The United States will designate Cartel de los Soles, which the US alleges is led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking officials, as a foreign terrorist organization this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday.
“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government,” the State Department said in a press release. “Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”
The designation, which will be effective November 24, comes as the United States has ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean, including with the arrival of the world’s largest aircraft carrier on Sunday. Tensions have risen between President Donald Trump and Maduro as US forces target alleged drug-trafficking operations, with the US conducting its 21st known strike against an alleged drug boat over the weekend.
Trump suggested Sunday that designating Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization allows the US military the ability to target Maduro’s assets and infrastructure inside Venezuela.
“It allows us to do that, but we haven’t said we’re going to do that,” Trump told reporters. “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out.”
“They would like to talk,” he said, without elaborating further.
While Trump signaled on Friday that he had made a decision on military actions regarding Venezuela, he was noncommittal on Sunday.
Trump also said Sunday he doesn’t believe the administration needs congressional authorization for potential military actions inside Venezuela. Rather, the president said he would like to keep lawmakers informed without a say.
“We like to keep Congress involved. I mean, we’re stopping drug dealers and drugs from coming into our country. … We don’t have to get their approval. But I think letting them know is good,” he said.
CNN has reported skepticism from some experts on the legality of the boat strikes, as the United States has not declared war against Venezuela. The terrorist organization designation authorizes a US president to impose sanctions but doesn’t explicitly authorize the use of lethal force.
However, the foreign terrorist organization designation is one of the State Department’s most serious counterterrorism designations. It is illegal for US persons to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and representatives and members of one are blocked from entering the US.
Congress has seven days to review the foreign terrorist organization designation after being notified, and “in the absence of Congressional action to block the designation,” it then takes effect, according to the State Department.
Earlier this year, Rubio said the foreign terrorist organization designation gave the United States the right to “target these groups.”
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug-dealing organizations. Drug dealing is the kind of terrorism they’re doing, and it’s not the only,” Rubio said.
The State Department’s announcement comes after the US Treasury Department sanctioned Cartel de los Soles in July, deeming it a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” organization and alleging it “provided material support to Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel.”
According to the Treasury, “The cartel’s name is derived from the sun insignias often portrayed on the uniforms of Venezuelan military officials.”
In August, Attorney General Pam Bondi put out a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro to face US drug charges. She has not presented conclusive evidence of the Venezuelan leader’s alleged role in international drug trafficking. Caracas has flatly rejected the claims.
“Cartel de los Soles, per se, doesn’t exist. It’s a journalistic expression created to refer to the involvement of Venezuelan authorities in drug trafficking,” Phil Gunson, a researcher with the International Crisis Group based in Caracas, previously told CNN.
But this doesn’t mean there aren’t military personnel or government officials involved in drug trafficking.
“The cartels are here, the Colombians and the Mexicans, too. There are drug shipments via the Orinoco River and by air through clandestine airstrips, flights from Apure to Central America, and so on. All of this wouldn’t be possible without direct involvement from above,” Gunson said.
CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood, Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
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