During the arraignment of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday, Jan. 5, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice quietly backed away from a claim about Maduro’s alleged ties to a cartel.
The DOJ’s January 2025 indictment accused Maduro of overseeing “a patronage system run by those at the top — referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, a reference to the sun insignia affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials.”
But a 2020 indictment against the Venezuelan leader — written during Trump’s first administration — treated Cartel de Los Soles far more directly as an organized drug-trafficking group.
That earlier filing mentioned Cartel de Los Soles 32 times, compared with just two references in the newer indictment. It described the cartel as “a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of highranking Venezuelan officials who abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted the legitimate institutions of Venezuela — including parts of the military, intelligence apparatus, legislature, and the judiciary — to facilitate the importation of tons of cocaine into the United States.”
According to experts on Latin American crime and narcotics issues, the phrase “Cartel de los Soles” is often used as slang for officials allegedly corrupted by drug money, The New York Times reported. The outlet also noted that the term originated in Venezuelan media in the 1990s.
Elizabeth Dickinson, deputy director for Latin America at the International Crisis Group, told the Times after the arraignment, “I think the new indictment gets it right, but the designations are still far from reality.”
She added, “Designations don’t have to be proved in court, and that’s the difference. Clearly, they knew they could not prove it in court.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/Pam-Bondi-speaks-alongside-President-Donald-Trump-on-recent-Supreme-Court-rulings-100925-e33d2ca178864812b6f9a318abfe1ef5.jpg)
Despite the shift in wording under Attorney General Pam Bondi — who was not leading the DOJ when the 2020 indictment was written — some members of the Trump administration are still describing Cartel de Los Soles as a real cartel with Maduro at its head.
During a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Jan. 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs toward the United States that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations, including the Cartel de los Soles.”
“Of course, their leader, the leader of that cartel, is now in U.S. custody and facing US justice in the Southern District of New York,” he continued. “And that’s Nicolás Maduro.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arraigned in New York City on Monday after being captured and removed from Venezuela by the U.S. military over the weekend.
Maduro faces four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. He pleaded not guilty.
“I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country,” he said, via an interpreter. “I consider myself a prisoner of war. I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”
Flores, 69, was charged with cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. She also pleaded not guilty.
President Donald Trump confirmed the removal of Maduro and his wife, along with a “large-scale strike” on Caracas, in a Truth Social post on Saturday, Jan. 3. He said the U.S. plans to “take control” of the country in the interim.
