Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Press

SECRETARY RUBIO:  All right, let’s go.  Hold on.

QUESTION:  Secretary Rubio —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  Can I – are you worried at all that U.S. partnership with Ecuador and some of the accusations of human rights abuses or disappearances will undermine and – the U.S. partnership with Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela, Bukele and some of his accused abuses – will undermine the goodwill that you guys are —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, but all these governments are – for example, Ecuador is going to get attacked by left-wing groups that have ties to terrorists.  These groups – you know the brutal – the real human rights violations happening in this part of the world is on behalf of narcoterrorists and this web of narcoterrorists who, like – they cut people’s heads off; they decapitate people.  They go through and they extort people, like small vendors, in these towns, in these cities, in these countries.  These vendors – that used to happen – in El Salvador you couldn’t even run a small coffee shop.  They’d come in an extort you for money or they’d kill your children.  These are the real human rights violator; these are the real terrorists.  And these are the people that are being dealt with.

And you have to deal with these people in a very strong way, and that’s who we’re aligning with. We are aligning with governments and leaders that are willing to be serious about taking these groups on, as opposed to leaders who in the past, like we had with Petro in Colombia, are actually on the take or aligned with these terrorist organizations and these narco groups and so forth.

So you have to make a choice here.  We’re going to choose on the side of leaders that are going to be serious about taking these groups on and eliminating them once and for all.  Otherwise, those groups – those terrorist groups – will eat these countries up.  They will become stronger than the governments in these countries.  They will run over these countries.  So I’m glad we have leaders in the region that are willing to be strong and take these groups on.

QUESTION:  What about —

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, there’s a sense out there – an impression, I guess – that the strategy, the actual strategy towards combating these groups, and especially on the water, has changed a bit from where, when it began, it was just you blew the ships out of the water.  And now it seems that you intercept them first, stop and get the people off, and then —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  It depends.

QUESTION:  Then sink them.  So (inaudible).

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, it depends.  So it depends on the country.  So for example, with – no, because in many of these, these are bilateral operations.  They’re – they’re occurring, for example, in territorial waters.  So when you cooperate with Ecuador – they’ve been very cooperative – we’re jointly operating with them.  So it depends on the vessel; it depends on the threat it poses; it depends on where it’s located.  But these are part of the bilateral agreements we have with these countries, which is an – I think an incredible advance for the first time to have countries that are willing to participate in these efforts in their territorial waters.  And then obviously we have to operate according to their laws in their territorial waters or their systems and protocols that they set in place.  The important point is that these routes are being disrupted.  These routes are being ended.

QUESTION:  Right.  But does that mean that these countries – it’s more palatable or legal for these countries to do it in this way, stopping the ship, getting the people off, and returning them to the —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, again, it depends – and we still blow-up ships if need be.

QUESTION:  No, I know, but they’re empty now.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, again, it depends.  Every target is selected.  Obviously it goes through all the lawyers at the Department of War.  But it’s also – these are joint operations, so you’re operating in conjunction with another nation-state.  And so when you’re conducting a joint operation in territorial waters, you have to reach an understanding as to how those operations are going to occur, and every one of these countries have their own laws, they have their own systems that they have to comply with.  Some can be more aggressive than others.

So I think, really, it’s a strike-by-strike or operation-by-operation determination, but again, understand the difference between that and what you saw early last year is those were unilateral operations in international waters.  These are combined operations in territorial waters, where we are working with sovereign nations in their own territorial waters.  And when you do that, you have to do it based on the understandings that you have with them, and they have to comply with their own laws, their own systems, their own protocols.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —

QUESTION:  (In Spanish.) Ecuador has high expectations regarding its trade relationship.  We Ecuadorians have high expectations regarding what will happen with the trade relationship.  We still have surcharges, and you pointed out yesterday in your column which was published in various media outlets that, as you continue to work on security issues, the scope of security measures will expand.  Could we expect to have a trade agreement in the near future?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  (In Spanish.) We are working on it.  And keep in mind that the tariffs aren’t specifically directed against Ecuador, they apply to all countries around the world.  And the way to deal with that is through a bilateral agreement – and we’re making good progress in those negotiations.  We’ve made significant progress, and I expect good news soon.  That’s related, but it’s not a condition for continuing our cooperation. In terms of security – and beyond tariffs – there’s a whole range of investment opportunities.  Bringing investment into this country creates jobs and at the same time, helps revive industries that were being plundered by these groups and gangs – these bandits, criminals, and terrorists who are stealing the gold, stealing the copper, stealing everything.  This country’s wealth isn’t benefiting the people; it’s benefiting people who don’t even live here.  And that’s also part of the economic recovery. 

