Cartel de Los Soles—or Cartel of the Suns—is an alleged criminal enterprise that the United States says is linked to the Venezuelan regime.
WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has formally designated Venezuela’s Cartel de Los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, ramping up an ongoing pressure campaign on the South American country.
Rubio filed for the terrorism designation on Nov. 16, and the Federal Register posted the designation notice on Nov. 24.
Named after the sun insignias worn on the epaulettes of Venezuelan military generals, Cartel de Los Soles—or Cartel of the Suns—is an alleged criminal enterprise that the United States believes is grafted into the Venezuelan regime, up to and including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The designation comes as the U.S. military has massed forces in the Caribbean Sea since August and has conducted numerous lethal strikes on alleged drug vessels transiting the waterways near Latin America since September.
Throughout this ongoing pressure campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly said Maduro is head of an extensive drug trafficking network—an allegation the Venezuelan leader denies.
Rubio reprised the drug trafficking accusation against Maduro in a Nov. 16 statement announcing plans to label Cartel de Los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
“Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary,” Rubio wrote.
“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government. Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”
What Is the Cartel de Los Soles?
Cartel de Los Soles is the 14th Latin America-based criminal enterprise to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department since the beginning of Trump’s second presidential term.
“Venezuela categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejects the new and ridiculous fabrication by the Secretary of State of the United States of North America, Marco Rubio, which designates the nonexistent Cartel de Los Soles as a terrorist organization,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto said in a social media post on Nov. 24.
By Ryan Morgan
