent epicenter of the country’s drug war – into El Paso, Texas Saturday.

They were joined by hundreds of Americans in their demands for a change in strategy from both the Mexican and US governments.

This video was created for AFP.

May 8th 2011 – Thousands of protesters marched to Mexico City’s Zocalo Sunday demanding an end to the violence generated by President Felipe Calderon’s ‘war’ against drug cartels. See the video for more.

April 7 2011 – Thousands of Mexicans marched for peace in Mexico city and other centers around the country on Wednesday to protest the drug-related violence here that has claimed more than 35,000 lives. Meanwhile, authorities discovered at least 59 bodies in a unmarked grave in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

Video footage courtesy by Greg Brosnan of StreetDog Media.

This isn’t the first protest against Calderon’s military campaign – please see this video report: MRTV: Mexican public opinion turns against Calderon’s ‘drug war’ dated March 7th 2011.