The United States Department on Wednesday issued a travel advisory where it warned tourists to completely avoid five Mexican states – due to increasing crime and gang activity.

Reuters said in a report on Thursday that the advisory is often announced for nations at war.

This announcement includes places in the states of Colima, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Guerrero at the same warning level as war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, the report said.

The Reuters report said the resort in Guerrero state, which once was a glamorous playground for the Hollywood jet set, including Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth, now has one of the highest murder rates in the world, having fallen victim to vicious gang warfare in recent years.

“Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero. Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence toward travelers,” said the State Department.

The report says that overall, the State Department placed Mexico at the second of its four-stage travel advisory levels.

“Exercise increased caution in Mexico due to crime ... violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread,” it said.

Clashes between rival drug gangs contributed to a record number of murders in Mexico last year, according to official data, dealing a fresh blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto’s pledge to bring gang violence under control with presidential elections due in July 2018, the report said.

Reuters report indicates that at least a dozen politicians, officials and candidates for elected office have been killed in states in recent months, where there are struggles between criminal groups for the control of drug trafficking routes.