On July 31, 2025, U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi publicly confirmed that the US has elevated the reward for data resulting in the seize of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro to $50 million. That is the best bounty ever positioned on a overseas head of state.
“We won’t relaxation till he is delivered to justice,” Bondi mentioned, reaffirming the administration’s intent to carry Maduro accountable for narco-terrorism, transnational crime, and human rights violations.
This follows the July 25, 2025, designation of the Cartel de los Soles as a Specifically Designated World Terrorist (SDGT) group by the U.S.
Division of the Treasury. The designation acknowledges that the legal community operates not within the shadows however from inside the Venezuelan state itself, below navy safety and political route.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that the US is ready to make use of “each out there useful resource, together with navy,” to neutralize the menace posed by the cartel. “This isn’t simply legislation enforcement. It’s nationwide safety,” Rubio mentioned in an official assertion.
A New Period of State-Embedded Terrorism.
The Cartel de los Soles is just not a traditional legal group. It’s embedded inside the establishments of the Venezuelan state. Underneath Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, the regime has weaponized state plane, diplomatic channels, and oil income to guard and increase cocaine corridors stretching from Zulia, Apure, and Catatumbo. These routes have fueled legal partnerships with teams like Hezbollah, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Tren de Aragua.
In Closing Flight: Queen of Air, I doc how these narco-flights had been supported by state aviation authorities and corrupted export licenses. Plane registered to legit U.S. firms—equivalent to these managed by Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin—had been rerouted by way of Venezuelan-controlled corridors and used for drug transport.
Mercer-Erwin was indicted by the U.S. Division of Justice in 2020 for her function in trafficking, cash laundering, and facilitating cocaine shipments by way of plane registration fraud.
Presidential Powers Underneath Title 50.
The authorized framework supporting these actions rests on Title 50 of the U.S. Code, which governs nationwide protection and intelligence operations. Its invocation indicators that Venezuela is now not being handled as a political adversary, however as a terrorist menace to the nationwide safety of the US.
Title 50 authorizes the President to take the next actions:
1. Mobilize Covert Motion Authorities.
Intelligence companies such because the CIA can conduct operations with out prior congressional approval. This contains intelligence disruption, surveillance, or the focusing on of cartel infrastructure overseas.
2. Invoke Emergency Financial Powers (IEEPA).
Monetary sanctions will be expanded to freeze property, prohibit transactions, and block entry to worldwide methods for people or entities affiliated with the Maduro regime or the cartel.
3. Coordinate Protection and Intelligence Belongings.
Protection operations will be aligned with intelligence targets. This contains surveillance, interdiction, and covert assist to regional companions combating Venezuelan-linked trafficking routes.
4. Authorize Navy Operations in Help of Counterterrorism.
U.S. navy property could also be deployed in assist of Title 50 mandates to interdict narcotics trafficking or terrorist exercise the place standard legislation enforcement fails or is obstructed by sovereign cowl.
This authorized infrastructure has beforehand been used to confront threats like al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Qassem Soleimani’s Quds Drive. Making use of the identical framework to Nicolás Maduro and the Cartel de los Soles marks a strategic escalation.
What Comes Subsequent?
The $50 million bounty and the SDGT designation characterize greater than symbolism. They supply authorized, operational, and diplomatic instruments to focus on Venezuela’s transformation right into a legal state. Title 50 permits the U.S. authorities to reply with the identical urgency it utilized to terrorist teams accountable for direct hurt to the homeland.
As I warned in Closing Flight and within the forthcoming El Cartel de los Soles: A Legal Trojan Horse, the Maduro regime’s legal infrastructure has reached effectively past its borders. Its cocaine exports, monetary alliances, and terror proxies now affect regional democracies, U.S. border safety, and the broader hemisphere’s stability.
A Strategic Turning Level.
The actions taken by the Trump administration mirror a transparent break from earlier U.S. coverage. Prior efforts relied closely on sanctions and diplomacy. This new strategy targets the core of the narco-state itself. The Cartel de los Soles has attacked the US with out firing a single bullet, sending tons of of tons of cocaine into American cities and serving to finance hostile actors all through the area.
For years, this was tolerated as a geopolitical nuisance. At the moment, it’s being handled as a terrorist menace. The USA has responded not with phrases, however with the complete weight of its authorized and nationwide safety arsenal. The message is evident: legal regimes might be handled as such and held accountable.
The views expressed on this article are these of the writer and don’t essentially characterize the official place of Gateway Hispanic.
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