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MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The third Mexican mayor in a month was slain by suspected drug gang hit men on the same day the country was compared to Colombia by a U.S. official.

Mexico wasn't pleased by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's statement yesterday that the country is "looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago."

Clinton and other U.S. officials pointed to Mexican drug cartels' use of car bombs, a tool once favored by cartel-allied rebels in Colombia.

The Mexican government quickly condemned the killing of Alexander Lopez-Garcia, the mayor of the northern town of El Naranjo.

But it rejected the comparison with Colombia, where the Medellin drug cartel waged a full frontal assault on the state.

Mexico also bristled at Clinton's suggestion that the U.S. was looking to implement some type of Plan Colombia for Mexico and Central America.

She was referring to a U.S. anti-drug program in which American special forces teams trained Colombian troops and U.S. advisers are attached to Colombian military units.

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