(In English) The question was about – look, we’re engaged – it’s important to understand our tariffs on Ecuador and – it’s not on Ecuador.  We have tariffs on everybody because of the 302 process.  But we are engaged in talks.  We’ve – they’ve progressed very well.  I hope we’re going to have very good news soon.  But the tariff situation is not a condition of closer economic cooperation.

As an example, this is a country that has incredible critical mineral reserves.  They have some of the largest copper mines in the region.  They have illicit gold mining going on right now.  None of this money is benefiting the people of this country.  All of that is being stolen by these terrorist organizations, and the money is going into the pockets of people many of whom don’t even live in this country.  They live in Spain.  They’re hiding in Mexico.  They don’t even live here.

So part of our cooperation with them is ensuring that they can recapture and retake what belongs to the people of this country, and have professionalized operations in these mines that are environmentally sensitive, that pay the workers what they should be paid, and that the revenues from that benefit the people of this country and create jobs for the people of the country, not for a bunch of terrorists and not for a bunch of criminals who have long run roughshod – not just in Ecuador but all these other countries – oftentimes, sadly, with the cooperation of elected officials and government officials in these countries.  And this administration here is putting an end to that.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, there have been three attacks on U.S. ships in – some have been very close calls, and officials —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  On what, naval vessels?

QUESTION:  On naval vessels, sorry, yeah.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  And officials have been telling us that they’re certain that Iran is getting help.  Who’s it coming from, and what is the U.S. going to do about it if they’re getting help?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I don’t know what official told you that.

QUESTION:  Some other official in the administration —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I don’t know.  I mean, these are anonymous people.  They make stuff up all the time.  The truth —

QUESTION:  So you don’t think Iran is getting help?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  We don’t believe anybody is giving Iran anything that’s changing the dynamics or the parameters of what we’re seeing.  At the end of the day is they continue to fire at our naval ships, and when they fire at our naval ships, they pay a price in tankers.  They lose a lot of tankers.  They don’t hit our ships, but they lose five tankers.  They lost five more last night – four were damaged; one was sunk – so they’ll continue to pay price for that.  In the meantime, we’re going to continue to strangle them economically.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, returning to the issue of boat strikes in Latin American waters, the United States has been very open about these boat strikes; it’s released videos of most of them.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Mm-hmm.

QUESTION:  But there were three earlier this year, three boats that were blown up earlier this year, near Galapagos in Ecuadorian waters.  Our reporting has found that that was a CIA covert program.  Why has the United States not publicly acknowledged that, and is there any more you can say about these three (inaudible) strikes?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I don’t – I’m not going to comment on your reporting.  I don’t even know if your reporting is accurate when you say that.  I can tell you that we have – we – but I’m not talking about that incident.  In general, we haven’t hidden the fact that we are going to go after narco-trafficking boats.  We’ve been doing it now for over a year, and now the difference is that we’re doing it in collaboration and in cooperation with – working alongside countries in the region, in their territorial waters.  And in fact, some of these countries are taking the strikes themselves. 

So that’s what I can tell you.  We’re going to continue to do it.  And we’re not just going to continue to do that.  These terrorist groups have to be dismantled – not just by blowing up their boats and taking their boats; they have to be dismantled financially.  I don’t know if you guys fully comprehend how deeply rooted into societies these criminal bands have become.  I mean, you had people in governments here that are complicit with them and what they were doing.  It’s illegal mining, but it goes all the way down to the street level – murder, extortion, murder for hire, you name it.  I mean, these groups became more powerful than governments in many cases.  And if you don’t confront these groups, they will eat these countries alive.  It’s like a cancer that continues to grow until you don’t literally have a state anymore.  You become an ungovernable territory.  And we don’t want to see that, they don’t want to see it, and I’m glad that we have leaders in this region that are serious about going after these groups, because if we didn’t, we would have failed country after failed country in the region.  And so we’re very happy that we have partners now in this region, in Colombia, in Ecuador, in El Salvador, and in other places that are being very aggressive about taking these groups on and dismantling them before it’s too late.

QUESTION:  (Inaudible.)

QUESTION:  Did President Noboa express any concern, though, about fishermen who have been caught up in this, who have been killed or arrested?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  I mean, I didn’t discuss it with him.  I think at the end of the day these are joint operations.  We’re conducting them in coordination with them.  And as I said, our goal is not to go after fishermen; our goal is to go after drug traffickers.  Our goal is to go after drug boats.  Our goal is to go after illegal fishing and stop those from going out there.  There are – there is illegal fishing.  They’re raping the Galapagos.  I mean, they are destroying that part of the world with illegal fishing vessels that are out there.  We don’t bomb them, but we certainly want to arrest people that are involved in illegal fishing.  Because again, those fisheries belong to Ecuador; they don’t belong to illegal narco-trafficking groups and these terrorist organizations.

