The US eliminates the reference to Maduro as leader of the Cartel of the Suns in the new indictment of the Venezuelan
The United States Department of Justice has eliminated most of the references to the Cartel of the Suns in the new indictment against the captured Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, whom it no longer identifies as the leader of the drug trafficking organization, now characterized in the document as a “clientelism system.” A US grand jury indictment in 2020 alleged that Maduro “helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns as it rose to power in Venezuela,” arguments repeated by President Donald Trump as justification for his operations in the Caribbean.
Washington has also accused the leadership of the Cartel of the Suns of supporting organizations such as the Aragua Train and the Sinaloa Cartel, as part of a conspiracy to send drugs to North American territory. However, in the new indictment modified by the Prosecutor’s Office after the arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas by forces from Washington, the language of the previous text is lowered and the allusions to the alleged cartel as a real organization are eliminated, although the accusations against the Venezuelan for drug trafficking are maintained. The revised document notes that Maduro “participates in, perpetuates and protects a culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and the protection of their drug trafficking partners.” It also mentions that these profits flow to corrupt officials who “operate in a system of patronage run by those at the top, known as the Cartel of the Suns.” It is one of just two mentions in the updated text of the supposed group, whose name comes from the sun-shaped insignia worn by Venezuelan generals.
This contrasts with the public statements of Trump, who pointed out this Saturday that the military operation to capture Maduro is part of a broader offensive that includes, among other objectives, that of dismantling the so-called Cartel of the Suns. The United States officially designated the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization in 2025, after previously listing it as a specially designated global terrorist group. This decision was supported by governments such as those of Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, while Venezuela and Cuba have rejected the accusation, calling it a “CIA invention” or a “fetish” of Washington. Analysts and experts in the South American country have questioned the real existence of this network as an organized drug trafficking group. (Efe)
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