REGINA GARCIA CANO
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The U.S. government is preparing to step up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday by designating the Cartel of the Suns a foreign terrorist organization. However, the organization that the US government claims is led by Maduro is not itself a cartel.
The appointment is part of Donald Trump's government's escalating efforts to combat drug trafficking into the United States. When he stepped up the campaign a week ago, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the Sun Cartel of being “responsible for terrorist violence” in the Western Hemisphere.
The move, scheduled for Monday, comes as Trump is exploring whether to take military action against Venezuela, something Trump has not ruled out despite mentioning the possibility of talks with Maduro. The ground attacks or other actions would be a significant expansion of an operation that began months ago and has included a major military deployment in the Caribbean and attacks on ships accused of drug trafficking that have left more than 80 people dead.
Venezuelans began using the term “Cartel of the Suns” in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military leaders who became rich from the drug trade. As corruption spread across the country, first under the late President Hugo Chavez and then under Maduro, its use was widely extended 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 shoulder straps attached to the uniforms of high-ranking officers.
The umbrella term was used to describe Maduro's drug trafficking organization in 2020, when the U.S. Justice Department during Trump's first term announced it had indicted the Venezuelan leader and his inner circle on narcoterrorism and other charges.
“This is not a group,” said Adam Isaacson, director of advocacy oversight for the Washington Office of Latin American Affairs. “This is not a group that people identify as members of. They don't have regular meetings. They don't have a hierarchy.”
Trump extends terrorism label to cartels
Until this year, foreign terrorist organization designation was reserved for groups such as Islamic State or al-Qaeda that use violence for political ends. In February, the Trump administration applied it to eight Latin American criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and other activities.
The White House blames these specific groups for operating the ships it attacks, but rarely names the organizations or provides any evidence. It claims the attacks, which began off the coast of Venezuela and then spread to the eastern Pacific, are aimed at stemming the flow of drugs into American cities.
But many, including Maduro himself, see the military action as an attempt to end the ruling party's 26 years in power.
Since the arrival of U.S. warships and troops in the Caribbean several months ago, Venezuela's U.S.-backed political opposition has also renewed its decades-long pledge to remove Maduro from office, fueling speculation about the purpose of what the Trump administration has called an anti-drug operation.
Trump, like his predecessor, does not recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela.
Maduro is in his third term after officials loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner of last year's presidential election, despite overwhelming evidence that the opposition candidate defeated him by a margin of more than two to one. He and senior officials have been repeatedly accused of violating the human rights of real and perceived government opponents, including after the July 2024 elections.
Hegseth says appointment offers 'new opportunities'
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the upcoming designation of the Sun Cartel would give the United States “many new options” in dealing with Maduro. But Hegseth, in an interview with conservative news outlet OAN, did not provide details about those options and declined to say whether the U.S. military plans to attack ground targets inside Venezuela.
“So nothing is off the table, but nothing is automatically on the table,” he said.
Trump administration officials have made it clear they have difficulty imagining a situation in which Maduro remaining in power would be an acceptable outcome. But as Trump considers various military and non-military options, including covert CIA action, as next steps, there is a strong belief within the U.S. government that Maduro's rule is “unsustainable,” according to a senior official who was not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive issue.
The official added that Trump had been listening closely to his intelligence team, which told him that intercepted conversations inside Venezuela indicated growing concern among Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials as U.S. attacks continued. Trump, according to the official, is so far “very happy and satisfied” with the consequences of the attacks.
Meanwhile, calls from Maduro and others close to the Venezuelan leader to speak directly with the Trump administration, relayed through various intermediaries and channels, appear more frantic, the official said. But Trump has not authorized any intermediaries to speak to Maduro on behalf of the US government.
The indictment alleges a conspiracy to “flood” the United States with drugs.
A 2020 indictment accused Maduro; Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, among others, are accused of conspiring with Colombian rebels and members of the Venezuelan army over several years “to flood the United States with cocaine” and using drug trafficking as a “weapon against the United States.” Colombia is the largest producer of cocaine in the world.
Before laying down their arms as part of the 2016 peace deal, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) regularly used the porous border region with Venezuela as a safe haven and hub for shipments of cocaine bound for the United States, often with the support or at least the consent of Venezuelan security forces. The dissidents continued their work. Colombian National Liberation Army guerrillas are also involved in the illegal trade.
Maduro denied the accusations. This year, the US Justice Department doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest to $50 million.
Maduro insists the United States is creating a false narrative about drug trafficking to try to force him from office. He and other government officials have repeatedly cited a United Nations report that they say shows traffickers try to move only 5% of the cocaine produced in Colombia through Venezuela.
The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on the Sun Cartel in July, saying Maduro and his top allies had doubled down on the powers of the Venezuelan government, military and intelligence agencies to help the cartel smuggle drugs into the United States.
U.S. authorities also alleged that Maduro's cartel provided material support to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and the Sinaloa Cartel, which were among the groups Washington designated foreign terrorist organizations in February.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.
