Florida Senator Marco Rubio cited a Justice Department report that showed a “43-count federal indictment against two Chinese nationals who were allegedly ‘operating a conspiracy that manufactured and shipped deadly fentanyl analogues and 250 other drugs to at least 25 countries and 37 states.’”
The fentanyl is being shipped through Central America. And, at a hearing for Francisco Palmieri being nominated to become the ambassador to Honduras, Rubio added on to issue, saying that “There’s a growing body of evidence that these drug trafficking networks that bring fentanyl and its pre-cursors from China and then traffic it to the United States through Mexico, because of Mexican government pressure against them, are increasingly relying on trafficking networks in Guatemala and in Honduras. And I’m not sure that the current status of the Alliance for Prosperity, which is largely geared towards cocaine trafficking and the like has fully stood up to confront this new threat.”
Rubio also added that “I would both want to hear your comments on and perhaps your openness to committing to working on an adjustment to the Alliance for Prosperity, particularly with regards to Honduras, to help them with two things: first, to sort of identify, intercept and stop the fentanyl trafficking that might be using their networks to traffic it into the United States subsequently through Mexico. And second, potentially providing them like an incinerator, which Guatemala has, although my understanding is it’s not exactly working. We need to get it up and working again. The incinerator is used to destroy the pre-cursor chemicals that are used to create some of this. Is that an issue you’ve come across at your time in the desk of the Western Hemisphere and is that the sort of adjustments that we should constantly be looking for in our alliance assistance?”
The Senator concluded by asserting that he is “in favor of stronger border security. I am in favor of more personnel. I believe we have to have immigration laws and they need to be enforced. And I also believe that things like the Alliance for Prosperity are in some ways, in many ways, about border security by preventing the crisis to begin with. And I just hope that in your time there, if confirmed, that you will be and continue to be a strong advocate of how important this program is because there is a view among some that this is a charity program. It is in the national security interest of the United States to address these issues and if we can address it in Honduras—Guatemala too—but in Honduras, we have to spend less time and less effort on the back end to address it. That is why I think this sort of assistance is important for us to say at every forum. It’s not charity—it’s in our interests and it’s actually more cost-effective if it’s being done appropriately.”
