Cartel of the Suns: Difference between revisions

 

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The term ”Cartel of the Suns” was first used in 1993 as a journalistic label following a political scandal involving Venezuelan military officials who were implicated in a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] plot to smuggle cocaine into the United States in order to infiltrate Colombian cartels.<ref name=”NYT11272025″/> The term was inspired by the “soles” (sun emblems) on Venezuelan generals’ uniforms.<ref name=”CARTELsuns” />

The term ”Cartel of the Suns” was first used in 1993 as a journalistic label following a political scandal involving Venezuelan military officials who were implicated in a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] plot to smuggle cocaine into the United States in order to infiltrate Colombian cartels.<ref name=”NYT11272025″/> The term was inspired by the “soles” (sun emblems) on Venezuelan generals’ uniforms.<ref name=”CARTELsuns” />

While the involvement of Venezuelan Armed Forces members and [[Bolivarian Revolution|Bolivarian]] regime officials in drug trafficking is well documented,<ref name=”Reuters2017″ /><ref name=”WOLA2020″>{{cite report |url=https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Narcostate-memo-final.pdf |title=Beyond the narcostate narrative — What U.S. Drug Monitoring Data Says About Venezuela |last1=Ramsey |first1=Geoff |last2=Smilde |first2=David |date=March 2020 |publisher=Washington Office on Latin America |location=Washington D.C., United States |docket= |access-date= |work=}}</ref><ref name=”GAO2023″>{{cite report |url=https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105668.pdf |title=Venezuela: Illicit Financial Flows and U.S. Efforts to Disrupt Them |last=Kenney |first=Chelsa |date=3 July 2023 |publisher=[[United States Government Accountability Office]] |location=Washington D.C., United States |docket= |access-date=17 September 2025 |work=}}</ref> the U.S. allegation that it constitutes a formal organization led by Venezuelan President [[Nicolás Maduro]] has been described by independent experts in more nuanced terms.<ref name=”auto1″/><ref name=CNN15Sep/><ref name=BBC24112025/><ref name=France24Soles>{{cite web |title=US targets Venezuela over ‘Soles’ cartel. Does it exist? |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250828-us-targets-venezuela-over-soles-cartel-does-it-exist |website=France24 |access-date=18 September 2025}}</ref> The subsequent designation of the cartel as a [[Foreign Terrorist Organization]] drew criticism and was described as providing a potential legal rationale for [[regime change]] in Venezuela, coinciding with a [[2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean|significant U.S. military buildup]] in the region.<ref name=FT18102025/><ref name=”WSJ19102025″/><ref name=CNN15Sep/><ref name=BBC17112025/>

While the involvement of Venezuelan Armed Forces members and [[Bolivarian Revolution|Bolivarian]] regime officials in drug trafficking is well documented,<ref name=”Reuters2017″ /><ref name=”WOLA2020″>{{cite report |url=https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Narcostate-memo-final.pdf |title=Beyond the narcostate narrative — What U.S. Drug Monitoring Data Says About Venezuela |last1=Ramsey |first1=Geoff |last2=Smilde |first2=David |date=March 2020 |publisher=Washington Office on Latin America |location=Washington D.C., United States |docket= |access-date= |work=}}</ref><ref name=”GAO2023″>{{cite report |url=https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105668.pdf |title=Venezuela: Illicit Financial Flows and U.S. Efforts to Disrupt Them |last=Kenney |first=Chelsa |date=3 July 2023 |publisher=[[United States Government Accountability Office]] |location=Washington D.C., United States |docket= |access-date=17 September 2025 |work=}}</ref> the U.S. allegation that constitutes a formal organization led by Venezuelan President [[Nicolás Maduro]] has been described by independent experts in more nuanced terms.<ref name=”auto1″/><ref name=CNN15Sep/><ref name=BBC24112025/><ref name=France24Soles>{{cite web |title=US targets Venezuela over ‘Soles’ cartel. Does it exist? |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250828-us-targets-venezuela-over-soles-cartel-does-it-exist |website=France24 |access-date=18 September 2025}}</ref> The subsequent designation of the cartel as a [[Foreign Terrorist Organization]] drew criticism and was described as providing a potential legal rationale for [[regime change]] in Venezuela, coinciding with a [[2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean|significant U.S. military buildup]] in the region.<ref name=FT18102025/><ref name=”WSJ19102025″/><ref name=CNN15Sep/><ref name=BBC17112025/>

