{"id":6907,"date":"2025-11-25T23:48:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T23:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=6907"},"modified":"2025-11-25T23:48:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T23:48:27","slug":"us-labels-maduro-tied-cartel-de-los-soles-as-a-terror-organization-its-not-a-cartel-per-se","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2025\/11\/25\/us-labels-maduro-tied-cartel-de-los-soles-as-a-terror-organization-its-not-a-cartel-per-se\/","title":{"rendered":"US labels Maduro-tied Cartel de los Soles as a terror organization. It\u2019s not a cartel per se"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link to article:<\/strong> https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/venezuela-maduro-cartel-soles-us-drugs-terrorist-f778922c04b4f514092bd29b91e77358<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has officially designated Venezuela\u2019s so\u2011called Cartel de los Soles (\u201cCartel of the Suns\u201d) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), tying it to President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s regime and accusing the network of trafficking large volumes of cocaine into the U.S. and supporting terrorist violence. The U.S. framed the move as part of an intensified counter\u2011drug campaign that employs the same legal framework used post\u20119\/11 for terrorism, thereby blurring the line between a \u201cwar on drugs\u201d and a \u201cwar on terror.\u201d Analysts caution that the Cartel de\u202flos\u202fSoles is not a traditional cartel with defined membership or hierarchy, but rather a loosely networked structure embedded within the Venezuelan military and government. The Venezuelan government rejected the designation as a fabrication aimed at justifying U.S. intervention and regime change. Meanwhile, U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific targeting alleged drug\u2011trafficking boats have already intensified under this policy, though questions remain about the legal basis and evidence for these strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I agree with the US\u2019s fight against cartels in Latin America and the use of drugs within the US, but I believe we aren\u2019t fully considering all possible avenues on how to do this, and there are probably better ways than labeling an informal cartel as a terrorist organization. I\u2019m curious to see how the US will act going forward, and how they will stop the cartel when members of the Venezuelan government are involved. Additionally, labeling the cartel as a terrorist organization opens up the possibility of the US military getting involved in the war on drugs. This reminds me of the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act of 1981 that allowed the military to provide law enforcement with access to intelligence, bases, weapons, and research for drug prohibition. This policy was from the Reagan administration\u2019s efforts to stop drug use, which were largely regarded as costly and ineffective. I wonder how the US will respond differently to this issue than in the past, and how the ruling of the cartel as a terror organization will affect that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With members of the Venezuelan government involved with the cartel, I could see them labeling their country as a victim to US interference, rallying support throughout the nation. Then I could see them seeking relationships with countries like China, Russia, and other Latin America countries diplomatically to counter the US efforts and try to counter either using soft power or hard power, aiming to hurt the US. The US government has, and I could see continuing, providing incentives to MNCs like Chevron to stop manufacturing in Latin America and Venezuela to bring them back to the US and to stop them from providing jobs to US, causing the Venezuelan government to cooperate with the US against cartels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US sees the drug cartels in Venezuela as a threat on our national security and the general well-being of citizens. Originally, the issue with the drug cartels was spurring an inter-state conflict as the US wanted Venezuela to take a more active approach to combating drug cartels, but now the issue has evolved into also the issue of terrorist organization under the new label for drug cartels given by the US. Additionally, labeling the drug cartel as a terrorist organization was a unilateral approach to combatting the use of drugs in the US and transportation of these substances to our country. It\u2019s unilateral in the way that only the US is labeling them as such and no other country is helping with our efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link to article: https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/venezuela-maduro-cartel-soles-us-drugs-terrorist-f778922c04b4f514092bd29b91e77358 The U.S. has officially designated Venezuela\u2019s so\u2011called Cartel de los Soles (\u201cCartel of the Suns\u201d) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), tying it to President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s regime and accusing the network of trafficking large volumes of cocaine into the U.S. and supporting terrorist violence. The U.S. framed the move as part of an intensified counter\u2011drug… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6908,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions\/6908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}