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There's been a shift to the right in some Latin American politics, and that's changing the way the U.S. works with those countries to fight drug trafficking. The Trump administration is taking a more militarized approach, and that was clear when Secretary of State Marco Rubio went to three South American countries this week. NPR's Michele Kelemen traveled with him.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Marco Rubio was right at home with the leaders of Ecuador and Colombia, both of whom have U.S. citizenship and ties to Miami. Rubio joked that it was just a couple of years ago when he was seated at a table at a Florida wedding next to Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella.
MARCO RUBIO: (Speaking Spanish).
KELEMEN: "Then he lost his mind and became president," Rubio said. The Colombian leader smiled and pointed to Rubio saying he's next. There was no joking around when it came to the war on drug cartels.
PRESIDENT ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA: (Speaking Spanish).
KELEMEN: The Colombian president said, "we are going to do whatever it takes to be able to attack these criminals and put them in a place they deserve, either in prison or a tomb." The next stop was Ecuador, where President Daniel Noboa gave Rubio one of the country's highest honors and a golden sash on this, Rubio's second visit as secretary of state.
PRESIDENT DANIEL NOBOA: (Speaking Spanish).
KELEMEN: Noboa says he hopes to have Rubio visit many times and accompany Ecuador in what he calls this hard fight to change the continent once and for all.
(APPLAUSE)
KELEMEN: Security topped the agenda in talks with Peru's newly elected president, Keiko Fujimori, who also ran on a tough-on-crime platform. She's joining the U.S.-led coalition to fight narco-terrorists.
PRESIDENT KEIKO FUJIMORI: So we are extremely happy, and we are thankful for Peru to be part now of the Shield of the Americas.
KELEMEN: Secretary Rubio has made the region a big focus of his tenure, and that's long overdue, says Benjamin Gedan, who advised the Obama administration on Latin America and is now with the Stimson Center.
BENJAMIN GEDAN: But it's really narrow, and it's focused almost entirely on engaging with militaries in the region to fight drug traffickers.
KELEMEN: And what the region needs, he says, is more investment, not just complaints from the Trump administration about China's economic interests, including a multibillion-dollar port in Peru.
GEDAN: The Peruvians take great pride in that port and see it as a real driver of their foreign economic policy. The same is true in Colombia, where the Chinese are building this major metro in Bogota. The same is true in Ecuador, where the conservative president just traveled to China to try to increase access for shrimp, one of its most important exports.
KELEMEN: Trump administration tariffs are another big concern. Secretary Rubio says negotiators are working on that, and he's rejected criticism of his focus on security, blaming leftist governments in Latin America for failing to take seriously the threat of what he calls narco-terrorism.
RUBIO: 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.
KELEMEN: There is a lot of nervousness in the region about U.S. military interventions. The U.S. ousted Venezuela's president earlier this year and made an oil deal with the country's interim leaders. The U.S. military has also killed more than 227 people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Rubio said Ecuador's president didn't discuss with him any concerns that fishermen in that country have been killed in these strikes.
RUBIO: 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.
KELEMEN: And the secretary says he's glad to have found common cause with new right-wing governments in the region. Michele Kelemen, NPR News.
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