In an Aug. 7 press release, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that as part of the State Department’s Narcotics Rewards Program, he was offering $50 million for any information that would lead to the arrest and/or conviction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, for violating U.S. narcotics laws. In 2020, Trump had imposed a $15 million reward for Maduro which Joe Biden then raised to $25 million. Maduro, Rubio charged, is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles (the Suns Cartel) which has trafficked drugs into the U.S. On July 25, the U.S. Treasury designated the cartel a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).”
The context for this is the New York Times Aug. 8 report that President Donald Trump sent a secret directive to the Pentagon on an unspecified date, authorizing U.S. military forces to act against drug cartels in several Latin American countries, either on sea or on land. This of course raises legal and constitutional issues, as deployment of military forces to foreign countries, as in times of war, requires Congressional authorization. Is Trump’s directive intended to be a declaration of war against foreign governments?
Rubio’s press release emphasizes that the U.S. government does not recognize Maduro’s government as legitimate, charging he committed vote fraud in the July 28, 2024 presidential elections, claimed to have won but “presented no evidence” to prove it, and “strangled democracy.” Although Rubio says that Maduro has run the Soles cartel “for over a decade,” it was only two weeks ago that its name was added to the list of SDTG, after which Maduro was named as its purported head.
