Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US will “blow up” foreign crime groups if needed, possibly in collaboration with other countries.
The comments come during his trip to Ecuador, and days after US forces carried out a strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea.
Mr Rubio said “co-operative governments” would help identify smugglers, adding that President Donald Trump wanted to wage war on these groups because they’ve been waging war on the US for years.
Meanwhile in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro has announced a “major organizational and mobilization of forces” by the Bolivarian National Militia for today.
A report by El Pitazo says this is in response to what he called “threats” from the US.
Mr Maduro continues to reject the claim that the deployment is intended to combat drug trafficking, insisting instead that his country is facing the “greatest threat ever seen” in the last hundred years.
