(AFP) – The United States doubled its bounty on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — who faces federal drug trafficking charges — to $50 million on Thursday, a move Caracas described as “pathetic” and “ridiculous”. Washington, which does not recognize Maduro’s past two election victories, accuses the South American country’s leader of leading a cocaine trafficking gang.
“Today, the Department of Justice and State Department are announcing a historic $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video on social media. “He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security.” The previous bounty was set in January at $25 million.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Bondi’s “pathetic” bounty was “the most ridiculous smokescreen we have ever seen.” “The dignity of our homeland is not for sale. We reject this crude political propaganda operation,” Gil said on Telegram.
In 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials were indicted in federal court in New York on several charges including participating in a “narco-terrorism” conspiracy.
– ‘Cartel of the Suns’ –
The Justice Department accused Maduro of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called “The Cartel of the Suns” that shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades, earning hundreds of millions of dollars. Investigators say the cartel worked hand-in-hand with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which the United States has labeled a terrorist organization.
Bondi said Maduro also had worked with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) “has seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, with nearly seven tons linked to Maduro himself,” Bondi said. The US government has also seized more than $700 million in Maduro-linked assets, including two Venezuelan government aircraft, since September last year, according to Bondi.
“Yet Maduro’s reign of terror continues,” she said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes.” The 62-year-old Maduro, a former bus driver and trade unionist, faces up to life in prison if he can be tried and is convicted. At the time of the indictment, Maduro slammed what he called “spurious, false” accusations.
In June, Venezuela’s former intelligence chief Hugo Armando Carvajal pleaded guilty to US drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. The Miami Herald, citing sources familiar with the case, said Carvajal had offered to provide US authorities with documents and testimony implicating Maduro.
– ‘Deeply flawed’ –
Relations between Washington and Caracas have been deteriorating for years. The US government has not recognized Maduro, who first took office in 2013, as the duly elected president of Venezuela since what the State Department has called a “deeply flawed 2018 presidential election.”
“In the July 28, 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, Maduro fraudulently declared himself the victor despite evidence to the contrary,” the State Department said in an announcement of the earlier bounty in January. “The United States joined many other countries in refusing to recognize Maduro as the legitimate winner of the July 2024 presidential election.” Washington has placed an array of economic sanctions on Maduro’s government.
For its part, Maduro’s government has long denounced US interference in Venezuela. On Thursday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced that security services had thwarted a bomb attack in a commercial area of the capital Caracas. As Venezuelan authorities often do in such cases, Cabello accused the US and the Venezuelan opposition of instigating the thwarted attack.
© 2024 AFP
