US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mexico "is not doing enough" to confront drug cartels, warning that the threat would ultimately need to be addressed "one way or another."
Rubio made the comments while speaking in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, during a visit to the South American country. He said there are "huge territories in Mexico" that are not governed by the state but by what he called "narco-terrorist organizations."
Rubio acknowledges Mexican crackdown
Rubio acknowledged that the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stepped up operations against criminal organizations and said Mexico has done more than it had in the past. Even so, he said the measures taken so far remain insufficient given the power the cartels have accumulated.
Washington's preferred option, according to Rubio, is to continue cooperating with Mexican authorities to tackle the cartels. But he warned that, ultimately, the organizations would have to be confronted "one way or another."
He said the scale of the problem is such that the cartels are able to directly challenge state authority. As examples of the criminal groups' influence, he pointed to the killings of political candidates, politicians, judges and journalists.
Cartels expanding beyond Mexico's borders
Rubio also warned that cartel activity is not confined within Mexico's borders. He said the groups now use drones and sophisticated trafficking networks to move both drugs and migrants across the region.
His remarks came during a tour of Latin America in which the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking has featured as one of the central themes of his meetings. Sheinbaum, who took office in 2024 as Mexico's first female president, has faced sustained pressure from Washington over cartel violence since taking power.
Tensions between Washington and Mexico City over cartel violence have grown since the Trump administration designated several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in February 2025.
Terrorist designation for Los Tiguerones
While in Ecuador, Rubio also announced that the United States would add the criminal group Los Tiguerones to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, joining an expanding roster of Latin American criminal groups Washington has designated as terrorist organizations in recent years.