QUESTION:  (In Spanish.) I don’t know if you’re concerned that, as a result of the Monroe Doctrine, there is a possibility that leftist movements might begin to emerge in Latin America.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  (In Spanish.) The thing is that leftist movements exist in Latin America; they have existed for a long time and have ruined the countries.  What have leftist movements done in this hemisphere?  Nothing but misery – misery in Venezuela, misery in Cuba, misery in Nicaragua, in this country.  How did all these criminal gangs get in here?  In collaboration with whom?  With the left, with the leftist movement.  What happened with Petro in Colombia – a country that for four years was unable to fight against these criminal groups as it should have?  They even have ties to those groups.  So those movements already exist.  What we’re not going to allow is to live in a region that eventually threatens the United States’ national security – a region with transnational groups that are more powerful than the government, armed with government weapons, drones, and a range of military technology that threatens the State and will eventually threaten the United States.    

(In English) The question was whether I was worried about left-wing groups or left-wing movements rising in – as a result of U.S. policy.  Left-wing groups have already been here, and they’ve destroyed the hemisphere.  The left wing destroyed Venezuela, the left wing destroyed Cuba, the left wing destroyed Nicaragua.  The left wing has basically destroyed every country they’ve gotten a hold of in the hemisphere.  Not only have they done that here in Ecuador as well, not only have they done that in Bolivia – look what Bolivia has suffered for 25 years because of left-wing governance.  On – and in fact, not only did these groups destroy these countries because of bad economic policies in places like Ecuador and in Colombia over the last four years; these left-wing groups are actually in alliance with these criminal narco-trafficking organizations.  They are aligned with them.  They are allied with them.  They permit them to conduct these activities in a nefarious alliance between them.

So I’m glad that’s being confronted.  And by the way, these groups are not just threats to these countries; they ultimately become threats to the United States.  I work for the United States of America.  And if a threat in this region is emerging to the national security and national interest of our country, we are going to address it.  And what we’re very happy about is that we can now address it in partnership with other presidents and other leaders in this region that feel the same way.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —

QUESTION:  Secretary Rubio, if you’re talking about groups that are stronger than the state and fracturing the states, it sounds like a pretty similar situation to Mexico.  What’s – what —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, Mexico’s bad.  It’s a bad situation.

QUESTION:  So what’s the – given the fact that the Mexican Government isn’t welcoming, or draws a pretty bright line about what it will accept in terms of U.S. military involvement, how – what is the plan for that?  How can you overcome that and have this kind of more tough approach that you’re describing?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, that’s a – yeah.  The case of Mexico’s a – it’s an even graver challenge because of the size of the country, because of the power of the cartels that are there.  I don’t think it’s any mystery to anybody that there are territories, vast territories in Mexico that are not governed by the state; they are controlled by these narco-terrorist organizations.

Now, I will say this:  In fairness, the Mexicans have done more than they’ve ever done before to go after these groups.  But it is still not nearly enough.  They know that; we’ve expressed that to them.  And we hope to work cooperatively with them to do more.  Because at the end, the head of the snake are these cartels in Mexico.  And they are a threat to the Mexican state, and the people of Mexico will tell you that.  The number one issue in Mexico, poll after poll shows, is security.  Political candidates are routinely assassinated in Mexico; judges routinely assassinated; journalists who report on the cartels routinely assassinated by these groups.  So these groups pose an enormous threat right on our border.  They have drones now.  They’re using drones to try to traffic drugs and people across the border. 

These groups are very dangerous, they’re very well financed, they need to be confronted.  Our hope and our intent is to do it in partnership with Mexico.  That’s the ideal.  But eventually, that threat will have to be confronted, one way or the other.  But our hope is to do it cooperatively with Mexican authorities. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —

QUESTION:  (In Spanish.) Ecuador is taking action against criminal groups with support from the United States.  Is there no risk of mistakes being made – for example, with the interceptions of vessels that have occurred in recent weeks in the Pacific, which have raised concerns that fishermen engaged in their work could die?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  (In Spanish.) Nobody is looking to kill fishermen here.  But the greatest risk is that these groups will continue to operate, because they are killing people.  While some cities here are very safe, there are others with murder rates higher than any other city in the region and that poses a danger to the people.  I imagine that those listening to me are familiar with some of these cities, either personally or through people they know who have been threatened, murdered, had their businesses taken away, or have suffered at the hands of these criminal gangs.  We must stand up to these people; we must do something.  And I’m glad there’s a President here who’s willing to take action. That is the greatest risk we face.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  All right.  We got to wrap up.  Quick, go. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, will you meet with Delcy Rodríguez if she comes to New York for the United Nations General Assembly?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Maybe, maybe.  We’ve talked quite a bit.  Maybe.  She’ll be there in New York.  I don’t know if she’s actually going, but if she does, that probably will happen.  But we haven’t scheduled anything yet.  But sure, we’ve talked a bunch of times. 

