DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

The US is about to declare the "Cartel of the Suns" linked to Maduro a terrorist organization: But what is this cartel and does it exist?

2025-11-24 14:30:24Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The US is about to declare the "Cartel of the Suns" linked to Maduro a
Photo illustration

The Trump administration is expected to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday by designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization. But the entity the U.S. government claims is run by Maduro is not a cartel in the strict sense of the word.

The designation is the latest move in the Trump administration's campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S. Announcing the move about a week ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the "Cartel de los Soles," or "Cartel of the Suns," of being "responsible for terrorist violence" in the Western Hemisphere.

The planned move on Monday comes as Trump is weighing military action against Venezuela, which he has not ruled out, despite raising the possibility of talks with Maduro. Ground strikes or other actions would be a major expansion of a months-long operation that has included a massive military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and raids on ships accused of drug trafficking, killing more than 80 people.

The term “Cartel de los Soles” began to be used by Venezuelans in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military officers who had become wealthy from drug trafficking. As corruption spread nationwide, first under former President Hugo Chávez and then under Maduro, the term was expanded to include police and government officials, as well as activities such as illegal mining and fuel trafficking. The “suns” in the name refer to the insignia on the uniforms of high-ranking military officers.

This term was elevated to the level of a drug trafficking organization run by Maduro in 2020, when the US Department of Justice during Trump's first term indicted the Venezuelan leader and his inner circle on narcoterrorism and other charges.

“This is not a group,” said Adam Isaacson, director of defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America. “It’s not like a group where people identify as members. They don’t have regular meetings. They don’t have a hierarchy.”

Extending the terrorism label to cartels

Until this year, the foreign terrorist organization label was reserved for groups like the Islamic State or al-Qaeda that use violence for political ends. But the Trump administration applied the designation in February to eight Latin American criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and other activities.

The administration blames these self-proclaimed groups for operating the ships being hit, but it rarely identifies them and has not provided evidence. It says the attacks, which began off the coast of Venezuela and then expanded into the eastern Pacific Ocean, are aimed at stopping the flow of narcotics to American cities.

But many, including Maduro himself, see the military moves as an attempt to end the party's 26-year rule in government.

Since the arrival of US ships and troops in the Caribbean months ago, Venezuela's US-backed political opposition has revived its long-standing pledge to remove Maduro from power, fueling speculation about the purpose of what the Trump administration has called a counter-drug operation. Trump, like his predecessor, does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela's president.

Maduro is in his third term after ruling party loyalists declared him the winner of last year's presidential election, despite credible evidence that the opposition candidate had defeated him by more than twice the vote. He and senior officials have been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses against real and perceived opponents of the government, including after the July 2024 elections.

Hegseth: Labeling brings "new options"

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the upcoming declaration of the “Cartel de los Soles” would give the US “a host of new options” to deal with Maduro. But Hegseth, speaking in an interview with the conservative media outlet OAN, did not provide details on those options and declined to say whether the US military plans to strike ground targets inside Venezuela.

"So nothing is off the table, but nothing is automatically on the table," he said, according to the Associated Press.

Trump administration officials have signaled that they see a scenario where Maduro remains in power as an acceptable outcome. But while Trump is considering a range of military and non-military options, including covert action by the CIA, there is a strong belief within the administration that Maduro’s rule “is not sustainable.”


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×