Rubio says US will ‘blow up’ foreign crime groups if needed

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “explodes” foreign crime groups if necessary, perhaps in collaboration with other countries.

“Now they will help us find these people and explode them if that’s what you need,” said Rubio during a visit to Ecuador.

He also announced that the United States will designate two of the biggest criminal gangs in Ecuador, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organizations.

The comments came a few days after the US forces went on strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea. The White House says he killed 11 drug traffokers, although he did not release their identity.

When asked if smugglers from American allies, such as Mexico and Ecuador, could face the “unilateral execution” of American forces, Rubio said that “cooperative governments” would help identify the smugglers.

“The president said that he wanted to wage war for these groups because they had been warning us for 30 years and that no one has answered.

“But it is not necessary to do so in many cases with friendly governments, because friendly governments will help us.”

The Ecuadorian and Mexican governments have not said that they would help with military strikes.

Following Tuesday’s strike on the ship in the South of the Caribbean, President Donald Trump said that the military operation had targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren from Aragua as they transported illegal drugs towards the United States.

Legal experts have told the BBC verified that the strike may have violated international human rights and maritime law.

Late Thursday, the Ministry of Defense accused two Venezuelan military planes of flying near an American ship in a “very provocative decision designed to interfere with our Narco-terrorist counter operations”. Venezuela has not yet responded to the complaint.

Also on Thursday, Rubio announced that Washington issued $ 13.5 million (10 million pounds sterling) in the aid of security and $ 6 million in drone technology to help the equator to seil drug trafficking.

Ecuador violence has climbed in recent years while criminal gangs are fighting to control the lucrative roads of cocaine

According to government data, around 70% of world cocaine is now going through the equator in transit of neighboring producing countries, such as Colombia and Peru, markets in the United States, Europe and Asia.

This designation was desired by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who described his repression on criminal gangs as a “war”.

In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, he said he would be “happy” if the United States considered Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as terrorist groups because “that’s what they really are”.

He also said he wanted us and the European armies to join his fight.

Noboa tries to change the constitution of the equator to allow again foreign military bases in the country – after the last American closure in 2009.

The designation means that the United States can target the assets and properties of any person associated with groups and share information with the Ecuadorian government without limits so that it can take “potentially fatal” actions.

The outbreak of the cartel’s violence in Ecuador was also a driver behind the migration of the South American country to the United States.

According to immigration law experts, it is not clear if the designation of cartels as terrorist organizations can help or hinder their victims who seek asylum in the United States.

On the one hand, this can mean that they are now considered victims of “terrorism”, but on the other hand, some fear that those who had to pay extensions to gangs could be penalized to “support materially”.