The United States Department of Justice has withdrawn the accusation that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was the leader of the "Cartel de los Soles," an alleged organization that numerous US government sources described as a narco-terror entity, as reported by The New York Times. Last year, the Trump administration propagated this claim while laying the groundwork for the removal of Maduro from power.
Prosecutors have abandoned the idea that the Cartel de los Soles was a legitimate organization. Instead, it refers to a "culture of corruption" and a "patronage system" fueled by drug money, according to the updated indictment, as reported by NYT. Nevertheless, they have continued to accuse Maduro of involvement in a drug trafficking operation.
The allegation stemmed from the Justice Department’s grand jury indictment of Maduro in 2020. The Treasury Department designated the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization in July 2025, employing the same terminology. In November, Trump’s national security adviser and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, instructed the State Department to adopt a similar stance.
However, experts on Latin American crime and drug-related issues have indicated that it is actually a colloquial term for politicians who are corrupted by drug money, a term coined by the Venezuelan media in the 1990s. Furthermore, the Justice Department released a revised indictment that appeared to implicitly acknowledge this claim after Maduro's arrest.
The current indictment mentioned the Cartel de los Soles twice and alleged that Maduro, like his predecessor, President Hugo Chavez, was actively engaged in it, as well as maintained and safeguarded this patronage system. In contrast, the previous indictment referred to the group 32 times and identified Maduro as its leader.
The new indictment indicated that the profits from drug trafficking and the safeguarding of drug trafficking associates "flow to corrupt civilian, military, and intelligence officials at the rank-and-file level, who function within a patronage system controlled by those in power – known as the Cartel de los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, a term that refers to the sun insignia displayed on the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military personnel."
Elizabeth Dickinson emphasized that the portrayal of the Cartel de los Soles in the new indictment is "precisely accurate to reality," unlike the version from 2020. She serves as the deputy director for Latin America at the International Crisis Group. Elizabeth stated, "I believe the new indictment is correct, but the designations still fall short of reality. Designations do not need to be substantiated in court, and that is the distinction. It is evident that they recognized they could not substantiate it in court."
In a separate interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on January 4th, the day following the release of the updated indictment, Rubio consistently characterized the Cartel de los Soles as a legitimate organization led by Maduro. The transcript of the interview was disseminated by the State Department.
He asserted, "We will maintain our right to conduct strikes against drug vessels that are transporting drugs towards the United States, which are operated by transnational criminal organizations, including the Cartel de los Soles. Naturally, their leader, the head of that cartel, is currently in US custody and facing justice in the Southern District of New York. And that is Nicolás Maduro."
The Cartel de los Soles has never been included in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment, which identifies major trafficking organizations. Furthermore, the group has not been referenced in the annual World Drug Report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, according to reports.
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