QUESTION:  Ecuador rejected foreign bases here, I think last year.  Did you discuss expanding the U.S. military presence?  How far would you like to – did you discuss that with Noboa today or —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, we’re conducting joint operations now.  We don’t necessarily need to have a base here in order to do that.  They had a referendum vote last year.  We didn’t discuss that today.  I’m aware of the vote that they had.  But the most important thing is not having a base or not having a base.  We’re open to it if they change their mind.  But in the interim, we’re operating – our elite forces are operating alongside one another going after these groups, and I think that’s an incredible development, and that’s an important development.  That’s the only way you’re going to beat these narcotrafficking terrorists.

All right.  One more, and then we got to go, because —

QUESTION:  (In Spanish.) Ecuador has signed an agreement with the United States as a third country to receive migrants.  And, as I understand it, a group from Ecuador is coming.  How does that agreement work?  Where will they arrive, what kind of migrants are they, and what nationalities do they have?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  (In Spanish.) Well, first of all, obviously, when you make an agreement with a country, that country has the right to see a list.  We send them a list of names with their backgrounds and all that information, and they decide who gets in and who doesn’t.  They can veto any name.  “No, I don’t accept this person.”  They even control the number: 50, 20, 10.  That’s up to the governments.  That’s the agreement.  It’s a bilateral agreement.  We’re not going to send a plane full of people they don’t know and with as many people as we want.  It’s a bilateral agreement.  And most people who are in the United States illegally, when given the option to go to a third country or return to their own country, they return to their own country.  The vast majority do so, and that is really the most important function you have in those agreements.

QUESTION:  (In Spanish.) Where do people who are deported to a third country go? I mean, Ecuador, for example, where?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  (In Spanish.) We provide funding and assistance to help these people get settled.  Eventually, I imagine these individuals will seek to return to their own countries, which, at the end of the day, is the goal.  And they have the right to do so immediately.  If they decide tomorrow that they’re going to return to their country, they aren’t sent to a third country; however, the countries with which we have these agreements always have the right to say, “I don’t want this person,” or “It can’t be 20, it has to be 10.”  They always have that option.  All right, one more and we go.

(In English) All right.  One more and we go.  Okay, I will – all right.

QUESTION:  No, I have – I have one question.  Yesterday, President De La Espriella was talking about his plan to expand investment and have this kind of reciprocal economic growth and investment between the United States and Colombia.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  But oftentimes, the U.S. companies haven’t invested as much as U.S. governments would have liked for – maybe because of internal regulations or for whatever reason.  Do you think that the United States, the Trump Administration, can actually make the investment happen?  Because I think one of the things we saw in Venezuela was that this deal that you all just finalized came after the U.S. oil majors weren’t willing to go in in the same way.  What’s your thought regarding company —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  No.  Well, first of all, that’s an inaccurate description.  And these people that have reported it, they don’t know what they’re talking about.  The problem is that we moved faster than the private sector on the investments in Venezuela because we had a very unique opportunity.  But there are – Chevron’s already expanded their operations.  There are other smaller operations that are going in.  And then there are companies like Exxon that, so far, have decided not to go in because they have a long history of expropriation, and frankly, they don’t like the fields that are being offered to them, so they’d prefer not to go in.  Someone else will go in.

So – but the deal had nothing to do because of American companies weren’t moving fast enough.  We just had a very unique opportunity to be involved in something that was beneficial to the country of the United States, who I work for, but also beneficial, in the long term especially, for the people of Venezuela.

In the case of Colombia, look, attracting investment there – obviously, there’s always going to be security concerns.  If you don’t have security, no one’s going to invest in the country – security meaning physical security, but also legal security.  Is the government stable?  Are the laws going to be applied?  That’s always important.  And I think with a new president and a new administration a lot of that is going to be solved.  And then there’s just the mechanisms – identifying investment opportunities and pairing the investment opportunity with the American company.

I think in the case of Colombia it’s going to be less problematic, because there has been a long history of American investment in Colombia already.  And I think the only thing we’re working through is there are some programs – whether it’s Millennium Challenge, whether it’s some of our investment funds – that can serve as a catalyst for some of that investment to happen.  So we’re trying to identify whether some of these programs can be used to serve as a catalyst to speed up that investment and that economic recuperation, especially in areas that involve critical minerals and energy. 

Okay?

QUESTION:  Thanks.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Natural gas – natural gas is important.  Okay, guys.  Thank you. 

QUESTION:  Thank you.