QUITO, Sept 5 \u2013 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US will \u201cblow up\u201d foreign crime groups if needed, possibly in collaboration with other countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they\u2019re gonna help us find these people and blow them up, if that\u2019s what it takes,\u201d Rubio said during a visit to Ecuador.<\/p>\n
He also announced the US will designate two of Ecuador\u2019s largest criminal gangs, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organisations.<\/p>\n
The comments come days after US forces carried out a strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea. <\/p>\n
The White House says it killed 11 drug-traffickers, though it did not release their identities.<\/p>\n
Asked whether smugglers coming from US allies, like Mexico and Ecuador, could face \u201cunilateral execution\u201d from US forces, Rubio said \u201cco-operative governments\u201d would help identify smugglers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president has said he wants to wage war on these groups because they\u2019ve been waging war on us for 30 years and no-one has responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s no need to do that in many cases with the friendly governments, because the friendly governments are going to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ecuadorian and Mexican governments have not said they would assist with military strikes.<\/p>\n
In the wake of Tuesday\u2019s strike on the vessel in the southern Caribbean, President Donald Trump said the military operation had targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as they transported illegal narcotics towards the US.<\/p>\n
Legal experts told BBC Verify the strike may have violated international human rights and maritime law.<\/p>\n
Late on Thursday, the defence department accused two Venezuelan military aircraft of flying near a US vessel in a \u201chighly provocative move designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations\u201d. Venezuela is yet to respond to the claim.<\/p>\n
Also on Thursday, Rubio announced Washington would issue $13.5m (\u00a310m) in security aid and $6m in drone technology to help Ecuador crack down on drug trafficking.<\/p>\n
Violence in Ecuador has soared in recent years as criminal gangs battle for control over lucrative cocaine routes<\/p>\n
According to government data, about 70% of the world\u2019s cocaine now passes through Ecuador in transit from neighbouring producing countries, like Colombia and Peru, to markets in the US, Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n
This designation was desired by the Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who described his clampdown on criminal gangs as a \u201cwar.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, he said he would be \u201cglad\u201d if the US considered Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as terrorist groups because \u201cthat\u2019s what they really are\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also said he wanted US and European armies to join his fight.<\/p>\n
Noboa is trying to change Ecuador\u2019s constitution to allow foreign military bases in the country again \u2013 after the last US one was closed in 2009.<\/p>\n
The designation means the US can target the assets and properties of anyone associated with the groups and share intelligence with the Ecuadorian government without limitations so it could take \u201cpotentially lethal\u201d actions.<\/p>\n
Soaring cartel violence in Ecuador has been a driver behind migration from the South American country to the US, too.<\/p>\n
According to immigration law experts, it is unclear whether designating cartels as terrorist organisations may help or hinder their victims who seek asylum in the US.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, it may mean they are now considered victims of \u201cterrorism\u2019, but on the other hand some fear those who have had to pay extortions to gangs could be penalised for \u2018materially supporting\u2019 them.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
QUITO, Sept 5 \u2013 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US will \u201cblow up\u201d foreign crime groups if needed, possibly in collaboration with other countries. \u201cNow they\u2019re gonna help us find these people and blow them up, if that\u2019s what it takes,\u201d Rubio said during a visit to Ecuador. He also announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}