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Yahoo news1 hr 45 mins ago
Obama walks back Clinton’s Colombia-Mexico comparison
By Liz Goodwin
Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ratcheted up her rhetoric on Mexico's drug cartel problems, offending Mexican politicians by comparing their state to violence-wracked Colombia in the 80s and 90s.
"We face 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," Clinton said yesterday. "It's looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago."
According to the BBC, no senior administration official has ever explicitly compared the two countries. Even just last week, a State Department official said it was not accurate to refer to the gangs as an insurgency.
Apparently, President Obama is now doing a little damage control. In an interview with the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, he refuted Clinton's comparison.
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