https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/07/politics/trump-venezuela-justifications-credibility
In the run-up to ousting him, Trump and his administration repeatedly cast Maduro as the head of a drug-trafficking organization called Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns.
The first Trump administration did so in its initial indictment of Maduro in 2020, and then again last year when the Treasury and State departments designated this supposed cartel as a terrorist organization. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have also cast Maduro as the head of this cartel in recent days.
“They’re designating a non-thing that is not a terror organization as a terrorist organization,” former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane told CNN in November.
Similarly, Trump and his administration have in recent weeks set about accusing the Venezuelan government of stealing oil that the United States had a right to.
But the issue is a lot more complicated than that, as CNN’s David Goldman reported this week. And the indictment makes no mention of oil, much less Maduro’s or anyone else’s role in such purported theft.
Amazing. Maduro helps keep Cuba's island prison dictatorships afloat. He allows drug gangs to work freely in his country. He supports Hezbollah and Hamas. He annuls elections he doesn't win and uses the army and police to oppress his people. But Trump arrested him and suddenly all the virtue folks are coming out to defend him.
ReplyDeleteMillions of Venzuelans are ecstatic that he's gone and hope the country will change for the better. Liberals tut-tut them and tell them they're wrong and didn't appreciate how benevolent the dictator really was and how it was terrible that he was arrested.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/05/joe-biden-stance-nicolas-maduro-venezuela/88028292007/