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The declaration of the cartel as a "terrorist organization" gave the US legitimacy to arrest Maduro...
The United States accuses Nicolas Maduro of being the head of a criminal drug trafficking network known as the “Cartel de los Soles,” known in Albanian as the “Cartel of the Suns.” The U.S. has designated it a foreign terrorist organization.
According to Washington, this criminal network is led by the Venezuelan president and other high-level officials in his regime. And this classification gives US authorities more power to take legal, financial and operational action against the individuals involved and the structures that collaborate with them.
Maduro was arrested, but the existence of the cartel itself remains controversial. Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry has categorically rejected the accusation, calling it a “new and ridiculous lie.” Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister and one of the most powerful figures in Maduro’s regime, who is considered part of the cartel by Washington, has called the “Cartel de los Soles” a “fabrication.” He has accused the US of using the term as an excuse to label its political opponents in Latin America. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has also expressed similar sentiments, describing it as “a far-right fantasy to overthrow independent governments in the region.”
But the US State Department insists that the network is real and has infiltrated all levels of the Venezuelan state, from the military and intelligence services to the judiciary and legislative system. The term “Cartel de los Soles” first appeared in the early 1990s, following drug trafficking charges against a National Guard general whose rank was indicated by the “sun” symbols on his uniform. Since then, the name has been used to identify senior military officers suspected of involvement in the drug trafficking network.
According to experts, the network took shape as a result of the disruption of traditional cocaine trafficking routes from Colombia in the late 1980s, when the Medellín cartel was disintegrating. Venezuela became an alternative for traffickers, and during the government of Hugo Chávez, the network consolidated even more. Chávez severed ties with the DEA (the US Drug Enforcement Agency) and forged closer ties with leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia, such as the FARC, which were known for financing drugs. This created a vacuum of international oversight and paved the way for the Venezuelan military to become involved in international trafficking.
Former DEA agents and senior US officials claim that not only did the FARC find safe haven in Venezuela, but also that many state institutions were involved in the trafficking: from the traffic police to the air force and navy. According to them, hundreds of tons of cocaine were sent from Venezuela to the US and Europe in collaboration with the FARC.
Organized crime experts point out that the “Cartel of the Suns” does not function as a centralized criminal structure, but as a vast system of state corruption, where functionaries earn their share through control of transportation points such as airports, ports or border crossings. In the conditions of a severe economic crisis and the regime’s inability to pay the army and police, tacit permission to cooperate with drug networks has become the main way to maintain loyalty.
In 2020, the US Department of Justice indicted Maduro and 14 other officials, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, former intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal, and General Cliver Alcalá. The US alleges that these individuals helped transport cocaine from Latin America to the US and had close ties to the FARC. Several of these figures have surrendered and pleaded guilty in US courts, including Carvajal and Alcalá, who have testified against the Maduro regime and admitted their involvement in drug operations.
According to US prosecutors, Maduro and his allies have used drugs as a "weapon" to finance the regime and exert political influence in the region, and even to destabilize the US through "massive supplies of poison" in the form of cocaine. / Pamphlet
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