Rubio visits Ecuador as US military strike on Venezuelan boat overshadows talks

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is wrapping up a brief trip to Latin America with a stop in Ecuador as countries in the region nervously watch the Trump administration step up military activity to combat drug trafficking and illegal migration.

Rubio’s meetings in Quito on Thursday follow talks a day earlier with Mexican leaders that were overshadowed by a U.S. military strike in the southern Caribbean this week. The Trump administration asserts that it targeted a Venezuelan drug-running ship crewed by members of the Tren de Aragua gang. U.S. officials say the vessel’s cargo was intended for the United States and that the strike killed 11 people.

Rubio defended the action and offered no justification other than to say the boat posed an “immediate threat” to the U.S. and that Trump opted to “blow it up” rather than follow what had been standard procedure to stop and board, arrest the crew and seize any contraband on board.

“Interdiction doesn’t work,” Rubio said Wednesday. “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know, but the point is the president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations.”

The strike got a mixed reaction from leaders around Latin America, where the U.S. history of military intervention and gunboat diplomacy is still fresh. Many, like officials in Mexico, were careful not to outright condemn the attack but stressed the importance of protecting national sovereignty and warning that expanded U.S. military involvement might actually backfire.

Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Ramón de la Fuente, speaking to reporters alongside Rubio, emphasized his country’s preference for “nonintervention, peaceful solution of conflicts.”

Ecuador has its own issues with narcotics trafficking and also has been looked to by the Trump administration as a possible destination to deport non-Ecuadorian migrants from the United States. U.S. officials have said they would like to secure an agreement with Ecuador that would have it accept such deportees, but the status of negotiations with Quito was not clear.

Before his meeting with Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, Rubio said in a post on X that the U.S. and Ecuador are “aligned as key partners on ending illegal immigration and combatting transnational crime and terrorism.”

Rubio is also visiting the Andean country to argue against its close ties and reliance on China.