The Justice Department has backed off a dubious claim about Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro that the Trump administration promoted last year in laying the groundwork to remove him from power in Venezuela: accusing him of leading a drug cartel called "Cartel de los Soles."
US officials took a Venezuelan phrase for corrupt leaders as a real organization, accusing Maduro of being its head.
-- Salon.com (@salon.com) Jan 6, 2026 at 5:39 PM
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Experts in Latin American crime and narcotics issues have said "Cartel de los Soles" is actually a slang term, invented by the Venezuelan media in the 1990s, for officials who are corrupted by drug money. And on Saturday, after the Trumpf junta abducted Mr. Maduro, the Justice Department released a rewritten indictment that appeared to tacitly concede the point.
Link: SDNY Superseding indictment
Background:
The highly questionable allegation made by the Trumpf junta traces back to a 2020 grand jury indictment of Nicolas Maduro drafted by the Justice Department. In July 2025, copying language from it, the Treasury Department designated "Cartel de los Soles" as a terrorist organization. In Nov 2025, USSECSTATE Marco Rubio and Dummkopf's Trumpf's national security adviser, the picture-perfect definition of an "Empty Suit" if ever there was one, ordered the State Department to do the same.
There was no independent verification, USIC validation, or quality assurance from anyone in the junta about "Cartel de los Soles," just amateur tradecraft and mindless obedience resulting in US sanctions being placed on a non-existent organization and the president of a sovereign country being indicted for leading it.
