During the arraignment of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday, Jan. 5, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice quietly pulled back a key allegation about Maduro’s supposed ties to a cartel.
In a January 2025 indictment, the Justice Department accused Maduro of leading “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.”
That phrasing marked a notable shift from a 2020 indictment filed during Trump’s first term, which treated Cartel de Los Soles far more directly as a real criminal organization.
The earlier indictment referenced the name 32 times, compared with just two in the newer document, and described the group 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 in Latin American crime and narcotics issues, the term “Cartel de los Soles” is often used as slang for officials corrupted by drug money, The New York Times reported. The outlet noted that the phrase was coined by 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.”
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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.”
Despite the updated language — and regardless of the fact that Attorney General Pam Bondi was not leading the DOJ when the 2020 indictment was written — some Trump administration officials are still describing Maduro as the leader of an actual cartel.
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 added. “And that’s Nicolás Maduro.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arraigned in a New York City court on Monday after they were 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,” Maduro said through 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.
Trump confirmed the removal of Maduro and Flores, along with what he described as 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.
