We are at war with the cartels who are killing a hundred thousand of our people, mostly young people, every year. Every president has ignored them, and now they are trained by Middle East terrorist organizations, have military equipment, including drones. They must be defeated before they become unbeatable.
Rubio on Wednesday said that the traditional policy of intercepting drug-carrying vessels had not worked. Instead, the US is “going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations.”
“The United States has long, for many, many years, established intelligence that allow us to interdict and stop drug boats. We did that. And it doesn’t work,” Rubio said at a press conference in Mexico City.
“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” he said, arguing that interdiction doesn’t work because drug cartels plan to lose 2% of their cargo.
The top US diplomat said the US had intelligence that the vessel coming from Venezuela, with alleged ties to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, “was headed towards, eventually, the United States.”
“Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” Rubio said.
Go to the link or listen here:
The US has designated MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist groups and plans to include two Ecuador gangs which Rubio calls “vicious animals.”
The announcement came as Rubio traveled to Ecuador to meet with its leaders in a trip to Latin America this week that has been overshadowed by a U.S. military strike against a similarly designated gang, Tren de Aragua. The strike has raised concerns in the region about whether the Trump administration will step up military activity to combat drug trafficking and illegal migration.
The two new designees, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, are Ecuadorian gangs blamed for much of the violence that began since the COVID-19 pandemic. The designation, Rubio said, brings “all sorts of options” for the U.S. government to work in conjunction with the government of Ecuador to crack down on these groups.
Slowly but surely, despite Democrat lawfare through bad judges and blocking appointments of prosecutors with blue slips (and outrageous abuse of legislative power to wrongly block administrative prerogatives),the Trump administration is ramping up in more and more means to Make Americans Safe Again.