Speaking from the State Department in Washington, Rubio stated that the situation in Venezuela has escalated beyond a regional security concern. It has become, in his words, “a state-sponsored terrorist enterprise disguised as a government.” According to Rubio, Cartel de los Soles operates with structure, hierarchy, and direct protection from high-ranking officials who have transformed portions of the Venezuelan state into an international criminal hub.
The name “Cartel de los Soles”—the Cartel of the Suns—originates from the sun insignias worn by Venezuelan military generals. For years, U.S. agencies have pointed to this detail as evidence of the military’s involvement in drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, and corruption. Rubio’s announcement reinforces what intelligence assessments have suggested for more than a decade: that sectors of Venezuela’s military and security apparatus are deeply intertwined with criminal operations.
A key emphasis in Rubio’s announcement was the increasingly tight coordination between Cartel de los Soles, Tren de Aragua, and the Sinaloa Cartel, three of the most feared criminal networks in the Western Hemisphere. Tren de Aragua—originating from Venezuela’s prison system—has rapidly expanded its violent operations across Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil. The group is notorious for extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, and targeted assassinations. Their partnership with Cartel de los Soles has allowed the Venezuelan regime to maintain indirect control over cross-border criminal activity.
The Sinaloa Cartel, long recognized as one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, has also reportedly formed a strategic pipeline with Cartel de los Soles to move cocaine, fentanyl precursors, and weapons through Venezuela’s ports and clandestine airstrips. Rubio cited intelligence indicating that Sinaloa has been using Venezuelan territory as a safer transshipment corridor to bypass heavier surveillance routes in Central America and the U.S.–Mexico border.
“This is not just about drugs,” Rubio said, his tone grave. “This is about a machinery of violence that kills people across an entire continent. It destabilizes nations, fuels migration crises, and empowers a criminal regime that survives by poisoning its neighbors.”
By designating Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization, the U.S. gains expanded authority to launch financial, diplomatic, and counter-terrorism operations against the group and anyone associated with it. The designation unlocks a broader scope of sanctions, asset freezes, and criminal penalties. It also allows for enhanced cooperation between U.S. military and regional allies in the Caribbean and South America to intercept cartel routes and dismantle their logistics networks.
Rubio made clear that Washington expects neighboring countries—especially Colombia, Panama, Brazil, and Trinidad & Tobago—to join a more coordinated regional response. Over the past three years, violence linked to Tren de Aragua and Venezuelan crime networks has surged sharply, prompting states like Ecuador and Chile to declare domestic security emergencies.
Caracas immediately denounced Rubio’s announcement, calling it “a fabricated aggression” and accusing Washington of attempting to justify foreign intervention. The Maduro regime insisted that the allegations were part of an “imperialist campaign,” though it offered no evidence to counter the detailed intelligence cited by the U.S.
Despite Venezuela’s denial, independent human rights observers and investigative journalists have repeatedly documented military-linked drug trafficking routes, clandestine airstrips, and the involvement of Venezuelan officials in laundering billions of dollars through global banks and shell companies. Reports from the United Nations, the OAS, and multiple NGOs have long described the Venezuelan state as deeply infiltrated by criminal elements.
Security analysts say Rubio’s decision reflects a strategic shift in U.S. policy, moving from sanctions aimed primarily at pressuring Maduro politically to treating the regime as an active participant in transnational crime and terrorism. Some experts argue that the designation could reshape the geopolitical balance in the region by forcing countries to publicly align with or against the U.S. position.
Others warn that the move may push Venezuela even closer to Russia, Iran, and China—nations that have already provided critical economic and military support to Maduro. But U.S. officials appear prepared for that risk, insisting that the criminal networks operating out of Venezuela pose a more urgent threat than any geopolitical backlash.
The alleged partnership between Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua played a central role in the designation. Tren de Aragua’s rapid expansion has turned it into one of the continent’s most violent organizations, with influence stretching from the southern tip of Chile to the jungles of Colombia. Intelligence reports depict the group as acting with tacit permission from elements of the Venezuelan state, leveraging shared interests in smuggling, border control, and intimidation.
Perhaps most alarming is the involvement of the Sinaloa Cartel, which has fueled the fentanyl epidemic responsible for tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States. Rubio stated that collaboration among the three groups represents “an unprecedented hemispheric criminal alignment.”
Concluding his statement, Rubio delivered a stark message: “When a government uses its power to cooperate with cartels—when it allows violence, drugs, and terrorism to become instruments of state survival—it ceases to be a government. It becomes a terrorist organization.”
With this designation, the United States signals a new era in its confrontation with the Maduro regime—one in which criminal networks, drug trafficking pipelines, and state-sponsored cartel protection will face the most aggressive scrutiny and pressure yet applied by Washington.