==History==

==History==

Term used to describe state-embedded drug trafficking in Venezuela

Criminal organization

Cartel of the Suns (Spanish: Cartel de los Soles, Spanish pronunciation: [kaɾˈtel de los ˈsoles]) is a term used to describe corruption and alleged criminal networks within the Armed Forces of Venezuela and among political officials who are involved in the international drug trade.^[1][4][5] Experts studying the drug trade do not consider it an actual cartel or hierarchical organization, but as journalistic shorthand for loosely-organized cells in Venezuela involved in state-embedded criminal activity.^[2][6][7][1]

The term Cartel of the Suns was first used in 1993 as a journalistic label following a political scandal involving Venezuelan military officials who were implicated in a CIA plot to smuggle cocaine into the United States in order to infiltrate Colombian cartels.^[6] The term was inspired by the “soles” (sun emblems) on Venezuelan generals’ uniforms.^[1]

While the involvement of Venezuelan Armed Forces members and Bolivarian regime officials in drug trafficking is well documented,^[8][9][10] the U.S. allegation that Cartel of the Suns constitutes a formal organization led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been described by independent experts in more nuanced terms.^{[11][12][13][4]} The subsequent designation of the cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization drew criticism and was described as providing a potential legal rationale for regime change in Venezuela, coinciding with a significant U.S. military buildup in the region.^{[14][15][12][16]}

In 1993, the term Cartel de los Soles or “Cartel of the Suns” was first used when two National Guard generals of the Anti-Drug National Command, Ramón Guillén Dávila and Orlando Hernández Villegas, were investigated for alleged drug trafficking crimes.^[1][17] It was discovered that Guillén approved a cocaine shipment from Venezuela to the United States, following demands from the Central Intelligence Agency, which sought to infiltrate Colombian gangs trafficking cocaine into the United States.^[18] Thor Halvorssen, the anti-drug commissioner in Venezuela, defended Guillén’s innocence regarding the cocaine shipment.^[19]

Reports that members of the Venezuelan military were involved in drug trafficking emerged in 1998, though they were limited to the taking of payments and ignoring drug traffickers.^[1] It was alleged that officers of Hugo Chávez‘s Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 who planned the 1992 Venezuelan coup d’état attempts had created a group that participated in drug trafficking known as the Cartel Bolivariano or Bolivarian Cartel.^[1] Following the 1992 coup attempts, the Los Angeles Times noted that Venezuelan officers may have sought to take over the government, since there was “money to be made from corruption, particularly in drugs”.^[20] According to Héctor Landaeta, a journalist and author of Chavismo, Narco-trafficking and the Military, the phenomenon began when Colombian drugs began to enter into Venezuela from corrupt border units and the “rot moved its way up the ranks”.^[21]

The “Cartel of the Suns” name returned in 2004, when it was used by reporter and city council member Mauro Marcano to describe corruption in the Venezuelan government. Shortly before he was murdered, Marcano alleged that Alexis Maneiro, head of the National Guard and the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, was involved in drug trafficking.^[1]

According to Vice News, the Venezuelan government under Chávez expanded corruption to “unprecedented levels” in an already corrupt military. Chávez gave military officials millions of dollars for social programs that allegedly disappeared, while also giving legal immunity to drug trafficking officials to maintain power and loyalty. When Chávez ousted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005, Venezuela became a more attractive route for the drug trade.^{[22][better source needed]} According to Colombian intelligence, an arrested drug vigilante stated that “senior figures in President Hugo Chávez’s security forces arranged drug shipments through Venezuela”.^[23] It has been alleged that the National Guard also worked with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to facilitate the drug trade.^[24] British officials alleged that planes from Colombia involved in trafficking drugs would be sheltered by Venezuelan Air Force bases.^[23]

