US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended on Wednesday the attacks carried out against vessels in Caribbean waters, arguing that they are in “their hemisphere” and stating that the European Union cannot interfere in US policy.
“I don’t think the European Union can determine what international law is. It certainly can’t determine how the United States defends its national security,” he told the press before reiterating the White House argument that President Donald Trump is acting “in defense” of a country that “is being attacked by organized narco-terrorists in (its) hemisphere.”
Rubio stated that he “finds it interesting that all these countries want us to send and supply, for example, nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe, but when the United States sends aircraft carriers into our hemisphere, where we live, then that’s a problem.”
The head of the diplomatic corps made these statements from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, which is hosting the G7 foreign ministers’ summit. He denied that the U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and the Pacific were discussed in the meeting with his counterparts: “Perhaps they discussed it among themselves, but it wasn’t addressed in any of the meetings we had, neither last night nor today,” he asserted.
The Secretary of State reiterated that it is an anti-drug trafficking operation, stating that “it could be stopped tomorrow (if) they stop sending ships with drugs,” before again labeling the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela a “narco-terrorist regime.”
“They openly cooperate in the shipment of these drugs to the United States and Europe, by the way, so perhaps they should thank us” for the operations, he stated, in remarks that come a day after his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, expressed his “concern” about these attacks that “ignore international law.”
The French foreign minister also stressed, in statements reported by France 24, the need to avoid the “instability caused by possible escalations,” after Venezuela announced the deployment of 200,000 troops in response to the “threat” posed by Washington in the region by sending a new aircraft carrier amid heightened tensions.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed similar sentiments, stating that the multilateral organization remains “very concerned and increasingly worried” about the growing hostilities between Washington and Caracas, and calling for “a reduction in tensions through increased diplomatic dialogue.”
