On the Bloody Border: Mexico's Drug Wars

The U.S. has wakened to Mexico's drug wars. The city of Juárez is the place to see if and how they can be won

Eros Hoagland / Redux for TIME

Street vendors dismount a police truck after being searched earlier for drugs and weapons.

Pedro Rojas is the sort of wealthy Mexican who's usually in control of his world. "I don't panic or scare easily," says Rojas, a business owner and rancher from the Mexican border city of Juárez. But last year narcos, or drug traffickers, moved into his upscale neighborhood--punks in cowboy attire and sparkling pickup trucks buying expensive homes. Rojas and his neighbors were awakened at night or horrified in broad daylight by assault-rifle fire and the screaming of tires as cars raced away after kidnappings. One afternoon, local children watched as a pickup rammed down the door of a house, sparking a...

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