Washington, Jan 6 (EFE).- The US Justice Department has removed references identifying Nicolás Maduro as the leader of the so-called Cartel of the Suns in a revised indictment, softening earlier claims while maintaining drug trafficking charges against the Venezuelan president.
A 2020 indictment issued by a US grand jury alleged that Maduro “helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns as he rose to power in Venezuela.”
The claim repeatedly was often cited by President Donald Trump to justify his administration’s anti-drug campaign in the Caribbean.
Washington has also accused the cartel’s leadership of supporting criminal organizations such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel as part of a conspiracy to traffic narcotics into the US.
However, in the updated indictment, modified by prosecutors hours after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas by US forces, the language has been softened.
References to the cartel as a structured criminal organization have largely been removed, although drug trafficking charges against Maduro remain in place.
The revised document states that Maduro “participates in, perpetuates, and protects a culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and the protection of their drug-trafficking partners.”
It adds that these profits flow to corrupt officials who “operate in a clientelism system led by those at the top, known as the Cartel of the Suns.”
This is one of only two mentions of the alleged group in the updated indictment.
By contrast, the term appeared dozens of times in the 2020 charging document. The cartel’s name derives from the sun-shaped insignia worn by Venezuelan generals.
The shift contrasts with Trump’s public remarks on Saturday, when he said the operation to capture Maduro was part of a broader offensive that included dismantling what he described as the Cartel of the Suns.
The United States officially designated the Cartel of the Suns as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2025, having previously classified it as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.
That designation was backed by governments including Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru, while Venezuela and Cuba rejected the allegations, dismissing them as a “CIA invention” or a fixation of Washington.
Analysts and experts in Venezuela have also questioned the existence of the cartel as a coherent, organized drug trafficking network.
The earliest public allegations date back to 2004, when journalist Mauro Marcano accused members of the National Guard of involvement in drug trafficking.
Maduro and Flores appeared on Monday before a US court in New York for the first time since their arrest.
They were transferred there after being captured in a rapid operation early on Saturday ordered by Trump.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to charges of narco-terrorism and weapons possession and said he considered himself “a prisoner of war.” EFE
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