US will label supposed Venezuelan drug cartel ‘headed by Maduro’ as terrorist organization | US news
The United States said it would designate the Venezuelan drug cartel allegedly led by Nicolás Maduro as a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration sent more mixed messages about its crusade against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.
The move to target the already banned Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Sun) group was announced by Marco Rubio on Sunday. “The group led by illegitimate Nicolás Maduro has corrupted government institutions in Venezuela and is responsible for terrorist violence carried out by and with other designated FTOs, as well as drug trafficking into the United States and Europe,” the US secretary of state tweeted, causing a stir among Maduro’s hard-line opponents, who interpreted the announcement as evidence that Washington was preparing to intensify pressure to remove the South American dictator from power.
But those hopes faded shortly after Rubio’s announcement, when Trump hinted he might be ready to negotiate with Maduro representatives. “We may be having some conversations with Maduro and we’ll see how that plays out. They want to talk,” Trump told reporters.
After returning to the White House in January, Trump, who tried but failed to oust Maduro in his first term, took a different approach to relations with Caracas. The US president ordered his special envoy, Ric Grenell, to visit Maduro and some of his top officials as part of negotiations on deportation flights, US prisoners in Venezuela and natural resources.
But those talks appear to have fallen by the wayside, as Venezuela hawks such as Rubio and Stephen Miller have reportedly taken control of policy in the South American country in recent months, although observers believe some channels are being kept open.
Since August, the Trump administration has ratcheted up tensions on the Maduro regime with a series of deadly attacks targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and the largest naval deployment in the region since the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.
The State Department announced a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest; this was twice the value once offered for the capture of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. On Sunday, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, arrived in the Caribbean, bringing the total number of US service personnel in the region to nearly 15,000.
While Rubio announced that the cartel would be declared a foreign terrorist organization as of November 24, he said, “Neither Maduro nor his supporters represent the legitimate government of Venezuela.”
Experts believe the campaign — although officially aimed at stopping drug trafficking and attacking groups like the Sun Cartel — was essentially designed to pressure Maduro to resign with the threat of military force.
Many Venezuelan experts suspect that the Sun Cartel exists in the same way as Mexican cartels such as the Sinaloa or Jalisco New Generation. Rather, the name is seen as a dramatized explanation of how Maduro has allowed criminal groups, including senior military figures, to benefit from illicit industries, including cocaine trafficking.
“They know it doesn’t exist,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for Crisis Group, who called the “fictional” cartel a “convenient shorthand” for Maduro’s power over the criminal underworld.
“Of course there are people in the military who traffic drugs. Of course the government allows them and gives them immunity to keep them out. But there is no cartel as such. There is no organization. It is not like Maduro is sitting at the top of this organizational pyramid directing traffic and saying, ‘Send five tons of cocaine to the United States this month, it will help topple the Trump government.'”
Gunson saw the threat to designate such a fantasy group later in the week as the latest move to pressure Maduro to resign, have the military oust him or face possible airstrikes.
However, this campaign has been unsuccessful so far. “It’s been three months since the beginning of this and they’re still escalating… but of course the more you escalate, the less options you have to escalate and the more obvious it becomes that you’re bluffing,” Gunson said.
“Maduro is increasingly unlikely to take them seriously, which means they may have to sail away with nothing to show for it.”
