Latin American geopolitics has been rocked once again by the escalating accusations surrounding the so-called Cartel de los Soles, an organization allegedly involved in drug trafficking that, according to the U.S. government, is run by high-ranking officials in Venezuela. The recent designation of this group as an international terrorist organization by Washington and its allies has fueled a debate that has been ongoing for decades: is it a true, organized criminal entity, or is it a political narrative constructed to justify pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro?
The U.S. State Department describes the Cartel de los Soles as a drug trafficking network composed of high-ranking military officials in Venezuela. In July of this year, Washington took an unprecedented step by labeling the group as a terrorist organization, which triggered a series of economic sanctions. A month later, tensions escalated further when the U.S. increased the reward for information leading to Nicolás Maduro's arrest to $50 million, making him the primary target of its Narcotics Reward Program (NRP). This aggressive approach has been supported by other nations in the region, such as Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic, which have also designated the group as terrorist.
The Counter-Argument: A Fictional Invention
Despite the forcefulness of the American accusations, not everyone shares this view. Voices inside and outside Venezuela vehemently deny the organization's existence. Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice, who is also on the U.S.'s list of alleged group leaders, has called the accusation "an invention." "I don't know how many years they've been inventing that, and in that time, it has had like 300 bosses. Every time someone bothers them, they name them as the head of the Cartel de los Soles," Cabello stated, suggesting the name is a tool for political persecution.
This opinion is shared by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has called the Cartel de los Soles "the fictitious excuse of the far right to overthrow governments that do not obey them." This stance highlights the deep ideological division on the continent and underscores that the discussion about the cartel goes far beyond simple criminality, entering the realm of politics and national sovereignty.
The Origin of a Criminal Legend
To understand the origin of the term, one must go back to the late 1980s. According to Raúl Benítez-Manaut, a national security expert from UNAM, the Cartel de los Soles began to take shape during a time of change in regional drug trafficking. With the dismantling of the Medellín Cartel in Colombia, cocaine routes were forced to seek new transportation alternatives. It was then that some Venezuelan officials began to collaborate in these activities. The term was coined by the Venezuelan press in the early 90s, amid drug trafficking accusations against high-ranking officials, such as General Ramón Guillén Dávila.
The name of the alleged cartel comes from the insignia with stars, or "soles" (suns), that Venezuelan military officials wear on their uniforms to indicate their rank. Mike LaSusa, from the research organization Insight Crime, explains that from that point on, the term began to be used generically to refer to "all Venezuelan officials with links to drug trafficking, whether they were part of the same structure or not." This suggests that, from its beginning, the Cartel de los Soles was not an entity with a fixed hierarchy, but a label for a phenomenon of widespread corruption.
Consolidation in the Era of Hugo Chávez
Benítez-Manaut asserts that the organization strengthened during the early years of Hugo Chávez's government, who took power in Venezuela in 1999. The expert explains that Chávez's decision to sever military and intelligence cooperation ties between the U.S. and Venezuela eliminated the oversight of agencies like the DEA. This lack of supervision reportedly gave some officials the freedom to get involved in illicit businesses.
At the same time, the Colombian government's military offensive against the FARC forced the guerrilla group to move some of its operations to Venezuelan territory. Wesley Tabor, a former DEA agent, points out that the FARC then found not only a safe haven in Venezuela but also "partners to traffic drugs." The ideological relationship between Chávez and the guerrilla group reportedly allowed these armed groups to move freely in the country, establishing alliances with military officials. This synergy would have consolidated the Cartel de los Soles as a "criminal system" that, today, maintains ties with other gangs like the Tren de Aragua.
An Organization That "Exists and Doesn't Exist"
The nature of the Cartel de los Soles remains the most controversial point. Mike LaSusa states that it is not a group per se with a traditional structure, but a "system of generalized corruption" that serves the Maduro regime to maintain the loyalty of its security forces. Analysts believe that the government, unable to offer decent salaries, allows or turns a blind eye to drug trafficking, and that the profits from it are not concentrated in a single leadership but are distributed flexibly among military commanders.
The U.S. indictments in 2020 against Maduro and 14 of his "accomplices" for conspiring to send cocaine to the country attempt to put a face to this decentralized structure. Although the accusations have not been proven in court, cases like that of former General Clíver Alcalá, who turned himself in to U.S. justice, and Hugo "El Pollo" Carvajal, who pleaded guilty, show that some of the alleged individuals are facing the consequences of their actions.
Benítez-Manaut's description that the cartel "exists and doesn't exist" perfectly summarizes the complexity of this phenomenon. It would not be a pyramidal structure with a single leader but a decentralized network of mid- and intermediate-level officials who control routes, entry and exit points, and even airports. It is a flexible and adaptable organization, a fusion of corruption and criminality that, according to former DEA agent Wesley Tabor, also has a political component, which makes it a complex problem to address internationally.
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