U.S. AND MEXICO TO BOOST TIES ON SECURITY

Pact, after Trump's strike in Caribbean, reflects concerns over gunboat diplomacy.

- BY PATRICK J. MCDONNELL AND CECILIA SÁNCHEZ VIDAL

HECTOR VIVAS Getty Images

SECRETARY of State Marco Rubio speaks Wednesday during his visit to Mexico.

U.S and Mexican officials agreed Wednesday to bolster cooperation on joint security concerns, including drug smuggling, illegal migration and arms trafficking, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended President Trump's controversial decision to order an attack on an alleged smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea.

The top U.S. diplomat held his first meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum a day after the dramatic Pentagon strike raised the specter of a unilateral U.S. military attack on suspected cartel targets in Mexico.

Tuesday's action on a vessel that had departed Venezuela killed 11 seaborne "narcoterrorists" who were transporting drugs destined for the United States, said Trump, who released what he described as a video of the attack.

In Mexico, Rubio hailed the strike, stating that traditional interdiction efforts had failed to stop the flow of drugs via the Caribbean.

"What will stop them is when you blow them up," Rubio told reporters in Mexico City. "You get rid of them."

Such strikes may be ongoing and will probably continue, Rubio said, providing no additional details.

The secretary of State sidestepped a question about whether the action, which critics denounced as illegal under international law, signaled a return to "gunboat diplomacy" in a region where U.S. interventions have historically stoked resentment.