The Justice Department has quietly revised its criminal case against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, retreating from earlier assertions that he led a formal drug-trafficking cartel-an adjustment that critics say undercuts a central justification for the Trump administration's extraordinary military intervention in Venezuela.
In a superseding indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors reframed the alleged Cartel de los Soles not as a structured criminal organization, but as a loose patronage system among corrupt officials. The change departs from years of official U.S. claims that the group functioned as a centralized cartel responsible for cocaine trafficking into the United States.
The revised language lands months after U.S. forces seized Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026, transferring him to New York to face charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation. That operation had been publicly defended by the administration of Donald Trump as necessary to dismantle a foreign terrorist organization threatening U.S. security.
When the case was first unveiled in March 2020, prosecutors alleged Maduro and senior Venezuelan officials led a cartel conspiring with armed groups to move cocaine north. The administration later escalated that framing, with the Treasury Department designating the group a terrorist entity and the State Department listing it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in November 2025.
Announcing that designation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the organization was responsible for "terrorist violence" and drug trafficking across the hemisphere. The language placed the group alongside organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS, an unprecedented move involving a sitting head of state.
Legal analysts have long questioned whether the label described a real cartel or a metaphor. The term "Cartel de los Soles" originated in Venezuelan media decades ago to describe alleged corruption among military officers, referencing the sun insignia on their uniforms rather than a command-and-control enterprise. The revised indictment largely mirrors that interpretation.
The shift has drawn sharp criticism from Caracas. Venezuela's foreign minister Yvan Gil said the terrorist designation was a "ridiculous fabrication" designed to legitimize regime change. Venezuelan officials argue the revised filing confirms that Washington exaggerated or invented the cartel narrative to justify force.
International reaction has been swift. Governments in Mexico, Brazil and Turkey condemned the intervention as a violation of sovereignty, warning that the use of criminal designations as a pretext for military action sets a destabilizing precedent. Legal scholars noted that under the UN Charter, force is generally barred absent self-defense or Security Council authorization.
Despite the softened language, prosecutors maintain that their case remains intact. The indictment continues to allege that Venezuelan officials provided protection and logistical support to traffickers in exchange for benefits, describing systemic corruption without asserting a centralized cartel directed by Maduro.
