The United States Department of Justice has eliminated most of the allusions to Cartel of the Suns in the new accusation against the captured Venezuelan president, Nicolas Madurowhom he no longer points out as the leader of the drug trafficking organization, now characterized in the document as a “clientelism system.”
A US grand jury indictment in 2020 suggested that Ripe “He helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns As he rose to power in Venezuela”, arguments repeated by the president, donald trumpas a justification for the anti-drug campaign carried out in the Caribbean.
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Washington has also accused the leadership of the Cartel of the Suns to support organizations like the Aragua Train and the Sinaloa Cartel as part of a conspiracy to send drugs to North American territory.
However, in the new accusation modified by the Prosecutor’s Office hours after the spectacular capture of Ripe and his wife, Cilia Floresin Caracas by Washington forces, The language of the previous text is lowered and the allusions to the alleged cartel as a real organization are eliminated, although the accusations against the Venezuelan for drug trafficking are maintained.
The revised document reflects 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 also mentions that these profits flow to corrupt officials who ““They operate in a system of clientelism run by those at the top, known as the Cartel of the Suns.”
This is one of just two mentions in the updated text of the alleged groupwhose name comes from the sun-shaped insignia worn by Venezuelan generals. In contrast, in the 2020 indictment the term appears dozens of times.
This contrasts with Trump’s public statementswho pointed out this Saturday that the military operation to capture Ripe is part of a broader offensive that includes, among other objectives, that of decapitating the so-called Cartel of the Suns.
The United States officially designated the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 2025. after having previously been classified as a specially designated global terrorist group (SDGT).
This decision was supported by governments such as those of Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peruwhile Venezuela and Cuba have rejected the accusation, calling it “CIA invention” or “fetish” of Washington.
Analysts and experts in the South American country have questioned the real existence of this network as an organized drug trafficking group.. The first complaints about its existence date back to 2004, when the journalist Mauro Marcano accused National Guard officers of participating in drug trafficking.
Maduro and Flores appeared this Monday for the first time before the US Justice in New Yorkwhere they were transferred after being captured in the early hours of this Saturday in a lightning operation ordered by Trump.
The Venezuelan pleaded not guilty to the charges of narcoterrorism and possession of weapons of which he is accused and assured that he is “a prisoner of war.”
