By Jim Kouri (Published with permission of author)

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A few months after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared drug-related violence in Mexico to an insurgency, she’s praising the country for battling the cartels even though bloodshed remains at an all-time high, according to a report from Judicial Watch, a leading U.S. public interest group in Washington, DC.According to officials at Judicial Watch, Clinton's amusing about-face comes amid record levels of drug violence and just days after seven Mexicans were murdered in Ciudad Juarez, where the situation is so serious that bullets from shootouts among rival smugglers regularly spill into the U.S.

In one shocking incident last week, drug cartel gangsters used assault weapons to spray gunfire on a public soccer field, according to Judicial Watch.

During the Mexican government's ongoing drug war, the Obama Administration has showered Mexico with more than $1 billion to combat serious crime associated with illicit narcotics operations, which incidentally hit record levels in scale and brutality in 2010.

More than 15,000 people were murdered across Mexico in disturbing and cruel ways not commonly seen in previous years while the U.S. keeps sending cash to deal with the issue, said the Judicial Watch report.

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Nevertheless, Clinton assures Americans that “we are seeing real results on both sides of the border."

During a brief jaunt to Mexico this week, Sec. Clinton commended America's southern neighbor for combating the drug cartels and called Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s leadership “very courageous.”

That “courageous” leadership is one of the reasons why we are making some important gains, according to Clinton, who failed to offer any concrete examples, observed Jill Farrell, communication director at Judicial Watch.

Sec. Clinton went as far as telling her Mexican counterpart, Patricia Espinosa, that “we are part of the same family, we share the same land as our common home and our children will inherit a common future.”

The contributions that Mexicans have made are a “fundamental part of the fabric of the United Sates,” Clinton said during the schmooze fest in Guanajuato this week.

"Sounds like Clinton was making amends for rattling Mexican officials by comparing the country’s drug cartels to a Colombia-style insurgency that devastated that South American nation a few decades ago. Offended Mexican government officials rejected the notion, claiming that the only similarities are a high demand for drugs in the U.S.," said Farrell in a statement.

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