The Trump administration could have expanded authority to take action in Venezuela starting Monday, as the US designates Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization.
The designation of “Cartel de los Soles,” a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize President Donald Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts.
Still, administration officials have been making the case that the designation — one of the State Department’s most serious counterterrorism tools — will give the US expanded military options for striking inside Venezuela.
Cartel de los Soles is used to describe a decentralized network of Venezuelan groups within the armed forces linked to drug trafficking, experts say. The Venezuelan president has always denied any personal involvement in drug trafficking, and his government has repeatedly denied the existence of the alleged cartel, which some experts suggest technically doesn’t exist in a conventional sense.
The designation, announced November 16, comes as the US military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops into the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded “Operation Southern Spear.” The US military has killed dozens of people in boat strikes as part of the anti-drug-trafficking campaign.
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