US Designates ‘Cartel of the Suns’ as Foreign Terrorist Organization
In a statement on Thursday, the US Treasury reiterated long-standing claims that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose authority Washington contests, is at the helm of the network.
This designation follows nearly two months of US airstrikes targeting small vessels off the Venezuelan coastline, which the Pentagon describes as operations against “narcoterrorism,” resulting in approximately 80 fatalities.
The phrase ‘Cartel of the Suns’ first appeared in the 1990s in media reports referring to alleged corruption among Venezuelan military officials who supposedly wore sun-shaped insignia on their uniforms.
In 2020, the US charged Maduro and 14 current or former officials with drug trafficking and organized crime, asserting that they jointly controlled the cartel.
However, many analysts and regional leaders have questioned the cartel’s actual existence. While admitting that some officials may be involved in illegal activities, skeptics argue that evidence for a centralized, hierarchical criminal network is lacking.
Venezuelan Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello, one of the officials accused by the US, criticized the labeling, claiming that Americans brand anyone who “bothers them” as cartel members.
Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro dismissed the Cartel of the Suns as a “fictional excuse of the far right to bring down governments that do not obey them.”
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