{"id":476367,"date":"2025-07-25T21:54:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/the-united-states-designated-the-cartel-of-the-suns-the-drug-trafficking-group-linked-to-chavismo-as-a-terrorist-entity\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T21:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:54:50","slug":"the-united-states-designated-the-cartel-of-the-suns-the-drug-trafficking-group-linked-to-chavismo-as-a-terrorist-entity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/the-united-states-designated-the-cartel-of-the-suns-the-drug-trafficking-group-linked-to-chavismo-as-a-terrorist-entity\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States designated the Cartel of the Suns, the drug trafficking group linked to Chavismo, as a terrorist entity."},"content":{"rendered":"The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury added the Venezuelan C\u00e1rtel de Los Soles to its list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) this Friday, including it as an international terrorist group and pointing it out for representing a secondary risk of sanctions.\n\nAccording to the official statement, the US administration claims that the Venezuelan organization operates as a transnational terrorist group and criminal organization.<\/strong>\n\nIn a post on X<\/em> by the State Department’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the entity stated that the United States will use “all resources available to prevent Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from continuing to profit from the destruction of American lives and the destabilization of our hemisphere.”<\/strong>\n\nNeither the Communications Ministry of the Chavista regime of Venezuela nor Nicol\u00e1s Maduro himself responded to requests for comment. Maduro has repeatedly rejected Washington’s accusations, claiming it is a smear campaign<\/strong> and urging the United States to intensify efforts to control domestic consumption.\n\nFBI investigations are targeting the leaders of the Cartel of the Suns, an organization allegedly made up of high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan Armed Forces and officials associated with the Maduro Executive.<\/strong> A spokesperson declared in March 2025 that the objective of the investigations is to “totally dismantle the financial and operational structure” of these groups, in line with the “America First” policy, which prioritizes closing borders, expelling criminals, and combating drug trafficking. Businessmen, financiers, and organizations allied with Chavismo are in the sights of the US justice system.<\/strong>\n\n\n

The Cartel of the Suns has been under investigation since 1993, when two National Guard generals, Ram\u00f3n Guill\u00e9n D\u00e1vila and Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez Villegas, were prosecuted for drug trafficking.\u00a0<\/strong>Originally, the involvement of military personnel consisted of bribes to allow the passage of shipments. Subsequently, their participation escalated to direct activities of transportation and distribution of narcotics. During the 2000s, US officials linked high-ranking Venezuelan officials, such as\u00a0Hugo Carvajal<\/strong>, Henry de Jes\u00fas Rangel Silva and Ram\u00f3n Emilio Rodr\u00edguez Chac\u00edn, with the provision of assistance to the Colombian guerrilla group\u00a0FARC<\/strong>\u00a0in drug trafficking circuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2020, the United States Department of Justice formally accused Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials of leading operations of the Cartel of the Suns, attributing to them drug trafficking and money laundering crimes, in effect since 1999<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabello is pointed out as a central piece of the cartel,<\/strong> allegedly using his position to favor illicit operations and consolidate his political and economic influence. Another former associate of the regime, Tareck El Aissami<\/strong>, was captured in 2024 and faces corruption charges linked to the state oil company PDVSA.<\/p>\n\n\nThe U.S. government’s designation comes in a context of expansion of the criminal group Tren de Aragua,<\/strong> linked to both the C\u00e1rtel de Los Soles and the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico<\/strong>, also classified as international terrorist organizations by Washington. The Tren de Aragua was born in Venezuela and has extended its activity to more than a dozen states in the United States and several Latin American countries, participating in extortion, human trafficking, drugs, robberies and armed violence.\n\nU.S. authorities describe the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism as a priority on the national security agenda. FBI Director Kash Patel stated during his confirmation hearing in the Senate that criminal structures associated with drug trafficking represent the “hidden side” of other crimes such as human trafficking and terrorism. The U.S. administration reaffirms its commitment to “take to the next level” the prosecution of these groups internationally.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury added the Venezuelan C\u00e1rtel de Los Soles to its list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) this Friday, including it as an international terrorist group and pointing it out for representing a secondary risk of sanctions. According to the official statement, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":476368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-1ZVl","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/07\/7MQMRYJIIJDY3J4HSHTYXSZMHM.avif","dum_api":{"author_name":"Redacci\u00f3n De \u00daltimo Minuto","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-logo-de-ultimo-minuto-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/07\/7MQMRYJIIJDY3J4HSHTYXSZMHM.avif"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}