The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has said Mexico is beginning to look like Colombia 20 years ago.

Likening the drug violence in Mexico to an insurgency, she told a group of people who had assembled for a foreign policy speech that drug traffickers were in danger of taking over parts of Mexico.

She said the authorities in Mexico would need to maintain their political will to fight the well-organized cartels.

Along the US-Mexican border the drugs gangs have been fighting increasingly violent turf wars while the Mexican government has continued to insist it’s doing all it can to tackle the criminals.

Washington has acknowledged that there has been a flow of guns from the US to the cartels.

More than 28,000 people have died in drugs-related violence since 2006.