In a significant escalation within the United States’ “maximum pressure” strategy against Venezuela, the Trump administration intensified tensions with Caracas by designating what it calls the “Cartel of the Suns” as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”. This move coincided with the deployment of a massive naval and air force presence in the Caribbean Sea, along with the imposition of a de facto ban on civilian aviation—steps that may be paving the way for a new phase of confrontation that goes beyond suffocating economic sanctions toward potential scenarios of direct military intervention.
Washington officially listed “Cartel de los Soles” as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”, accusing it of responsibility for “violence across the Western Hemisphere” and the trafficking of narcotics into the United States and Europe. Under US law, this designation opens the door to direct action against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the administration claims is the “leader” of this cartel.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the cartel as “one of the largest criminal organisations in the Western Hemisphere”, with the name referring to the golden badges worn by high-ranking Venezuelan military officers (the “suns”). By issuing this designation, the United States has effectively placed the Venezuelan military establishment in the same category as notorious Mexican drug cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel.
The US government alleges that the cartel is operated by Maduro and his senior aides, offering a record reward of 50 million USD for information leading to their capture. The charges filed in New York include Maduro and his current Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, accused of “conspiring with Colombian Marxists” to ship cocaine to the United States. The roots of these accusations date back to 2011, when US authorities began legal proceedings against senior Venezuelan military figures, including Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, the former military intelligence chief, whom Washington accused of shipping 5.6 tonnes of cocaine to the US.
In a message to Trump, Maduro rejected the accusations, describing them as “the worst kind of fake news”.
Ahead of this escalation, Washington had already mobilised the largest naval and air task force in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. This force includes the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier, vessels specialised in deploying special forces, a nuclear submarine, and several destroyers, along with the deployment of fighter squadrons in neighbouring Puerto Rico.
The US siege expanded beyond naval deployments to a suffocating aerial blockade that effectively cut Venezuela off from the world. Regulatory and security pressure from Washington pushed US and international aviation authorities to ban flights over Venezuelan airspace, forcing major airlines to suspend all flights to and from Simón Bolívar International Airport. This measure did not only target the government but severed vital humanitarian and commercial links, turning the country into a large prison and leaving Venezuelans in total isolation.
Trump explicitly links the “war on drugs” with the “war on terror”, adopting tactics reminiscent of those used in the Middle East during the early 2000s to topple regimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. He has already authorised drone strikes on boats allegedly smuggling cocaine, and observers warn that he may next order strikes on targets inside Venezuela under the pretext of hitting drug-production facilities.
Although Washington portrays “Cartel of the Suns” as a tightly controlled hierarchy run from the presidential palace, experts believe the reality is far more fragmented—consisting mostly of state elements cooperating with criminal networks for financial gain under crushing US sanctions. Former US State Department official Tom Shannon told a British newspaper that the image of Maduro running a drug cartel from a secret room in the Miraflores Palace is “utterly absurd”.
However, the Trump administration appears to need a narrative that justifies its push to topple the Bolivarian government, motivated by American ambitions to seize Venezuela’s immense natural wealth after repeated failed coup attempts.
Maduro, in his message to Trump, described the accusations as “fake news of the worst kind” and warned they were a pretext for an armed conflict that could destabilise the entire continent. Yet Washington ignored both Maduro’s objections and polls indicating that a majority of Americans (55 percent) oppose invading Venezuela.
Analysts estimate that the US military may launch strikes inside Venezuelan territory—using missiles or air raids—targeting infrastructure or military sites, possibly alongside a limited ground invasion to seize ports, airports, and oil fields, similar to US actions in Panama or Grenada.
According to experts, the purpose of these successive escalations is to create an atmosphere conducive to a military coup within the Venezuelan army to overthrow the Bolivarian leadership. But this scenario seems more aspirational than realistic, given the weakness of the right-wing opposition and its lack of popular support—its strength being limited largely to American backing. This situation would necessitate direct foreign military intervention, which itself could spiral into a prolonged war of attrition for US forces and ignite widespread civil conflict threatening neighbouring Colombia and possibly Brazil.
