{"id":28196,"date":"2026-01-06T14:36:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=28196"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:36:43","slug":"us-drops-drug-cartel-claims-against-maduro-after-invasion-kidnap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/us-drops-drug-cartel-claims-against-maduro-after-invasion-kidnap\/","title":{"rendered":"US drops drug cartel claims against Maduro after invasion, kidnap"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Justice Department has quietly scaled back its indictment of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, retreating from a central Trump-era claim that he led a drug cartel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The original accusation, included in a 2020 grand jury indictment, portrayed the\u00a0Cartel de los Soles<\/em>\u00a0as an organized criminal group allegedly led by Maduro and engaged in large-scale cocaine trafficking.<\/p>\n

The claim became a central pillar of Washington\u2019s pressure campaign against Caracas and was repeatedly cited to justify escalating sanctions and military operations.<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the US Treasury Department designated the so-called cartel as a terrorist organization, a move later backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former National Security Adviser Robert C. O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

Yet specialists in Latin American crime and narcotics have long noted that the \u201cCartel de los Soles\u201d is not a verifiable organization but a slang term coined by Venezuelan media in the 1990s to describe corruption among individual military officials \u2014 not a structured cartel.<\/p>\n

That distinction is now reflected in the revised indictment, released after Maduro was kidnapped by US forces. While it still accuses him of participating in a drug-trafficking conspiracy, it drops the claim that the\u00a0Cartel de los Soles<\/em>\u00a0exists as an actual cartel, redefining it instead as a \u201cpatronage system\u201d and a \u201cculture of corruption\u201d allegedly fueled by drug profits.<\/p>\n

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\"US<\/a><\/p>\n
US \u2018regime change\u2019 plot in Venezuela: From 2002 Chavez coup to 2026 Maduro kidnapping<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The US \u201cregime change\u201d project in Venezuela began not with Maduro\u2019s 2026 kidnapping but with the 2002 coup against Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, evolving over the years through hybrid warfare and crippling sanctions.<\/a><\/div>\n

Maduro and his wife were kidnapped from their residence in Caracas on Saturday, flown out of Venezuela by helicopter, and then transported aboard a warship some 3,400 kilometers to New York City to face federal charges.<\/p>\n

The aggression capped months of pressure and military buildup off Venezuela\u2019s coast, including dozens of attacks on alleged drug vessels that resulted in at least 115 deaths \u2014 operations Caracas has rejected as baseless.<\/p>\n

Where the previous indictment referenced the\u00a0Cartel de los Soles<\/em>\u00a032 times, the revised version mentions it only twice.<\/p>\n

The revisions have prompted criticism of the Trump administration\u2019s earlier designation of the group as a foreign terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

Experts welcomed the clarification but noted that US designations do not require courtroom standards of proof, making them vulnerable to political use.<\/p>\n

Despite the Justice Department\u2019s retreat, Rubio continued to describe the\u00a0Cartel de los Soles<\/em>\u00a0as an actual cartel during an NBC\u00a0Meet the Press<\/em>\u00a0interview, claiming that US forces reserve the right to strike drug shipments linked to the group and that Maduro is its leader.<\/p>\n

The Drug Enforcement Administration\u2019s annual National Drug Threat Assessment and the United Nations\u2019 World Drug Report have never listed\u00a0Cartel de los Soles<\/em>\u00a0as an active trafficking organization.<\/p>\n

Appearing in a New York federal court on Monday, Maduro pleaded not guilty. \u201cI am innocent. I am not guilty of anything that is mentioned here,\u201d he said, later describing himself as \u201ca prisoner of war\u201d and stressing that he remained Venezuela\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

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\"Maduro<\/a><\/p>\n
Maduro tells US court he was \u2018kidnapped\u2019 as he pleads not guilty to drug charges<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro told a New York federal court that he is \u201cstill president\u201d of his country.<\/a><\/div>\n

Caracas has consistently rejected any involvement in drug trafficking, maintaining that Washington used narcotics allegations to legitimize an illegal assault aimed at overthrowing the government and seizing control of the country\u2019s vast oil reserves.<\/p>\n

Hours after the attack, US President Donald Trump said the United States would run Venezuela temporarily and be \u201cvery strongly involved\u201d in its oil industry \u2014 remarks that reinforced Venezuelan claims about Washington\u2019s true objectives.<\/p>\n

The revised indictment marks a notable pullback from the Trump administration\u2019s earlier narrative, even as legal proceedings continue \u2014 leaving unresolved questions about how unproven drug allegations became the basis for military action and regime-change ambitions.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/span><\/p>\n

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The US Justice Department has quietly scaled back its indictment of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, retreating from a central Trump-era claim that he led a drug cartel. The original accusation, included in a 2020 grand jury indictment, portrayed the\u00a0Cartel de los Soles\u00a0as an organized criminal group allegedly led by Maduro and engaged in large-scale cocaine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":28197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28198,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28196\/revisions\/28198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}