← Videos · Foreign Policy & Defense

Secretary Rubio Speaks to the Press at Homestead on the Lethal Strike on a Drug Vessel, Sep. 2, 2025

September 2, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:03:18

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered remarks to the press at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Florida, on September 2, 2025, according to the State Department broadcast.

Rubio said the President had announced “a lethal strike” on a drug vessel that left Venezuela, “operated by a designated narcoterrorist organization,” and referred operational details — the vessel, the drugs aboard, casualties — to the Pentagon. “The President is going to be on offense against drug cartels and drug trafficking into the United States,” he said. “Those days are over” — the days, he said, of cartels acting with impunity while the United States settled for seizing a shipment. Asked whether such operations will continue, he said counterdrug forces will keep operating while vessels are in the region, that the drugs were probably headed to Trinidad or another Caribbean country, and that some of the flow ends up in Puerto Rico, the U.S. mainland and Europe. Asked about legal authority, he said the steps were taken in advance, that the President has designated these groups as terrorist organizations, and deferred to the White House Counsel on the specifics.

Why it matters

These are the Secretary of State’s first on-camera words on the lethal-strike policy against cartel drug vessels — the framing (designated narcoterrorist organizations, no more impunity) that the Ecuador and Mexico availabilities the following two days then built on.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the policy as stated on September 2, 2025 — lethal strikes on drug vessels operated by designated narcoterrorist organizations, with counterdrug operations continuing in the Caribbean. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Press” (official upload, embedded above; Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida). Remarks as delivered 2025-09-02; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store; full transcript at state.gov.