Clinton talks about Mexico's criminal insurgency

BBC:

Drug-related violence in Mexico increasingly has the hallmarks of an insurgency, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

"It's looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, when the narco-traffickers controlled certain parts of the country," she said.

Her comments were made following a major speech to US foreign policy experts in Washington.

A Mexican government spokesman rejected Mrs Clinton's analogy.

Speaking in Mexico City, Alejandro Poire said the only aspect that the Mexican and Colombian conflicts share is their root cause - a high demand for drugs in the US.

Mr Poire also denied that the presence of drug cartels was tantamount to an insurgency, insisting that "all the efforts of the Mexican state were going into fighting criminals".

He added that "the collaboration with the US is an integral part of our strategy" in tackling drug cartels.

...

It is not all that unusual for states fighting an insurgency to label the enemy criminals and I would not argue with that description of the Mexican cartels. But, their activity of attempting to control certain real estate, especially leading to corridors within the US is that of an insurgency.

The police are at a disadvantage in dealing with the better armed and bigger organizations. The Mexican army and Marines have been more effective at dealing with the criminal insurgents and they could improve their effectiveness with better counter insurgency tactics that would protect the people and get the intelligence that would flow from their safety.

By recognizing that they are dealing with an insurgency, the Mexican government could also get the training they need to deal with it from US special forces troops.