InSight Crime argued that the U.S. sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis against the “so-called ‘Cartel of the Suns’ incorrectly portray it as a hierarchical, ideologically driven drug trafficking organisation rather than a profit-based system of generalised corruption involving high-ranking military figures,”^[25] a view shared by Philip Johnson,^[26] who argued that “the charge of central coordination by Maduro is indicative of U.S. efforts to delegitimize the Venezuelan government.”^[27]

In 2025, the United States, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina designated the cartel as a terrorist organization.^[16][28] In August 2025, the United States deployed 4,500 troops and several Navy warships to the southern Caribbean as part of a major counter-narcotics operation aimed at disrupting drug trafficking networks, including groups such as Cartel of the Suns.^[29][30] Effective November 24 2025, the Department of State of the Trump Administration escalated its targeting of the Cartel of the Suns by designating it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) headed by Nicolás Maduro.^[31] The move received criticism from experts who do not consider it an actual drug organization led by Maduro and was described as providing a legal rationale for possible military action and regime change in Venezuela.^{[14][15][12][13]}

In September 2013, an incident allegedly linked to the Cartel of the Suns and involving men from the Venezuelan National Guard occured, when 31 suitcases containing 1.3 tons of cocaine were discovered on an Air France flight. The incident “astonished” Charles de Gaulle Airport authorities, as it was the largest seizure of cocaine recorded in mainland France.^[22][32] On 15 February 2014, a commander of the Venezuelan National Guard was arrested while driving to Valencia with his family with 554 kilos of cocaine in his possession.^[33] On 11 November 2015, DEA agents in Haiti arrested two relatives (an adopted son and nephew) of Cilia Flores, the First Lady of Venezuela, as they attempted to move 800 kilos of cocaine from Venezuela to the United States. A source from the DEA unofficially stated that the shipment was allowed to pass through Venezuela due to government corruption.^[34]

The cartel allegedly operates through multiple branches of the Armed Forces of Venezuela, including the Venezuelan Army, Venezuelan Navy, Venezuelan Air Force, and Venezuelan National Guard, encompassing the lowest to the highest levels of personnel.^[1] InSight Crime describes it not as a hierarchical organization, but as a loose network of cells involved in gasoline smuggling, illegal mining, and other corruption schemes such as drug trafficking.^[1]

Allegedly, lower ranking National Guardsmen compete for positions at border checkpoints so they can be paid bribes for “illicit trade”, though a large portion of bribes go to their superiors.^[35] According to these allegations, corrupt officials then traffic drugs from Colombia to Venezuela where they are shipped internationally.^[36]

President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro has personally promoted individuals accused of drug trafficking to high positions in the Venezuelan government.^[37] In May 2018, he was alleged to have received drug trafficking profits from Diosdado Cabello.^[38]

In January 2015, Leamsy Salazar, the former security chief of both Chávez and Diosdado Cabello, accused Cabello of being the head of the Cartel of the Suns.^[39][40] Salazar was placed in witness protection, fleeing to the United States with assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration‘s Special Operations Division after cooperating with the administration and providing details on Cabello’s possible involvement with international drug trade.^[39] Specifically, Salazar stated that he witnessed Cabello giving orders to transport tons of cocaine out of Venezuela.^[40] These shipments of drugs were reportedly sent via the FARC in Colombia to the United States and Europe, with the possible assistance of Cuba.^[39][40] The alleged international drug operation was said to involve other senior members of Venezuela’s government as well, including Tarek El Aissami and José David Cabello, Diosdado’s brother.^[39][40]

On 18 May 2018, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury placed sanctions against Cabello, his wife, his brother, and his testaferro (frontman) Rafael Sarria. OFAC stated that Cabello and others used their power within the Bolivarian government “to personally profit from extortion, money laundering, and embezzlement”, with Cabello allegedly coordinating drug trafficking activities with the Vice President of Venezuela, Tareck El Aissami, and dividing profits with President Nicolás Maduro. OFAC also alleged that Cabello would use public information to track wealthy individuals who were involved in trafficking, then steal their drugs and property in order to eliminate competition.^[38]

