The United States Department of Justice, under the tutelage of PAM Bondi, has raised this Thursday to 50 million dollars (about 43 million euros) the reward for giving information that allows them to arrest the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to which the US authorities accuse of drug trafficking, link with terrorism, in addition to a direct threat to national security.
The decision, qualified as “historic” by the US attorney general, PAM Bondi, has been announced through a video in the social network X in which the head of the Department of Justice has defended that “under the leadership of President Trump, Maduro will not escape justice and will be responsible for her despicable crimes.” Washington had already offered 25 million dollars by the Venezuelan president at the beginning of this year, a figure that at the time already was a hardening with respect to the policy followed by the previous administration.
According to the prosecutor, the Drug Control Administration (DEA) has seized to date 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and its circle of trust, and another seven directly associated with the Venezuelan president. The operation has also allowed to block more than 700 million dollars in assets related to the Chavista leader, including two private planes and a fleet of nine high -end vehicles. “Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations such as Sinaloa and the Sun Cartel to introduce lethal drugs and violence in our country,” Bondi said in his speech.
The increase in the reward is part of a new battery of measures promoted by the White House against the Venezuelan regime, after the State Department included last week to the Los Sol poster in its official list of terrorist organizations. The designation enables the US government to mobilize diplomatic and operational resources, with the declared objective of “preventing Maduro from benefiting from the destruction of US lives and destabilizing the hemisphere.”
Since January of this year, with the reward still in 25 million, the US authorities had already hardened their position against the Venezuelan Executive, considering “illegitimate” Maduro’s investiture after the presidential elections last July, crossed out of fraudulent ones for much of the international community.
Caracas touches it as “media circus”
The Venezuelan government has responded hard to the announcement. In a message posted on Telegram, Foreign Minister Yván Gil has accused Washington of organizing “the most ridiculous smoke curtain” and of resorting to a “gross political propaganda operation.” “While we disassemble the terrorist plots that orchestrate from her country, this lady comes out with a media circus to please the ultra -right of Venezuela,” he said, in direct allusion to Pam Bondi.
Gil has described the reward as “pathetic” and has denounced that it is a new attempt to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. “It is a desperate maneuver that portrays the imperial obsession well for destabilizing our democracy,” he had settled.
The episode arrives just a few days after the organization of Venezuelans persecuted politicians in exile (Veppex), based in Florida, asked President Donald Trump to act against Maduro and another 400 high positions of Chavismo linked to the poster of Los Soles. In an open letter, the organization has claimed intelligence operations and more rewards to capture the network of the framework, including Maduro himself and the Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello.
According to the text signed by José Antonio Colina, president of Veppex, the United States pressure must be expanded internationally. “It is urgent to freeze all their money, press Europe and Latin America so that they also declare to the poster as a terrorist and completely be able to,” the organization has requested.
