Trump designates Cartel de los Soles: real or ghost enemy?

The Trump administration is poised to designate a Venezuelan drug cartel, the Cartel de los Soles, as a terrorist organisation. A press statement published on Sunday by the State Department states that the designation will take effect on 24 November 2025.

A potential snag is that the label (a frequently used US foreign policy tool) lack substance and grounding. Question marks over the group’s existence, and its current form, remain unaddressed.

Phil Gunson of International Crisis Group, captures this point in a recent CNN interview, arguing:

Cartel de los Soles, per se, doesn’t exist. It’s a journalistic expression created to refer to the involvement of Venezuelan authorities in drug trafficking

Meanwhile, US press release attempts to draw a direct line of culpability between Madura and the drug cartel as partners in crime. 

the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary.

All aboard the war train

The lack of evidence for the cartel’s existence hasn’t stopped neoconservative hawks like John Bolton baying for blood. The Iraq War enthusiast lumped Venezuela in with other US adversaries, including long-time foe, Iran:

Regime change in Venezuela is the right policy for the United States to have. The influence of Russian, Cuban, Iranian, Chinese and other extra-hemispheric powers in Venezuela poses a threat to our side of the globe. https://t.co/97ncccfa3w

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) November 16, 2025

But Trump, who has blown hot and cold over the idea of land strikes, has also hinted at possible discussions with Maduro:

.@POTUS on Venezuela: "We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we'll see how that turns out — but they would like to talk." pic.twitter.com/ooeKngFUch

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 16, 2025

Behind the designation is the notion that strikes against narco-terrorists will be easier to carry out.Twitter-based, news aggregator, Faytuk’s Network speaks to this:

By naming Maduro as the leader of a designated terrorist organization, the U.S. has effectively moved him into its counterterrorism framework, where lethal force can be authorized. It lowers the threshold for the U.S. to act against him.

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) November 16, 2025

The American’s have employed drone strikes on ‘narco-terrorist’ boats since September. Most strikes have taken place in the Caribbean, with some in the eastern Pacific. The legal basis remains dubious.

Iraq 2.0 and the WMD narrative

So far the non-governmental watchdog, Air Wars, has identified 82 deaths from 21 strikes, amid a massive military build-up that includes the US supercarrier Gerald R. Ford.

A recent report, published in August by Insight Crime, casts doubt over the US characterisation of the cartel. Referring to earlier sanctions, the think-tank said:

The US government’s new sanctions against Venezuela’s so-called “Cartel of the Suns” incorrectly portray it as a hierarchical, ideologically driven drug trafficking organization rather than a profit-based system of generalized corruption involving high-ranking military figures.

In short, while there may be high level corruption involving drugs in Venezuela, the US is building a case on faulty or misinterpreted evidence.

In fact, a leaked US memo recently claimed the US was considering labelling fentanyl as a ‘chemical weapon’.

While Venezuela is not a major producer of Fentanyl, the drug has been used by the US as a justification for striking boats in the region.

The case for war with Venezuela is sounding more and more like the faked ‘WMD’ justification for invading Iraq that the US offered two decades ago. And, as we know too well, that was a roaring success.

Featured image via the Canary