Clinton: Mexican drug war like insurgency

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday likened drug cartel operations in Mexico and Central America to an insurgency.

Speaking to foreign policy experts at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Clinton said there is "an increasing threat from a well-organized network drug trafficking threat that is, in some cases, morphing into or making common cause with what we would consider an insurgency in Mexico and in Central America."

While praising the efforts of Mexico's law enforcement and intelligence forces, Clinton said "it's looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, where the narco-traffickers control certain parts of the country, not significant parts."

"But it's going to take a combination of improved institutional capacity and better law enforcement and, where appropriate, military support for that law enforcement married to political will to be able to prevent this from spreading and to try to beat it back," she said.

Clinton said while Mexico has the capacity to fight the drug cartels, the smaller countries in Central America do not.

"So we are working to try to enhance what we have in Central America," she said.

The BBC reported a Mexican government spokesman disagreed with Clinton's assessment that the situation in Mexico has veered toward an insurgency on par with what happened in Colombia in the past.

Alejandro Poire told the British network the only common thread is the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.

Drug-related violence has claimed more than 28,000 lives in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon decided to employ the army against the cartels in 2006, the BBC noted.