Move offers potential cover as Trump eyes expanded operations against Venezuela\u2019s Maduro.<\/p>\n
Published On 24 Nov 202524 Nov 2025<\/p>\n
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The United States is set to designating Venezuela\u2019s \u201cCartel de los Soles\u201d a foreign \u201cterrorist\u201d organisation (FTO).<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s administration will add the \u201ccartel\u201d, which it asserts is linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to the list on Monday.<\/p>\n
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However, the entity is not actually a cartel, but rather a common reference to military officers and officials involved in corruption and other illegal activities.<\/p>\n
The move, which comes amid a huge military buildup in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela by the US, could offer legal cover to potential direct military action.<\/p>\n
Trump is reportedly mulling the next step in his campaign against the South American country. A strike on Venezuelan territory would constitute a major escalation of the months-long US operation in the region, which has seen more than 80 people killed<\/a> in strikes on boats accused of trafficking drugs.<\/p>\n UN officials and scholars of international law have said<\/a> that the strikes are in\u00a0clear violation<\/a>\u00a0of US and international law and amount to extrajudicial executions.<\/p>\n Washington is poised to launch a new phase of operations in the coming days, unnamed US officials told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n The report said the exact timing and scope of the new operations, and whether Trump had made a final decision to act, was unclear.<\/p>\n A senior administration official said they would not rule anything out regarding Venezuela.<\/p>\n Two of the officials said covert operations would likely be the first part of a new action against Maduro, with options under consideration including an attempt to overthrow the longstanding Venezuelan leader.<\/p>\n Cartel de los Soles<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n As corruption later expanded nationwide, first under the late President Hugo Chavez and then Maduro, the use of the term loosely expanded to include police and government officials, as well as activities like illegal mining and fuel trafficking.<\/p>\n The \u201csuns\u201d in the name refer to the epaulettes affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking military officers.<\/p>\n The umbrella term was elevated to a reported drug-trafficking organisation allegedly led by Maduro in 2020, when the US Department of Justice in Trump\u2019s first term announced the indictment of Venezuela\u2019s leader and his inner circle on narcoterrorism and other charges.<\/p>\n Maduro, in power since 2013, contends that Trump seeks to topple him and that Venezuelan citizens and the military will resist any such attempt.<\/p>\n However, the US campaign and the fears of potential military action continue to raise the pressure on Caracas.<\/p>\n