Whack-a-mole: Clinton Compares Mexican Drug War to Colombian ‘Insurgencies’

The talk coming from the Obama administration regarding its response to the drug war in Mexico is increasingly worrisome. Last week there was a "leak" from the White House regarding its considering substantially greater military and police aid to Mexico. Today we hear the Secretary of State comparing Mexico to Columbia of twenty years ago and saying that Central America needs "a much more vigorous U.S. presence" to fight the expansion there of the Mexican cartels. This expansion has been well-documented (see our July 27 post: Mexican Cartels Bring Their Violence to Central America)

Clinton Compares Mexican Drug War to Colombian ‘Insurgencies’ - BusinessWeek: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mexican drug cartels are looking increasingly like “insurgencies.”It’s looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, where the narcotraffickers controlled certain parts of the country,” Clinton said today in Washington at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Clinton repeated her view that U.S. drug consumption was helping to feed the violence in Mexico. And she said the U.S. was aware of concerns in Central America and the Caribbean about the spillover of the violence. “We need a much more vigorous U.S. presence” in Central America to help countries improve their law enforcement capacity to fight drug traffickers, Clinton said.Sept. 8, 2010