In 2008, OFAC sanctioned the General Henry Rangel Silva and other two current or former Venezuelan government officials, saying there was evidence they had materially helped the FARC in the illegal drug trade.^[41] The order “freezes any assets the designated entities and individuals may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions involving those assets”.^[41] Other officials sanctioned were General Hugo Carvajal, former director of Venezuela’s military intelligence (DGIM), and Captain of Navy Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, the former Minister of the Interior.^[41] In November 2010, Rangel Silva declared that the military forces are “married to the political, socialist project” led by Chávez in Venezuela.^[42][43] In the 2012 Venezuelan regional elections, Rangel Silva was elected governor of Trujillo state by 82.30% of the vote.^[44][45] He was re-elected in the 2017 Venezuelan regional elections by 59.75% of the vote.^[46]

Tareck El Aissami was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on 13 February 2017 under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, after being accused of facilitating drug shipments from Venezuela to Mexico and the United States. The order froze tens of millions of dollars of assets purportedly under his control.^[47][48]

Néstor Reverol, head of the Bolivarian National Guard, was indicted by the United States government in August 2016 for assisting drug trafficking in Venezuela. Reverol allegedly tipped off traffickers, cancelled investigations and released those involved in drug shipments.^[37]

Hugo Carvajal is another alleged leader of the Cartel of the Suns.^[49] On 22 July 2014, Carvajal, the former head of Venezuelan military-intelligence, was detained in Aruba, despite having been admitted on a diplomatic passport and being named consul general to Aruba in January.^[50][51][52] The arrest was carried out following a formal request by the U.S. government, which accuses Carvajal of ties to drug trafficking and the FARC guerrilla group.^[53][54] On 27 July 2014, Carvajal was released after authorities decided he had diplomatic immunity but was subsequently considered persona non grata.^[55][56][57] In July 2023, Carvajal was arrested in Spain and extradited to the U.S., where in June 2025 he pleaded guilty to four charges, including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.^[58]

Yazenky Lamas, former pilot to First Lady Cilia Flores, was extradited to the United States from Colombia, having allegedly provided air traffic codes, which would allow planes carrying cocaine to impersonate commercial flights.^[59][60] President Maduro reportedly asked Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas Echeverri to reject the request for his extradition.^[61] Lamas was linked to hundreds of drug flights operated in Venezuela.^[37]

Other officials have also been implicated in or accused of involvement with drug trafficking, according to InSight Crime’s 2018 report “Venezuela: A Mafia State?”^[37]:

In 2005, all branches of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela were assigned to combat drug trafficking in Venezuela, granting data once held only by the Bolivarian National Guard to the army, navy and air force. Mildred Camero, a former anti-drug official of the Chávez government, said this data created competition within the ranks of the military, who fought to make deals with the FARC to actively partake in drug trafficking.^[37]

Authorities in Colombia stated that laptops seized on a raid against Raul Reyes in 2007 contained documents showing Hugo Chávez offered payments of as much as $300 million to the FARC “among other financial and political ties that date back years”. The documents also purportedly show that FARC rebels sought Venezuelan assistance in acquiring surface-to-air missiles and that Chávez met personally with FARC rebel leaders.^[62][63][64] According to Interpol, the files found by Colombian forces were considered to be authentic.^[65] In 2008, the United States Department of Treasury accused two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official of providing material assistance to drug-trafficking operations carried out by the FARC guerrilla group in Colombia.^[66]

Independent analyses by some U.S. academics and journalists have challenged the Colombian interpretation of the documents, accusing the Colombian government of exaggerating their contents.^[67][68] In 2008, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, testified before the U.S. Congress that “there are no evidences” that Venezuela is supporting “terrorist groups”, including the FARC.^[69] Three years later, in 2011, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) concluded that Chávez’s government funded FARC’s Caracas office and granted it access to intelligence services. Venezuelan diplomats denounced the IISS findings, saying that they had “basic inaccuracies”.^[70] As of 2018, FARC dissidents who left FARC when it disbanded in 2017 still operate within Venezuela with virtual impunity. These dissident forces, with armed personnel numbering up to 2,500 individuals, allegedly still cooperate with the Cartel of the Suns.^[37]

