Rubio says US is working with allies to counter drugs but will ‘still blow up ships if need be’

U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio gave new clar­i­ty Wednes­day on the U.S. ap­proach to­ward com­bat­ing drug traf­fick­ing in Latin Amer­i­can wa­ters, say­ing the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion is now fo­cused on work­ing with al­lied coun­tries and align­ing with their laws but in­sist­ing that the mil­i­tary will “still blow up ships if need be.”

The pub­lic ac­knowl­edg­ment of a shift in U.S. strat­e­gy comes a year af­ter Wash­ing­ton be­gan a cam­paign of uni­lat­er­al dead­ly strikes against those it calls “nar­coter­ror­ists” op­er­at­ing boats in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters. The lat­est at­tack last month brought the num­ber of peo­ple who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. mil­i­tary to at least 227 in 68 strikes.

Now, the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion is fo­cused on build­ing agree­ments for joint op­er­a­tions with al­lied coun­tries in the re­gion, in­clud­ing Colom­bia and Ecuador, that com­ply with their laws in their wa­ters.

“I think its an in­cred­i­ble ad­vance for the first time to have coun­tries that are will­ing to par­tic­i­pate in these ef­forts in their ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters,” Ru­bio told re­porters on a trip to the Ecuado­ri­an cap­i­tal, Quito.

“The im­por­tant point is that these routes are be­ing dis­rupt­ed. These routes are be­ing end­ed,” he added.

He said the de­ci­sion is “a strike-by-strike or op­er­a­tion-by-op­er­a­tion de­ter­mi­na­tion” that de­pends on the threat and lo­ca­tion of the boat.

The US mil­i­tary has re­cent­ly been stop­ping ves­sels and re­mov­ing peo­ple be­fore strikes

Re­cent U.S. in­ter­dic­tions in Latin Amer­i­can wa­ters are un­like the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s ini­tial strikes on al­leged drug-traf­fick­ing boats that be­gan in Sep­tem­ber 2025. Late­ly, peo­ple aboard float­ing re­fu­elling sta­tions said to be sup­port­ing drug traf­fick­ing have been re­moved and trans­ferred to Ecuado­ri­an au­thor­i­ties. Then the U.S. mil­i­tary blows up the ves­sels.

The shift comes af­ter a se­ries of strikes on boats over the year on peo­ple the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion ac­cused of be­ing “nar­coter­ror­ists” with­out pro­vid­ing ev­i­dence.

Ru­bio’s com­ments came dur­ing a three-na­tion tour of South Amer­i­ca aimed at boost­ing se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion with con­ser­v­a­tive lead­ers who have co­zied up to Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

In Ecuador on Wednes­day, he hailed it as the most “ag­gres­sive” part­ner in the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s push to tar­get transna­tion­al crim­i­nal groups in the West­ern Hemi­sphere. Ru­bio met with Ecuado­ri­an Pres­i­dent Daniel Noboa, who has rapid­ly em­braced Trump’s get-tough stance on coun­ternar­cotics op­er­a­tions and il­le­gal im­mi­gra­tion.

Ru­bio said “elite forces” from both coun­tries “are work­ing joint­ly on a day-to-day ba­sis in a way that has no prece­dent in or­der to try to dis­man­tle these ter­ror­ist or­ga­ni­za­tions.”

But he sin­gled out Mex­i­co, call­ing it “an even graver chal­lenge” than oth­er coun­tries in the re­gion be­cause of car­tels’ pow­er there and say­ing the “ide­al” sce­nario would be for the two coun­tries to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion joint­ly.

“Even­tu­al­ly that threat will have to be con­front­ed one way or the oth­er,” Ru­bio told re­porters in Ecuador. “But our hope is to do it co­op­er­a­tive­ly with Mex­i­can au­thor­i­ties.”

Ru­bio said Mex­i­can au­thor­i­ties have done “more than they’ve ever done be­fore to go af­ter these groups, but it is still not near­ly enough.”

Ecuador tout­ed as a key Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion al­ly on com­bat­ing drug traf­fick­ing

He al­so an­nounced his lat­est for­eign ter­ror­ist or­ga­ni­za­tion des­ig­na­tion of a Latin Amer­i­can drug traf­fick­ing ring: Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones. It was among 22 crim­i­nal gangs des­ig­nat­ed as “ter­ror­ists” by Ecuador in 2024 af­ter it de­clared an in­ter­nal armed con­flict dur­ing a surge in vi­o­lence that in­clud­ed gun­men storm­ing a tele­vi­sion sta­tion dur­ing a live broad­cast.

Un­der the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s coun­ternar­cotics strat­e­gy, it could make the group a tar­get for mil­i­tary ac­tion.

Ecuador has been help­ing the U.S. as it in­ter­cepts and sinks ves­sels, in­clud­ing one Tues­day that Wash­ing­ton said had links to the Ecuado­ri­an crim­i­nal group Los Choneros. It was the sixth such op­er­a­tion in less than two weeks and the sec­ond in as many days.

Ecuado­ri­an For­eign Min­is­ter Rober­to Kury called his coun­try “a loy­al al­ly, an ac­tive al­ly and a de­ci­sive al­ly to be able to build a safer hemi­sphere, free hemi­sphere and pros­per­ous hemi­sphere.”

Ru­bio said he would be ask­ing Con­gress for $45 mil­lion to keep fund­ing the ef­fort of “dis­man­tling these ter­ror­ist groups,” al­though he did not spec­i­fy what the funds would be for.

Ecuador has strug­gled to con­tain drug vi­o­lence since 2021 as ri­val car­tels part­ner with lo­cal gangs and bat­tle for con­trol of routes and coastal ports used to smug­gle co­caine. The coun­try is wedged be­tween Colom­bia and Pe­ru, the world’s top co­caine-pro­duc­ing coun­tries.

Un­der Noboa, Ecuador has be­come a strong U.S. part­ner in coun­ter­drug ef­forts in the re­gion.

On Wednes­day, Ru­bio was pre­sent­ed with Ecuador’s sec­ond-high­est na­tion­al hon­or, the Na­tion­al Or­der of Mer­it in the de­gree of Grand Cross, for his ser­vice in im­prov­ing U.S.-Ecuador ties. Noboa said Ru­bio was help­ing bring peace to the U.S. and the re­gion by trav­el­ing be­tween coun­tries to strength­en se­cu­ri­ty and ties.

Ru­bio will head next to Li­ma to meet new Pe­ru­vian Pres­i­dent Keiko Fu­ji­mori, an­oth­er leader aligned with Trump’s tough po­si­tions on the drug trade and mi­gra­tion. On Tues­day, he met with new con­ser­v­a­tive fire­brand Pres­i­dent Abelar­do de la Es­priel­la in Bar­ran­quil­la on Colom­bia’s Caribbean coast. —QUITO, Ecuador (AP)

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Sto­ry by MATTHEW LEE | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

As­so­ci­at­ed Press writ­ers Gon­za­lo Solano in Quito, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Meg Kin­nard in Co­lum­bia, South Car­oli­na, con­tributed to this re­port.