After Boat Strike, Rubio Says U.S. Will Help Other Nations ‘Blow Up’ Crime Groups

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the Trump administration wants to help partner governments conduct violent strikes against criminal groups, following the playbook the U.S. military used this week to carry out a lethal attack on a boat in the Caribbean.

“Those governments will help us find these people and blow them up,” he said at a news conference in Ecuador. “They might do it themselves, and we’ll help them do it.”

Mr. Rubio made his comments to reporters in the presidential palace in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, alongside Gabriela Sommerfeld, the nation’s foreign minister. Mr. Rubio had private talks earlier with Ms. Sommerfeld and President Daniel Noboa a conservative businessman who was re-elected in April after serving a partial term.

Mr. Rubio said the State Department was designating two crime groups operating in Ecuador, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organizations, giving the U.S. government greater power to impose financial penalties on people linked to them. More groups will likely be designated soon, he added.

Under Mr. Rubio, the State Department has already designated several Mexican and Venezuelan crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations. The Trump administration has said the boat targeted by the United States was used by Tren de Aragua, a criminal group from Venezuela that is among those designated by the State Department. The administration said 11 people on board had been killed.

Mr. Rubio also said Thursday that the State Department would spend an additional $13.7 million to help fight drug trafficking and other crimes, and that the agency would spend $6 million on drone equipment for Ecuador. The two countries are also negotiating terms of a potential new extradition treaty.