President Trump has doubled the reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million on drug trafficking fees, accusing him of main the Cartel of the Suns. On the identical time, the U.S. has deployed warships and troops off Venezuela’s coast as a part of a counter-cartel mission. Trump’s group has made clear that their aim is regime change in Venezuela, even evaluating their hopes to seeing “Maduro being neighbors with Assad in Moscow.”
In response, Maduro is elevating a militia to oppose U.S. forces whereas reaching out to China for help. In the meantime, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned her nation has no information of Maduro being linked to a cartel and refuses to research. China has condemned U.S. actions however is unlikely to get straight concerned.
Maduro’s authorities had beforehand agreed to take again U.S. deportees, with a whole lot of hundreds anticipated to be despatched again. He even publicly acknowledged that “Venezuela is ready” for migrants to return residence after President Trump canceled CBP One appointments.
However whereas Maduro has sought to mission a welcoming picture overseas, in Washington, he’s seen as an illegitimate president who has destroyed his nation. Underneath his rule, greater than 7.9 million Venezuelans have fled, creating the biggest modern-day migration disaster within the Western Hemisphere. Cuba stays Venezuela’s closest ally, and President Trump has described Cuba’s socialist regime as “the hub of Latin America’s issues.”
In 2024, Edmundo González, the opposition candidate who credibly gained the July presidential election, was compelled to hunt asylum in Spain after dealing with arrest warrants from Maduro’s regime. America acknowledges González as Venezuela’s respectable president-elect, but nonetheless should negotiate with Maduro’s authorities on sensible points akin to deportations.
The $50 million bounty on him stems from federal prison fees first filed throughout Trump’s first time period. In March 2020, the Trump administration unsealed sweeping indictments in opposition to Maduro and members of his interior circle on narco-terrorism fees, and Lawyer Normal William Barr introduced an preliminary $15 million reward for his seize.
In July 2025, the Treasury Division designated the Cartel de los Soles as a Specifically Designated World Terrorist group with Maduro at its head, offering the justification for Trump to boost the bounty to $50 million the next month. The bounty is meant as a legislation enforcement instrument to inspire somebody to assist seize an indicted fugitive who can’t be extradited as a result of he’s a sitting head of state.
Maduro faces 4 main federal fees: narco-terrorism conspiracy, which carries a 20-year necessary minimal sentence as much as life in jail; conspiracy to import cocaine into the USA, with a 10-year minimal as much as life; utilizing and carrying machine weapons and harmful gadgets in furtherance of drug trafficking, with a 30-year minimal as much as life; and conspiracy to own machine weapons and harmful gadgets, which additionally carries a potential life sentence.
U.S. prosecutors allege that since not less than 1999, Maduro has been a pacesetter of the Cártel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, named for the solar insignias on Venezuelan navy uniforms. As chief, he’s accused of negotiating multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine, directing the cartel to supply military-grade weapons to FARC terrorists, coordinating with different nations to facilitate large-scale trafficking, and utilizing an unsanctioned militia as an armed wing of the cartel.
These allegations kind the idea of what prosecutors describe because the “cocaine as a weapon” principle, accusing Maduro of deliberately flooding the USA with narcotics to weaken American society. Prosecutors declare he “expressly supposed to flood the USA with cocaine with a purpose to undermine the well being and well-being of our nation.”
The U.S. now alleges that the cartel gives materials help to 2 overseas terrorist organizations threatening the USA: Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel. Past enrichment, prosecutors argue that the aim was to inflict dangerous and addictive results on American customers.
The Justice Division says it has seized greater than $700 million in belongings linked to Maduro, together with two non-public jets, and practically seven tons of cocaine traced on to him. In response to the DEA, a complete of 30 tons of cocaine have been tied to Maduro and his associates.
America deployed three guided-missile destroyers, the usGravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson, together with about 4,000 navy personnel to Venezuelan waters as a part of anti-drug operations.
In response, on August 19, 2025, Maduro introduced he would mobilize 4.5 million militia members all through the nation in reply to what he known as “outlandish threats” from the USA.
He promised to arm these militias with “rifles and missiles” and known as for the creation of peasant and employee brigades “in all factories and workplaces within the nation.” Declaring that “no empire will contact the sacred soil of Venezuela,” Maduro dismissed U.S. actions as “extravagant, weird, and outlandish.”
Mexico claims to don’t have any proof linking Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to the Sinaloa Cartel and isn’t investigating such claims, President Sheinbaum mentioned. This underscores how a lot management the cartels have over Mexico, together with the federal government, courts, and police.
In the meantime, Maduro is leaning on China as tensions with the USA escalate. In current speeches, he showcased nearer ties with Beijing, highlighting a Huawei cellphone gifted by Xi Jinping and praising financial cooperation. China’s ambassador to Venezuela emphasised joint resistance to U.S. “unilateral coercive measures” and help for a multipolar world. Beijing additionally condemned current U.S. navy deployments in Caribbean waters, saying it opposed threats of pressure and interference in Venezuela.
Whereas China advantages economically from its commerce surplus with Venezuela and investments in its oil sector, analysts say Beijing’s help is essentially symbolic, because it avoids committing to direct intervention.
