President Trump has been hyper-focused on Venezuela lately – but why?
Back on November 16th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Nicolas Maduro-led “Cartel de los Soles” would be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). This followed the Treasury Department sanctioning the same organization back in July as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” So, what exactly is the Cartel de los Soles?
Venezuelans began using the term Cartel de los Soles in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military officers who had grown rich from drug-running. As corruption expanded nationwide, first under the late President Hugo Chávez and then under Maduro, its use loosely expanded to police and government officials as well as activities like illegal mining and fuel trafficking. The “suns” in the name refer to the epaulettes affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking military officers.
The umbrella term was elevated to a Maduro-led drug-trafficking organization in 2020, when the U.S. Justice Department in Trump’s first term announced the indictment of Venezuela’s leader and his inner circle on narcoterrorism and other charges.
“It is not a group,” said Adam Isaacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America organization. “It’s not like a group that people would ever identify themselves as members. They don’t have regular meetings. They don’t have a hierarchy.”
They may not have a hierarchy per se, but Maduro is at the top and intends to stay there, as he most likely lost the 2024 presidential election, but had himself declared the winner anyway. This follows the pattern that occurred during the first Trump administration, where the president welcomed the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaido, to the State of the Union address in February of 2020, in hopes that Maduro would finally be ousted after recognizing Guaido as the actual leader of Venezuela. Well, then COVID happened, the Biden administration tried schmoozing Maduro for oil, and the Venezuelan strongman has continued to hang on to power.
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