US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this Sunday (17) that the United States will designate the Sun Cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, effective November 24.
The US alleges that the Venezuelan cartel is led by Nicolás Maduro and other senior government officials.
“Neither Maduro nor his associates represent the legitimate government of Venezuela,” the State Department said in a press release.
“The Cartel of the Suns, along with other designated foreign terrorist organizations, including the Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, is responsible for terrorist violence throughout the hemisphere, as well as drug trafficking into the United States and Europe.”
The designation comes as the United States has increased its military presence in the Caribbean, including the arrival of the world’s largest aircraft carrier on Sunday, and amid rising tensions between President Donald Trump and Maduro.
Trump suggested Sunday that designating the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization would give the U.S. military the ability to attack Maduro’s assets and infrastructure inside the country.
“This allows us to do this, but we haven’t said we’re going to do it,” Trump told reporters as he left Florida to return to Washington.
“and we’ll see how this plays out,” said the American president. “They want to talk,” he said, without giving further details.
Although Trump hinted on Friday (14) that he had made a decision on military action in Venezuela, he stopped short of committing on Sunday.
Trump has made one thing clear: he does not believe the government needs congressional authorization for possible military action inside Venezuela. At the same time, the president said he is in favor of keeping lawmakers informed.
“We like to keep Congress informed. I mean, we stop drug trafficking and drugs from coming into our country… we don’t need their approval. But I think informing them is a good thing,” he said.
A CNN reported the skepticism of some experts regarding the legality of the , given that the United States did not declare war on Venezuela. The designation of a foreign terrorist organization authorizes the U.S. president to impose sanctions but does not explicitly authorize the use of deadly force.
However, the measure is one of the State Department’s most serious. It is illegal for U.S. citizens to provide “material support or resources” to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and representatives and members of such organizations are prohibited from entering the United States.
Congress has seven days to review the designation after being notified, and “in the absence of Congressional action to block the designation,” it takes effect, according to the State Department.
Earlier this year, Rubio said the measure gave the United States the right to “attack these groups.”
“We need to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, and not simply as drug trafficking organizations. Drug trafficking is the type of terrorism they practice, and it is not the only one,” Rubio said.
In July, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel of the Suns, designating it as a “specially designated international terrorist organization” and alleging that it “provided material support to the Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel.”
According to the Treasury Department, “the cartel’s name derives from the suns that commonly appear on the uniforms of Venezuelan military officers.”
In August, Attorney General Pam Bondi offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest on drug trafficking charges in the United States.
No conclusive evidence has been presented regarding the Venezuelan leader’s alleged role in international drug trafficking.
Caracas categorically rejected the accusations. “The Cartel of the Suns, per se, does not exist. It is a journalistic term created to refer to the involvement of Venezuelan authorities in drug trafficking,” Phil Gunson, a researcher at the International Crisis Group, based in Caracas, told CNN.
However, this does not mean that there are no military or government officials involved in drug trafficking.
“The cartels are here, the Colombians and the Mexicans are here. There are drug shipments along the Orinoco River and by air, through clandestine airstrips, flights from Apure to Central America and so on. None of this would be possible without the direct involvement of the top,” Gunson noted.