In March 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Maduro and 14 other Venezuelan officials on charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and drug trafficking. The indictment alleged that, since at least 1999, they acted as leaders and managers of the Cartel of the Suns. The indictment also alleged that Maduro coordinated with the FARC, negotiating multi-ton cocaine shipments and providing weapons to the Colombian guerrilla group.^[71] Two of the indicted officials have since pleaded guilty in U.S. federal courts. In June 2023, retired General Cliver Alcalá pleaded guilty to providing material support and firearms to the FARC; he was sentenced to 21 years and 6 months in prison in April 2024.^[72] In June 2025, former military intelligence director Hugo Carvajal (who had been extradited from Spain in 2023) pleaded guilty to all four charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.^[58]

In July 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. ^[73] On 16 November 2025, the U.S. Department of State designated them as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, alleging they were “responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe”, calling them “narco-terrorists”, and stating that the Maduro regime is “illegitimate” and that “neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government”. The designation took effect on 24 November 2025.^[74]

Following the U.S. SDGT designation, several Latin American governments issued similar declarations. As of September 2025, Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic have also designated the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization.^[2]Other regional leaders have disputed the U.S. allegations. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, when asked about the U.S. allegations at a press conference, answered that it was the first time she had heard of such accusations and requested the U.S. produce supporting evidence.^[75] Colombian president Gustavo Petro denounced U.S. actions, dismissing the Department of Justice’s allegations as a fabricated pretext to force regime change.^[76] The Colombian Senate subsequently defied Petro, voting 33 to 20 to declare the Cartel of the Suns a transnational criminal and terrorist organization.^[77]

Although widespread political corruption in Venezuela and the involvement of high-ranking members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces and Bolivarian regime members in drug trafficking are well documented,^[8][9][10] whether this involvement constitutes a unified cartel remains a subject of dispute and is viewed by most independent experts as lacking evidence.^{[12][78][79][13]} Use of the label “Cartel of the Suns” has been criticized, with some experts arguing that there is no evidence which would substantiate direct and unified government involvement in drug trafficking.^[80][81] Despite claims by the U.S. government in July 2025 of the Cartel of the Suns supporting narco-trafficking groups like Sinaloa Cartel or Tren de Aragua, no mention of the Cartel of the Suns was made by the state department in its March 2025 report on global anti-drug operations.^[11] Experts such as Phil Gunson at the International Crisis Group think tank also cast doubt on the label “Cartel of the Suns”, arguing that while there is “abundant evidence of links between several Armed Forces commanders and drug trafficking”, clear evidence which would demonstrate the central coordination of said drug trafficking by the Venezuelan government has never been presented.^[11][81] Writing in 2020 and 2025, Philip Johnson from Flinders University stated that the Cartel of the Suns is not a centrally coordinated cartel within the Venezuelan government but rather a loose and fragmented network of competing drug-trafficking networks within state institutions.^[80][26]

InSight Crime has argued that the Cartel of the Suns “has never been a drug cartel”, and instead characterizes it as a “loose knit network of trafficking cells embedded within the Venezuelan security forces, facilitated, protected, and sometimes directed by political actors.”^[82] According to their 2022 investigative news report, the nature of the Cartel of the Suns changed after 2017, owing to the severe economic and financial crisis in Venezuela, which prevented the state from ensuring due pay to members of the military and law enforcement.^[82] Their report further argues that in the mid-2010s, the Cartel of the Suns evolved from a loose network of drug-trafficking groups within the Armed Forces structure into an elaborate system of patronage whose main goal is to distribute and keep the wealth of the drug trade in the hands of strategically-placed military and law enforcement officers (both military and civilian), in order to keep them loyal to both the regime and to Maduro personally.^[82] According to InSight Crime, the regime’s political leaders such as President Nicolás Maduro and ministers Diosdado Cabello, Tareck el Aissami, and Nestor Reverol appear to keep a “safe distance” from the drug operations themselves, while the “opaque” nature of the Bolivarian Venezuela’s business and housing registries make it difficult to verify the allegations that such government members use indirect ways to profit from the drug revenues proper.^[82] Nevertheless, as the main goal of the system appears to be keeping the Maduro’s regime afloat, government members appear to act more as “power brokers” overseeing a complex system of criminal patronage networks rather than directly administering drug-trafficking groups themselves.^[82]